Inspired by women who were driven and successful in spheres traditionally dominated by men, Rachel Kushner presents Reno. Scribner - Simon & Schuster, 2013 One might use the same words to describe this fictional woman that Jonathan Franzen used to describe her creator, when she was his student
Alice Walker's The Color Purple (1983) Women's Press, 1984 Celie begins writing letters to God because the man who is married to her mother has said that's all who will listen, all who should be bothered with listening. (It's just wrong to call him her father, after he has raped
Téa Obreht’s The Tiger’s Wife Weidenfeld & Nicolson-Orion, 2011 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Here are the elements of Téa Obreht’s debut novel that really worked for me: * Her depiction of a society saturated by war, violence, and loss is solid. “We’re
Nicole Krauss’ Great House W.W. Norton & Company, 2010 (Looking for a swallow rather than a full glass? ORANGE Squirt below.) Readers Wanted: Must be comfortable travelling between Oxford, London, New York, Jerusalem, Nuremberg and Santiago. Must be well-versed in a variety of artistic forms or naturally curious about works
Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End Little Brown, 2007 One might accuse writers like Doug Harris and Joshua Ferris of trying to be clever in having chosen unusual narrative perspectives for their novels: You comma Idiot is told in the second-person and Then We Came to the End
