Tag Archives: New York
*** From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant by Alex Gilvarry
Can one write a very funny book about the Guantanamo Bay prison that still manages to expose the seedy and shameful underbelly of the war on terror? From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant is that novel, written as a … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
* Rules of Civility by Amos Towles
If you want to dive into the New York of the privileged in the 1930s, this would be a great book. If you want that and a great story to boot, you are too greedy and you will keep turning … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
** The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit by Lucette Lagnado
The Man in the White Sharkskin Suit is the first part of the author’s memoir (the second, The Arrogant Years I read last month). It focuses for the most part on earlier memories and especially on her father, who did … Continue reading
Filed under True story
** Q by Evan Mandery
It’s hard to pull off a time-travel story and Q does not succeed, despite an interesting premise, namely that the hero is visited by himself, his older self, that is, who warns him of doom if he marries his love, … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
* Harlem is Nowhere by Sharifa Rhodes-Pitts
I was looking forward to learning more about the history of Harlem in Harlem is Nowhere: A Journey to the Mecca of Black America but I was very disappointed. The author chooses to build the book (and I’m using “build” … Continue reading
Filed under Non fiction
** The Arrogant Years by Lucette Lagnado
The Arrogant Years is the memoir of the author, born in a Jewish family of Cairo who came as refugees to New York City when Egyptian religious tolerance abruptly ended. It meanders elegantly between the author and her mother, raised … Continue reading
Filed under True story
* Luminarium by Alex Shakar
Another book with an ending better than the body? I found Luminarium to be a slog, with laborious descriptions of immersive computer games, psychically joined twin with one in a coma, and bizarre neurological experiments that would never, ever pass … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
** Open City by Teju Cole
It was love/hate for me with Open City, which would probably be embraced more thoroughly by a more patient and contemplative reader — in other words, not me. Hate because the stream of consciousness descriptions of mundane subway journeys and … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
* 1/2 The Astral by Kate Christensen
The Astral tells the rather boring tale of Harry, kicked out by his wife after a long marriage during which she supported him while he wrote poems, some of which she felt indicated (wrongly, he maintains) that he was having … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
** Tabloid City by Pete Hamill
What a thoroughly depressing novel. In Tabloid City, a newspaper is dying, two women get murdered, a son loses his bearings, a dishonest fund manager skips town, and somehow the various characters are fated to all come together at the … Continue reading
Filed under New fiction
