Anna Funder’s Wifedom, Yunte Huang’s Daughter of the Dragon, and Jerome Charyn’s Ravage & Son all feature among the Best Reviewed Books of the Week.
1. The Continental Affair by Christine Mangan
(Flatiron)
2 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed
“Richly layered characters, opulent settings, and graceful prose elevate this captivating crime caper from Mangan above most similar fare … Alternating viewpoints and a shifting timeline enliven the yarn, and Mangan’s character exposition and vivid depictions of exotic locales are sublime. This is a treat.”
2. Swim Home to the Vanished by Brendan Shay Basham
(Harper)
3 Positive • 1 Mixed
“An incantatory trip through place and time, fueled by grief and animated by magic … The fable-like novel’s middle sags beneath confusing story lines and clunky dialogue — word salad posing as ancient wisdom. The expanded cast of villagers steals focus from Damien’s journey and we are left with only scant understanding about Damien’s brother or the motives of Carla’s killer … Swim Home to the Vanished preserves some memorable stories, memorably.”
–Claude Peck (The Star Tribune)
3. Ravage & Son by Jerome Charyn
(Bellevue Literary Press)
2 Positive • 2 Mixed
“Rollicking … With clear images of immigrants’ tenement living, this is a true ‘panorama of human flesh’ … An entertaining historical romp, Ravage & Son brings New York City’s criminal underground to vibrant life.”
–Rebecca Foster (Foreword Reviews)
**
1. Wifedom: Mrs. Orwell’s Invisible Life by Anna Funder
(Knopf)
7 Rave • 3 Positive • 3 Mixed • 1 Pan
“With the precision of a historian, Funder cobbles together scant details to reconstruct a life. And with the imaginative force of a novelist, she speculates in clearly sign-posted moments on what that life was like … Considering how little information Funder has to work with, Wifedom is a spectacular achievement of both scholarship and pure feeling.”
–Jessica Ferri (The Los Angeles Times)
2. Daughter of the Dragon: Anna May Wong’s Rendezvous with American History by Yunte Huang
(Liveright)
4 Rave • 4 Positive
Read Yunte Huang on Anna May Wong and Chinatown Noir here
“Vital … Huang’s sympathetic treatment brings out the nuances of Wong’s story, highlighting how she by turns acceded to and bristled against the stereotypes Hollywood asked her to play … It’s a fascinating—and long overdue—close-up of a Hollywood trailblazer.”
3. Cosmic Scholar: The Life and Times of Harry Smith by John Szwed
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
5 Rave • 1 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Cosmic Scholar here
“The first comprehensive biography of this hipster magus. It tours his life without ever quite penetrating it. But it’s a knowing and thoughtful book … He wrestles this material into a loose but sturdy form, as if he were moving a futon. He allows different sides of Smith’s personality to catch blades of sun. He brings the right mixture of reverence and comic incredulity to his task … here’s a lot of material to tap into, and you’ll want to. Smith added a great deal to the national stock of peculiarity. He was the worm at the bottom of American culture’s mezcal bottle. You slam the glass down, because his experience still makes you feel alive.”
–Dwight Garner (The New York Times)
