Weekend picks for book lovers
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include Helen Simonson's new novel about bucolic England on the cusp of World War I, and The Violet Hour, Katie Roiphe's look at how famous modern writers dealt with death.
The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson; Random House, 473 pp.; fiction
Julian Fellowes meets E.M. Forster in The Summer Before the War, Helen Simonson’s novel about the last gasp of Edwardian England in 1914.
Simonson (Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand) is a bit like a home cook borrowing from professional chefs: her recipe calls for a dash of Downton-esque wit and gossip, a sprinkling of Virginia Woolf feminism, and a cupful of colorful characters, a la Forster’s A Room With a View.
Summer is set in the picturesque village of Rye, England. Enter Beatrice Nash, an aspiring writer who has come to Rye to teach Latin to ruffian schoolboys. Nothing is going to be easy for our young heroine, whose inheritance is in the hands of stingy executors, and who is determined to do “salaried work” and never marry.
Could Hugh Grange, a 24-year-old surgeon, put a crimp in Beatrice’s best-laid plans?
Paste BN says *** out of four stars. An “ultimately rewarding and moving novel.”
The Violet Hour: Great Writers at the End by Katie Roiphe; The Dial Press, 287 pp.; non-fiction
Roiphe examines the last days of the writers, thinkers and artists Susan Sontag, John Updike, Dylan Thomas, James Salter, Sigmund Freud and Maurice Sendak.
Paste BN says ***½. “Roiphe paints a series of revealing and intimate portraits of her subjects while pursuing her own very personal search for answers.”
Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship and Sacrifice by Adam Makos; Ballantine, 464 pp.; non-fiction
True story of the friendship between Thomas Hudner, who crash-landed his fighter plane during the Korean war in an attempt to rescue his friend, fellow aviator Jesse Brown, the Navy's first black pilot.
Paste BN says ***½ stars. “Riveting…a meticulously researched and moving account.”
Heart of Glass by Wendy Lawless; Gallery Books, 360 pp.; non-fiction
The author of Chanel Bonfire returns with a new memoir about her life in New York in the 1980s, as she juggled acting, film school and relationships.
Paste BN says *** stars. “There are plenty of adventures, but plenty of mistakes as well...(Lawless) seems to have an unending number of stories to tell.”
A Doubter's Almanac by Ethan Canin; Random House, 551 pp.; fiction
The story of an emotionally remote theoretical mathematician, as seen through the eyes of his deeply wounded adult son.
Paste BN says *** stars. “Convincing…utterly unique.”
Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, James Endrst, George Petras, Kelly Lawler, Eliot Schrefer