Kaaterskill Falls By Allegra Goodman (Fiction)
Dial Press, Reviewed by Laura Green
From the author of "The Family Markowitz," a searching novel about an Orthodox Jewish community in an increasingly secular world
(07/31/98)
The Kangaroo Notebook By Kobo Abe (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Megan Harlan
This surreal and playful novel by the late Nobel finalist is a fable about a man whose body begins playing strange tricks on him.
Kill Kill Faster Faster By Joel Rose (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A terse, tough-guy novel about a convicted killer who writes a hit Broadway play and becomes a literary celebrity.
"Killer in Drag" and "Death of a Transvestite" By Ed Wood Jr. (Fiction)
Four Walls Eight Windows, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
The hopelessly inept transvestite filmmaker was also, it turns out, a hopelessly inept transvestite novelist.
(06/22/99)
The Kind I'm Likely to Get By Ken Foster(Fiction)
Quill Books, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
Yet another collection of stories tackles downtown anomie, but this one has real feeling.
(08/11/99)
King Leopold's Ghost By Adam Hochschild (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Zachary Karabell
A pitiless account of the evil King Leopold's atrocities in the Belgian Congo, including the killing of more than 5 million people.
(09/09/98)
King of the World: Muhammad Ali and The Rise of an American Hero By David Remnick (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
The new editor of The New Yorker presents a lucid account of how "a gangly kid from Louisville" became "a molder of his age."
(11/12/98)
For Kings and Planets By Ethan Canin (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Canin's new novel is about a self-described "hayseed" who befriends another, more glamorous, freshman at Columbia University.
(08/24/98)
Kinski Uncut By Klaus Kinski (Nonfiction)
Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A raw and misanthropic memoir of compulsive sexual conquest, by the German star of "Fitzcarraldo" and "Nosferatu."
The Kiss
By Kathryn Harrison (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
The incest memoir that the publishing world is buzzing about turns out to be a numbed and numbing affair.
Knee Deep in Paradise
By Brett Butler (Nonfiction)
Hyperion, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Not another slight, sit-com memoir, this tough and funny account of the author's difficult life makes for serious, compelling reading.
The Knife Thrower By Steven Millhauser (Fiction)
Crown, Reviewed by D.T. Max
Playful, enigmatic short stories from the writer who won the 1996 Pulitzer Prize for "Martin Dressler: The Story of an American Dreamer."
(06/05/98)
Kowloong Tong, The Collected Stories By Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin and Viking, reviewed by Dwight Garner
An abrupt and often nasty novel about Hong Kong and a devastatingly fine collection of stories, both by the well-known author and travel writer.
Larry's Party By Carol Shields (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A novel about a small-town florist turned maze-designer from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Stone Diaries."
Laughing In The Dark By Laurie Stone (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, reviewed by Sarah Vowell
A chronicle of the years when comics like Sandra Bernhard, Lypsinka and John Leguizamo meshed art and laughs in downtown New York.
La Moreau By Marianne Gray (Nonfiction)
Fine Books, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A biography of Jeanne Moreau, the most enigmatic, intuitive and simply beautiful actress to have emerged from French cinema.
The Last Avant-Garde: The Making of the New York School of Poets By David Lehman (Nonfiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Brian Blanchfield
The New York School of Poets -- Frank O'Hara, John Ashbery et al. -- never made as much noise as the Beats, but this skillful history demonstrates their enduring influence.
(10/19/98)
The Last Don By Mario Puzo (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A fat, juicy meatball of a book from the author of "The Godfather," describing the current, waning days of Mafia power and influence.
Last Comes The Egg By Bruce Duffy (Fiction)
Simon and Schuster, reviewed by Richard Gehr
In this brightly-colored, ambitious novel of tragicomic adolescence, three motherless boys hit the road.
Last Gang in Town By Marcus Gray (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by David Futrelle
A warts-and-all portrait of The Clash, who were, if only briefly, the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
The Last Girl By Penelope Evans (Fiction)
St. Martins Press, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
She's a mousy college girl; he's a retired bathhouse attendant who lives in her London apartment building. This compelling first novel is about what happens when his crush spins out of control.
The Last Integrationist By Jake Lamar (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by Megan Harlan
From the author of the controversial memoir "Bourgeois Blues," this first novel, set in the near future, chronicles the struggles of the first
black United States Attorney General.
The Last Life
By Claire Messud (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, Reviewed by Maggie Jones
A novel splendidly evokes the wounds of French-Algerian exiles.
(09/03/99
The Last of the Savages By Jay McInerney (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "Bright Lights, Big City," a chronicle of the friendship between a rebellious rich boy and his admiring working class friend.
"Last Things" By Jenny Offill (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
In a heartbreaking first novel, an 8-year-old watches her mother lose her mental bearings.
(04/21/99)
The last time I wore a dress By Daphne Scholinski with Jane Meredith Adams (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Laura Green
The memoir of a tomboyish young woman who spent three years in psychiatric hospitals being treated for "Gender Identity Disorder."
The Last Thing He Wanted By Joan Didion (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In Didion's steamy political drama, a female Washington Post reporter becomes involved in Iran-contra arms shipments.
The Law of Enclosures By Dale Peck (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Scott Peck
Domestic entanglements and tragedies, from the author of last year's critically acclaimed "Martin and John."
The Law of Love By Laura Esquivel (Fiction)
Crown, reviewed by A. Scott Cardwell
In this new novel by the author of "Like Water for Chocolate," an astroanalyst seeks her "Twin Soul" across time and space.
The Laws of Our Fathers By Scott Turow (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Robert Spillman
Turow proves himself the thinking reader's thriller author with this saga of 1960's ideals examined in a sinister modern-day court case.
Layover By Lisa Zeidner (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Maria Russo
A woman on the verge of a breakdown finds herself sneaking into hotel rooms.
(06/09/99)
Leaving a Doll's House By Claire Bloom (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A curious (and controversial) memoir about the actress' life, including her 17 hellish years with the novelist Philip Roth.
Le Mariage By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, review by Elizabeth Judd
Yanks abroad and French nationals
still bewildering one another in a funny follow-up to the bestselling "Le
Divorce." (03/27/00)
Le Divorce By Diane Johnson (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A busy and insightful novel about the cultural and romantic clashes that ensue when several Southern Californian women move to Paris.
Left for Dead: My Journey Home From Everest By Beck Weathers (Nonfiction)
Villard, review by Jonathan Miles
A member of Jon Krakauer's ill-fated Everest expedition gives his version of the spring '96 mountaintop disaster. (04/25/00)
LEGENDS OF THE AMERICAN DESERT: Sojourns in the Greater Southwest By Alex Shoumatoff (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Bowman
A tough-minded first novel, narrated by a misfit high school girl who finds solace in surfing the Southern California coast.
(12/09/97)
"The Leper's Companion" By Julie Blackburn (Fiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Alex Abramovich
In the year 1410, a tormented group of English villagers follow their priest on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
(04/26/99)
Let Nothing You Dismay By Mark O'Donnell (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
From the self-appointed court jester of gay literature, a novel about one unemployed Manhattanite's marathon holiday party-going.
(11/30/98)
Lewis Carroll: A Biography By Morton N. Cohen (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A shrewd, sympathetic look at the life of the brilliant, sad man who gave the world Alice in Wonderland.
"The Lexus and the Olive Tree" By Thomas Friedman (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Scott Whitney
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman offers an important message about the new world economy: Globalize or die.
(04/19/99)
The Light Fantastic: Adventures in Theatre By John Lahr (Nonfiction)
Dial, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
Essays and reviews from The New Yorker theater critic, on subjects ranging from Tony Kushner to Ingmar Bergman to British television.
Light My Fire By Ray Manzarek (Nonfiction)
Putnam, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
An elegiac, high-flown memoir by the former Doors keyboardist, who remains obsessed with singer Jim Morrison's legacy
(07/07/98)
Lightning Song By Lewis Nordan (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Maud Casey
A tale about an eccentric Mississippi family and its llama farm, from a writer known for his folksy storytelling panache.
Like a Hole in the Head By Jen Banbury (Fiction)
Little, Brown, Reviewed by Suzette Lalime Davidson
A noirish mystery novel, about a used-bookstore employee, that reads as if it were written by a feminized Dashiel Hammett
(05/01/98)
Lives of the Monster Dogs By Kirsten Bakis (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Lise Funderburg
A fantastical first novel, set in New York City in 2008, about a pack of vicious but super-intelligent dogs that become (for a while, anyway) the toast of the town.
Little Miss Strange By Joanna Rose (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Rob Spillman
This novel about the metaphorical orphans of Kerouac and Kesey follows the adolescence of a daughter of hippies in 1970s Denver.
The Living and the Dead By Paul Hendrickson (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by David Futrelle
A brilliant portrait of Vietnam-era Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and five others who were radically changed by the War.
Lolita By
Vladmir Nabokov: performed by Jeremy Irons (Fiction)
Random House Audio Books, reviewed by Mary Elizabeth Williams
A faithful and gripping 12-hour audio version of Nabokov's masterpiece, brought to compelling life by actor Jeremy Irons.
Lorca: A Dream of Life By Leslie Stainton (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
A fat, new book on the martyred writer can't decide whether it's a serious study or a celebrity bio.
(06/23/99)
Lord of the Barnyard: Killing the Fatted Calf and Arming the Aware in the Corn Belt By Tristan Egolf (Fiction)
Grove Press, Reviewed by Mark Luce
A tornado of a first novel tells the brilliantly cracked tale of a hellion outcast who takes on his redneck hometown.
(03/01/99)
Lord of Dark Places By Hal Bennett (Fiction)
Turtle Point Press, reviewed by David Ulin
Unavailable for 25 years, this novel is a classic portrait of the black experience in the years leading up to the Vietnam War.
Los Alamos By Joseph Kanon (Fiction)
Broadway Books, reviewed by William Georgiades
A surprisingly well-written and subtle thriller, set amid the Manhattan Project in 1945, by a first-time writer.
Losing It By Laura Fraser (Nonfiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Sara Kelly
A vigorous and pointed critique of America's obsession with weight, from a journalist with her own diet horror stories to tell.
Lost Man's River By Peter Matthiessen (Fiction)
Random House,, reviewed by Rachel Pastan
The best fairies die
Lost on Earth: Nomads of the New World By Mark Fritz (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown and Company, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A book about refugees that's as intimate and moving as a masterful short story collection and surprisingly hard to put down
(03/24/99)
Love Trouble By Veronica Geng (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Darcy Lockman
The late New Yorker writer wickedly satirized singles groups, stylish Manhattanites and Raymond Chandler.
(05/20/99)
Love's Apprentice By Shirley Abbott (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Laura Miller
An insightful and winning memoir about the author's lifelong pursuit of the perfect romance -- in spite of her own better judgment.
(05/14/98)
Love in a Blue Time By Hanif Kureishi (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Short stories, from the writer-director of "My Beautiful Laundrette," about misfits in London (11/19/97)
Love Invents Us By Amy Bloom (Fiction)
Random House, reviewed by Lise Funderberg
A shaggily eloquent coming-of-age story about a young suburban girl's odd affair with a furrier and friendship with an old woman.
Love Is Where It Falls By Simon Callow (Nonfiction)
Fromm International, Reviewed by Daniel Reitz
A gay actor recalls his 11-year "passionate friendship" with a straight woman 40 years his senior.
(06/21/99)
Lucky By Alice Sebold(Nonfiction)
Scribner's, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
By Sally Eckhoff
A memoir of rape that's just about everything you'd expect it not to be
(09/27/99)
Lucky Bastard By Charles McCarry (Fiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
In this fantastical and deeply entertaining novel, the bastard son of a JFK-type president explodes onto the political scene.
(07/16/98)
Lush Life: A Biography of Billy Strayhorn By David Hajdu(Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Bart Schneider
A biography of the composer and pianist who was Duke Ellington's long-time collaborator and one of the first uncloseted gay jazz musicians.
Lying on the Couch By Irvin D. Yalom (Fiction)
Basic Books, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A revealing novel about therapy and its discontents, from the psychoanalyst author of "Love's Executioner."
M is for Malice By Sue Grafton (Fiction)
Henry Holt, reviewed by Elizabeth Pincus
Private eye Kinsey Millhone, returns in a mystery that's largely about matters of the heart -- and about men who won't commit.
MADONNA ANNO DOMINI By Joshua Clover (Fiction)
Louisiana State University Press, Reviewed by Albert Mobilio
Reviews of four recent -- and notable -- collections of poetry, from masters such as James Tate and Margaret Atwood as well as newcomers such as Joshua Clover
(03/04/98)
The Magician's Wife By Brian Moore (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A slim, forceful historical novel, set in 19th century France, about a magician, his wife and a dashing, but calculating, count
(02/03/98)
MagnificentÊCorpses By Anneli Rufus (Nonfiction)
Marlowe & Company, reviewed by Frank Browning
A guide to saints' relics in Europe should satisfy the most grisly-minded readers.
(08/05/99)
Making it Big: Sex Stars, Porn Films and Me By Chi Chi LaRue with John Erich (Nonfiction)
Alyson, reviewed by Daniel Reitz
Three books that delve into the glamour, and the excesses, of the gay pornography industry.
(12/05/97)
Making Waves By Mario Vargas Llosa (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Edward Neuert
Essays on everything from Faulkner and politics to World Cup soccer and John Wayne Bobbitt, from Peru's great author.
Man Crazy By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
A dazed young woman falls in with Enoch Skaggs, the poor man's Charles Manson, and a biker gang that practices human sacrifice.
Man Enough to be a Woman By Jayne County (Nonfiction)
Serpent's Tail, reviewed by Jeanie Pyun
The wild life and times of rock n' roll's original transsexual, legendary shock-rocker Jayne (aka Wayne) County.
The Manikin By Joanna Scott (Nonfiction)
Holt, reviewed by Megan Harlan
A cerebral and fanciful meditation on love, death and taxidermy, from a writer who received a MacArthur "genius" grant at age 31.
The Mansion on the Hill By Fred Goodman (Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Cynthia Joyce
"Mao: A Life" by Philip Short and "Mao Zedong" by Jonathan Spence (Nonfiction)
Review by Gavin McNett
Two new biographies of "the cuddly dictator" are nearly definitive -- but
one is 600 pages longer.
(01/26/00)
Mara and Dann: An Adventure By Doris Lessing (Fiction)
HarperFlamingo, Reviewed by Norah Vincent
A dystopian vision of our planet undergoing another ice age thousands of years in the future, as seen through the eyes of two young children.
(01/08/99)
Marcel Proust By Edmund White (Nonfiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Peter Kurth
The first in a new series of brief biographies demonstrate that bigger isn't always better.
(01/28/99)
Maribou Stork Nightmares By Irvine Welsh (Fiction)
Norton, reviewed by Scott Baldinger
A startling and surreal tour through the mind of a Scottish football thug.
Master Georgie By Beryl Bainbridge (Fiction)
Carroll & Graf, Reviewed by Gary Krist
This Booker Prize-nominated novel is about a dissolute surgeon who tries to bring medical care to wounded troops during the Crimean War.
(10/30/98)
Meaty, Beaty, Big And Bouncy: The Who By John Perry (Nonfiction)
Schirmer, Reviewed by Stephanie
Zacharek
A lovely piece of rock analysis, from a writer (and guitarist) who can't help blending the Who's story with his own.
(12/15/98)
Meditations from a Movable Chair By Andre Dubus, Jr. (Nonfiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
A memoir about the author's life after a crippling accident, with asides on such topics as God, love, art, writing, fatherhood and manhood
(06/02/98)
Meeting Lily By Sarah Woodhouse (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, reviewed by Meg Cohen Ragas
Romantic chaos takes over a quiet Italian country inn and its eccentric guests.
Memoirs of a Geisha By Arthur Golden (Fiction)
Knopf Fiction, reviewed by Dan Cryer
When female charm was an art.
The Memory of Birds in Times of Revolution By Breyten Breytenbach (Nonfiction)
Harcourt Brace & Company, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Essays about politics and culture from the controversial South African poet and painter best-known for his memoir "The True Confessions of an Albino Terrorist."
Men Giving Money, Women Yelling By Alice Mattison (Fiction)
Morrow, reviewed by Jennifer Howard
A series of short stories about a petty criminal insinuating himself into the lives of New Haven teachers and social workers.
Men in Black By John Harvey (Nonfiction)
University of Chicago Press, reviewed by Bruce Barcott
An historical investigation of that most fashionable and funereal of all sartorial choices, wearing black.
Men in the Off Hours By Anne Carson (Poetry)
Knopf, review by Kate Moses
The poet's breathtaking fourth collection takes in the picnic of sex and love and death that time spreads in its wake. (04/05/00)
Merde By Ralph A. Lewin (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed Peter Kurth
An investigation of shit yields gold.
(05/25/99)
The Metaphysical Touch By Sylvia Brownrigg (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Andrew O'Hehir
An ambitious first novel brings two wounded intellectuals together in cyberspace.
(06/28/99)
The Migration of Ghosts By Pauline Melville (Fiction)
Bloomsbury, Reviewed Stephanie Zacharek
In a dozen stories, Pauline Melville uses symbols to beat the reader senseless.
(05/26/99)
Misadventures in the (213) By Dennis Hensley (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Austin Bunn
Shallow riffs on Los Angeles and its discontents, from a young Detour magazine columnist.
(07/14/98)
Misfit: The Strange Life of Frderick Exley By Jonathan Yardley (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Dwight Garner
A slim, informal biography of the author of "A Fan's Notes," Frederick Exley, a perpetual misfit who died far too young.
The Missing By Andrew O'Hagan (Nonfiction)
New Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Part memoir and part social history, this book is a searching examination of people who vanish, whether by intention or foul play.
"The Missing Head of Damasceno Monteiro" By Antonio Tabucchi (Fiction)
New Directions, review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
A
mystery of corruption, drug trafficking and decapitation by the Italian
novelist.
(01/05/00)
Miss Manners' Basic Training: Eating By Judith Martin (Nonfiction)
Crown, reviewed by Andrew Essex
Smart, funny advice, from the nationally known columnist, about how to survive even the most complex mealtime challenges.
Mister Sandman
By Barbara Gowdy (Fiction)
Steerforth Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The deeply strange story of voiceless Joan, pixie-sized idiot savant, piano prodigy, voracious reader and repository of family secrets.
Moab Is My Washpot By Stephen Fry (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A desperate determination to amuse mars the English actor's memoir of his first 20 years.
(06/17/99)
Model Behavior By Jay McInerney (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Gary Krist
From the author of "Bright Lights, Big City," a thin novel about the rise and fall of a disgruntled fashion journalist in New York.
(09/21/98)
Mona in the Promised Land By Gish Jen (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A comic novel, related in minor chords, about a Chinese-American teenager's search for cultural -- and personal -- identity during the 1960s.
Mondo Desperado By Patrick McCabe (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, review by Austin Bunn
By the author of "The Butcher Boy," a collection of stories pitch-black down to their funny Irish toes. (03/13/00)
Monkey Bridge By
Lan Cao (Fiction)
Viking, reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
This first novel, by a young Vietnamese-American writer, has juicy generational angst worthy of an Amy Tan novel.
Monkey King By Patricia Chao (Fiction)
Harper Collins, reviewed by Deborah Kirk
An accomplished first novel by a young Chinese-American author about one family's tormented attempt to assimilate in the U.S.
Monogamy By Adam Phillips (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by David Futrelle
A quirky collection of 121 miniature essays about relationships and their discontents, from the British writer and psychoanalyst.
Monster: Living off the Big Screen By John Gregory Dunne (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by David Futrelle
A darkly humorous first-hand account of the perils of Hollywood screenwriting.
The Moor's Last Sigh By Salman Rushdie
Pantheon, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
(Fiction)
Hyperbole, didactic asides, verbal puns, lewd jokes: What can it be but a high-flying new novel from the author of "The Satanic Verses?"
Morality Play By Barry Unsworth (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Rich Nichols
A ragged band of traveling players investigate a murder in this resonant meditation on evil, set in 14th century England.
Morvern Callar By Alan Warner (Fiction)
Anchor Books, reviewed by Charles Taylor
It's dark doings in Scotland when the heroine ditches her late boyfriend's corpse and submits his novel to a publisher under her name.
Moscow Days By Gallina Dutkina (Nonfiction)
Kodansha, reviewed by Esther Wachs Book
Dutkina, a well-known Russian journalist, explores the economic and political realities -- including women's issues, class divisions, and crime -- of everyday life in the post-Soviet era.
Mosquito By Gayl Jones (Fiction)
Beacon Press, Reviewed by Tom LeClair
A beer-drinking, African-American, female Tristram Shandy must carry this novel by the National Book Award nominee
(01/12/99)
"Moth Smoke" By Mohsin Hamid (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, review by Sudip Bose
A darkly seductive debut novel
evokes the anxieties of urban life in Pakistan.
(01/06/00)
Motherless Brooklyn By Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
Doubleday, reviewed by Gary Krist
An author comes up with a new (and brilliant) twist for the detective novel: A narrator with Tourette's syndrome.
(09/23/99)
"Mr Phillips" By John Lanchester (Fiction)
Putnam, review by Tom Shone
It's virtually plotless, but the new novel by the author of "The Debt to Pleasure" makes the life of a randy, unemployed accountant seem touching. (04/20/00)
Mr. Ives' Christmas By Oscar Hijuelos (Fiction)
HarperCollins, reviewed by Rich Nichols
The spirit of Charles Dickens hovers over this novel of loss, love and redemption.
Mr. Mike By Dennis Perrin (Nonfiction)
Avon, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A comprehensive if overly-respectful biography of Michael O'Donoghue, the dark genius behind early "Saturday Night Live."
(07/13/98)
Mr. White's Confession By Robert Clark (Fiction)
Picador USA, Reviewed by Charles Taylor
A spooky highbrow thriller, set in St. Paul, Minn., in the 1930s, about murders among the city's dime-a-dance girls.
(09/02/98)
Mrs. Ike: Memories and Reflections on the Life of Mamie Eisenhower By Susan Eisenhower (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
A sentimental but often compelling retelling of the life of President Dwight Eisenhower's remarkable wife, written by her granddaughter.
THE MUHAMMAD ALI READER Edited by Gerald Early (Nonfiction)
Ecco Press, Reviewed by Allen Barra
A collection of essays -- from Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe, among others -- that seeks to tease out Ali's multiple meanings
(07/22/98)
The Museum Guard By Howard Norman (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
From the author of "The Bird Artist," a ruminative novel, set during World War II, about a woman's obsessive identification with a painting.
(08/17/98)
"Music for Torching" By A.M. Homes (Fiction)
Rob Weisbach Books, Reviewed by Courtney Hudak
Is A.M. Homes the master of shock or the mistress of schlock?
(05/05/99)
"Girl with a Pearl Earring" by Tracy Chevalier, "The Music Lesson" by
Katharine Weber and "Girl in Hyacinth Blue" by Susan Vreeland (Fiction)
Review by Marion Lignana Rosenberg
Three recent
novels shimmer with the sensuousness of Vermeer, the painter who inspired
them.
(01/10/00)
"My Century" By Günter Grass (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Michael Scott Moore
In a new novel, the cantankerous 1999
Nobel laureate takes on his times, year by year.
(12/14/99)
My Dark Places By James Ellroy (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A hardboiled memoir, by the well-known mystery writer, about his reckoning with his mother's still unsolved 1958 murder.
My Father, Dancing By Bliss Broyard (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Adam Kirsch
A debut collection of stories about fathers and daughters proves the author sovereign over a very small terrain.
(08/04/99)
My Favorite War By Christopher John Farley (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, reviewed by Charles Taylor
A picaresque first novel about the tribulations of a young black reporter, by a Time magazine music critic.
"My Garden (Book):" By Jamaica Kincaid (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Jaime Manrique
The chilly-hearted
writer's new collection pulses with a surprising tenderness and poetry.
(12/20/99)
My Heart Laid Bare By Joyce Carol Oates (Fiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Elizabeth Judd
Set in upstate New York late in the 19th century, the author's new novel combines breathless prose with a sturdy examination of social mores
(06/26/98)
"My Kitchen Wars"By Betty Fussell (Nonfiction)
North Point Press, Reviewed by Pete Wells
The cookbook author recounts
the battles that made up her marriage.
(11/24/99)
My Life as a Boy By Kim Chernin (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Kate Tuttle
In this gender-bending memoir, the author describes how she replaced feminine wiles with masculine prerogatives.
My Life, Starring Dara Falcon By Ann Beattie (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Joan Smith
The story of a woman who compulsively lies and pursues other women's husbands, from an author of spare, unsentimental fiction.
My Other Life By Paul Theroux (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Autobiographical novel or fictional autobiography? Either way, this prickly novel is a skillful meditation on identity and authorship.
My Russian By Deirdre McNamer (Fiction)
Houghton Mifflin, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
A serious novel that's almost a thriller tells of a woman who assumes a disguise and hunkers down 11 blocks from home.
(07/21/99)
MY SISTER LIFE: The Story of My Sister's Disappearance By Maria Flook (Nonfiction)
Pantheon, Reviewed by Laura Green
A detached memoir, from a young novelist, about her sister, who left home at age 14 and became a prostitute near a Navy base
(01/15/97)
My Summer with George By Marilyn French (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From the feminist author of "The Women's Room," a book about a romance writer and her disastrous relationships.
My War Gone By, I Miss It So By Anthony Loyd (Nonfiction)
Atlantic Monthly Press, review by Judith Coburn
A jaded British
correspondent feeds his smack habit in Bosnia and Chechnya.
(01/28/00)=
My Year of Meats By Ruth L. Ozeki (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Nina Mehta
A first novel, from a young filmmaker, about the making of a documentary series about the meat industry for Japanese TV
(07/01/98)
Naked By David Sedaris (Nonfiction)
Little, Brown, reviewed by Dwight Garner
Dark and often prickly comic essays, most of them based on his suburban childhood, from the National Public Radio commentator.
Naming the Jungle By Antoine Volodine (Fiction)
New Press, reviewed by Jordana Hart
In a fictional Latin American city set deep in the rainforest, a rebel feigns madness in order to avoid being tortured.
Nat King Cole By Daniel Mark Epstein (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, Reviewed by Greg Villepique
A top-notch biography
celebrates the jazz piano genius who gained his greatest fame as a pop
singer.
(11/12/99)
Nathaniel's Nutmeg By Giles Milton (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Steve McQuiddy
A new history of the early spice trade could clean up at the box office.
(05/12/99)
Net Chick: A Smart-Girl Guide to the Wired World
By Carla Sinclair (Nonfiction)
Henry Holt/An Owl Book, reviewed by Megan Harlan
Loosen your bra straps:A female Net veteran has penned the ultimate grrrl's tour of the online scene.
The Net of Dreams By
Julie Salamon (Nonfiction)
Random House, reviewed by Jim Paul
From the author of "The Devil's Candy," an idiosyncratic comparison of the making of Stephen Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and the reminiscences of the author's mother, who survived Auschwitz.
"In Nevada" by David Thomson, "24/7" by Andrés Martinez and
"Double Down" by Frederick and Steven Barthelme (Nonfiction)
Reviewed by Jeff Stark
The harsh beauty of
Nevada, the glitzy pleasures of Vegas and the thrill ride of gambling.
(12/01/99)
A New Kind of Party Animal By Michele Mitchell (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
An anecdote-rich examination of the mismatch between the existing
political landscape and the aspirations of today's politically minded young
adults
(06/24/98)
The New Men: Inside the Vatican's school for American priests By Brian
Murphy (Nonfiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Mark Athitakis
A peek inside the cloistered world of the Pontifical North American College
in Rome, where the next generation of priests is trained.
New York Mosaic By Isabel Bolton (Fiction)
Steerforth Press, reviewed by Lisa Michaels
A collection of three novels, originally published in the late 1940s and '50s, that capture a forgotten era in New York City.
News of a Kidnapping By Gabriel García Márquez (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Rob Spillman
From the Nobel Laureate, a nonfiction account of the kidnapping of prominent Colombian citizens by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.
News of the Spirit By Lee Smith (Fiction)
Putnam, reviewed by Katharine Whittemore
Six longish short stories from the Virginia-born writer. At her best, she sounds like Scout grown up, at her worst a saccharine Fanny Flagg.
Night Beat By Mikal Gilmore (Nonfiction)
Dutton, Reviewed by Beth Wolfensberger Singer
Deeply personal essays about rock music, from the Rolling Stone writer and author of the memoir "Shot In the Heart."
(02/06/98)
The Night in Question By Tobia Wolff (Fiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Charles Taylor
Self-knowledge torments the characters in these naturalistic short stories by the author of the memoir "This Boy's Life."
Night Train By Martin Amis (Fiction)
Harmony Books, Reviewed by Allen Barra
From the well-known British novelist, a change-up: a slim
detective novel set in the United States
(01/26/97)
NixonCarver By Mark Maxwell (Fiction)
St. Martin's Press, Reviewed by David Bowman
A smart, funny first novel about an imaginary friendship between Richard M. Nixon and Raymond
(02/24/98)
Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent By Robert F. Barsky (Fiction)
MIT Press, reviewed by Phil Leggiere
The first full-length biography of Chomsky, the world-renowned linguist and leftist political thinker.
No Lease on Life By Lynn Tillman (Fiction)
Harcourt Brace, Reviewed by Sarah Vowell
One woman's chronicle of a day in the life of New York's East Village, where druggies and creeps (and good humor) abound
(01/22/97)
No Matter How Loud
I Shout: A Year in the Life of Juvenile
Court By Edward Humes (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Brenda Coughlin
The
author, a Pulitzer Prize-winner, spent a year in
Los Angeles' Juvenile Hall to research this look
at how America treats young offenders.
No Mercy By Redmond O'Hanlon (Nonfiction)
Knopf, reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
Rip-roaring travel writing about a trip to the Congo in search of a mythical dinosaurlike creature reputed to live by a jungle lake.
No Safe Place By Richard North Patterson (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by Daniel H. Pink
Frank Capra meets Albert Camus in this smart, timely political
thriller about a well-meaning politician with a "bimbo eruption" on his
hands.
(09/18/98)
Nobody's Girl By Antonya Nelson (Fiction)
Scribner, Reviewed by Maud Casey
Set in small-town New Mexico, the author's second novel is about a young school teacher who becomes involved in a local mystery
(02/13/98)
"Nobrow" by John Seabrook and "No Logo" by Naomi Klein (Nonfiction)
Context, review by Austin Bunn
A self-revealing reflection on the sick fixations of the media elite stalls out. Is a guerrilla war enough to wake them up?
(02/15/00)
Nonconformity: Writing on Writing By Nelson Algren (Nonfiction)
Seven Stories Press, reviewed by Bart Schneider
Bracing and previously unpublished essays about literature and its discontents, from the late author of "The Man with the Golden Arm."
Normal By Lucia Nevai (Fiction)
Algonquin, reviewed by Jonathan Miles
Sharply observed and winsome short stories, many of them set in New York, about families that are anything but normal.
Not
Exactly What I Had in Mind By Rosemarie Breslin (Nonfiction)
Villard, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A tart memoir about living with a life-threatening blood disease, from the
journalist daughter of famed newspaperman Jimmy Breslin.
Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker Compiled and with an introduction by Stuart Y. Silverstein (Fiction)
Scribner, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A collection of 122 "lost" poems, containing some of Parker's best verse on life, love and self-pity.
Notorious: A Life of Ingrid Bergman By
Donald Spoto (Nonfiction)
Harper Collins, reviewed by Peter Kurth
A comprehensive, if sentimental, biography of the legendary, luminous actress and star of "Casablanca."
Notorious Victoria: The Life of Victoria Woodhull, Uncensored By Mary Gabriel (Nonfiction)
Algonquin, Reviewed by Megan Harlan
A biography of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president and the first to operate a Wall Street brokerage firm
(01/23/97)
NOW AND THEN: From Coney Island to Here By Joseph Heller (Fiction)
Knopf, Reviewed by David Futrelle
A rambling, frequently amusing memoir about a childhood spent on Coney Island, from the author of "Catch-22."
(02/02/98)
Now It's Time to Say Goodbye By Dale Peck (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Rob Walker
A sensational, even preposterous novel about two urban gay men who move to a racially divided, violence-haunted Kansas town
(05/29/98)
Numbers in the Dark and other Stories
by Italo Calvino (Fiction)
Pantheon, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Celebrations of the uncanny and marvelous, by the late author of such fabulous works as "The Baron in the Trees."
Nureyev: His Life By Diane Solway (Nonfiction)
Morrow, Reviewed by Mary Elizabeth
Williams
A meticulous biography of the sexually ambiguous dance icon who
gave ballet a rock 'n' roll mystique.
(10/09/98)
Ocean
Sea
By Alessandro Baricco (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Craig Seligman
A group of eccentrics gathers at a mysterious seaside inn in this
brilliant fairy tale of a novel by the Italian master
(02/17/99)
Omon Ra By Victor Pelevin (Fiction)
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, reviewed by Dwight Garner
In this somewhat surreal fable that satirizes the Soviet space program, a young cosmonaut is asked to sacrifice his life for his country.
Once Upon a Number: The Hidden Mathematical Logic of Stories By John Allen Paulos (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Heather Chaplin
The author of "Innumeracy," charmingly attempts to bridge the gulf
that separates literary and mathematical culture.
(11/11/98)
On the Eve of the Millennium: The Future of Democracy Through An Age of Unreason By Conor Cruise O'Brien (Nonfiction)
The Free Press, reviewed by Rich Nichols
Passionate, provocative essays defending democracy against fundamentalism.
On the Rez By Ian Frazier (Nonfiction)
Farrar, Straus, Giroux, review by Charles Taylor
In an instant American classic, a great
writer zeros in on the Oglala Sioux (as much as he can zero in on anything).
(02/01/00)
The Other Side of the River By Alex Kotlowitz (Fiction)
Doubleday, Reviewed by Paige Williams
From the author of "There Are No Children Here," a tale about a murder (and racial and class divides) in a small Michigan town
(01/29/97)
On Motherhood and Feminism By Anne Roiphe (Nonfiction)
Houghton Mifflin, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A memoir about motherhood and feminism from a writer who argues that the women's movement continues to sell mothers out.
On Television By Pierre Bourdieu (Nonfiction)
The New Press, Reviewed by Hal Hinson
From a noted French intellectual and scholar, an examination of
television's disastrous effects on society
(04/29/98)
On the Pill: A Social History of Oral Contraceptives, 1950-1970 By Elizabeth Siegel Watkins (Nonfiction)
Johns Hopkins University Press, Reviewed by Beverly Gage
Did the advent of the birth control pill really jump-start the
sexual revolution? The author argues that the two may not be as closely
linked as many people think
(11/05/98)
On With the Story By John Barth (Fiction)
Little, Brown & Co., reviewed by Michael Ross
In this nested series of stories within stories, a pair of vacationing "late-afternoon late-life lovers" regale each other with bedtime tales.
ONE NATION, AFTER ALL: How the Middle Class Really Thinks About God,
Country and Family By Alan Wolfe (Fiction)
Viking, Reviewed by Laura Green
A sociology professor argues, after extensive polling, that
Americans are nicer and have more in common than we'd ever imagined
(03/16/98)
One World, Ready or Not By
William Greider (Nonfiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by Michael Gerber
Rolling Stone's political columnist delivers this jeremiad about the
gloomy
state of the international economy.
... Or Not To Be: A Collection of Suicide Notes Edited by Mark Etkind (Nonfiction)
Riverhead Books, reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
From Adolf Hitler's to Kurt Cobain's to O.J. Simpson's, this ghoulishly entrancing book includes suicide notes from the famous and not.
The Orchard on Fire By Shena
Mackay
(Fiction)
Moyer Bell, reviewed by Laurie Muchnick
Nominated for this
year's Booker Prize, this novel depicts a young girl rooted in place by a
rigid class system and low expectations.
The Orchid Thief
By Susan Orlean (Nonfiction)
Random House, Reviewed by Sally Eckhoff
A handsome man with no teeth and a flower that looks like a flying
frog lures a writer into the mysterious swamplands of Florida
(01/13/99)
Original Bliss
By A.L. Kennedy (Fiction)
Alfred A. Knopf, Reviewed by Sylvia Brownrigg
Deserted by God, a lonely Glaswegian finds improbable romance with a hardcore porn addict in A.L.
Kennedy's new novel
(01/14/99)
Otherwise: New and
Selected Poems By Jane Kenyon (Fiction)
Graywolf Press, reviewed by Susan Shapiro
A moving and unexpectedly turbulent collection from
this New Hampshire poet, who died last year from
leukemia.
Other Women By Evelyn Lau (Fiction)
Simon & Schuster, reviewed by James Marcus
A slim, eloquent first novel, from a 25-year-old Canadian writer, about a young woman's affair with an older, married man.
Our Kind of People: Inside America's Black Upper Class
By Lawrence Otis Graham (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Karen Grigsby Bates
An aspirant to the African-American nobility tells what they won't
(02/04/99)
Our Dumb Century: 100 Years of Headlines from America's Finest News Source By Scott Dikkers and the Staff of the Onion (Nonfiction)
Three Rivers Press, Reviewed by Liesl Schillinger
The editors of the Onion present 100 years of turpitude
(04/01/99)
Our War By David Harris
(Nonfiction)
Times Books, reviewed by Fred Branfman
A passionate account of
the Vietnam War, from a writer who argues that Americans have refused to
confront the war's moral issues.
Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein By Andrew Cockburn and Patrick Cockburn (Nonfiction)
HarperCollins, Reviewed by Bill Franzen
A selectively argued new book opens fire on American Gulf War
policy toward Iraq and charges the U.S. with letting Saddam off easy
(03/17/99)
Out of Sheer Rage By Geoff Dyer (Noniction)
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharek
More memoir than sober academic study, this book details one
writer's obsession with D.H. Lawrence and his own writer's block
(05/05/98)
Out of Sight By Elmore Leonard (Fiction)
Delacorte Press, reviewed by Charles Taylor
The acclaimed crime novelist returns with a shaggy-dog romantic comedy about a female U.S. Marshall who falls for a bank robber.
The Overspent American By Juliet B. Schor (Nonfiction)
Basic Books, Reviewed by Dante Ramos
A Harvard economist blames technology and advertising for a "new consumerism" that's plunging many Americans into debt
(05/27/98)