Weekend picks for book lovers, including 'Varina' by Charles Frazier
What should you read this weekend? Paste BN’s picks for book lovers include Varina, the new Civil War-era novel by Cold Mountain author Charles Frazier.
Varina by Charles Frazier; Ecco, 353 pp.; fiction
Charles Frazier’s lively new novel arrives at an improbable if interesting moment. Frazier resurrects and reimagines an obscure historical figure — the wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis — at a time when statues of Confederate “heroes” are being toppled one by one, with Jeff Davis’ among them.
So ably does Frazier bring indomitable Varina Howell Davis to life that I couldn’t help but imagine her reaction if she’d been around to see her husband’s bronze likeness ignominiously hauled away. She'd consider it justice, probably. After all, this is a Southern woman who after the Civil War moved to New York to write for newspapers and declared that “the right side won.”
As Varina begins, it’s 1906 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and the elderly Varina (called “V” here) has a visitor, a black man named James Blake, a schoolteacher. James believes he was once “Jimmie Limber,” the little (real-life) boy rescued and briefly raised by Varina, after she saw him being beaten in the street. The last time they were together it was 1865 and V and Jimmie and her brood of children were on the run after the Confederacy fell.
V begins filling in the blanks for James and telling the story of her life, which is irresistible.
Paste BN says ★★★ out of four. “Frazier is a superb prose stylist who elevates the historical fiction genre.”
Napa at Last Light: America's Eden in an Age of Calamity by James Conaway; Simon & Schuster, 287 pp.; non-fiction
In this third installment in a trilogy about the California wine industry, the author delves into such topics as the region’s susceptibility to drought and wildfires and land-use controversies stemming from wine tourism.
Paste BN says ★★★. “Beautifully written. … Conaway knows his subject matter incredibly well.”
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon; Doubleday, 333 pp.; fiction
One of the 20th century’s most intriguing mysteries — what became of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia — is the focus of this historical novel about a possible impostor named Anna Anderson.
Paste BN says ★★★★. “Effortless, eloquent prose transports the reader … dramatic, suspenseful and satisfying.”
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara; Harper, 328 pp.; non-fiction
The author hunts for a serial killer and rapist who terrorized California in the 1970s and ’80s; McNamara, who was married to actor Patton Oswalt, died before she could finish the book. (It was completed with the help of her lead researcher, Paul Haynes, and investigative journalist Billy Jensen.)
Paste BN says ★★★. “A dark page-turner … poignant.”
Blue Dreams: The Science and the Story of Drugs That Changed Our Minds by Lauren Slater; Little, Brown, 399 pp.; non-fiction
The psychologist and author of Prozac Diary returns with an ambitious look at the development of anti-depressants in a book that doubles as a deep dive into her own battles with mental illness.
Paste BN says ★★★. “Fascinating … provides a useful entry point for patients and their families
Contributing reviewers: Jocelyn McClurg, Zlati Meyer, Mary Cadden, Marco della Cava, Matt McCarthy
