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Consider the lobster, and other essays / |
The late David Foster Wallace was famous for his playful, verbose, footnoted style of writing, and his novel Infinite Jest is considered by many to be a classic, but the writing he did for magazines makes for an ideal introduction. This collection of his essays and articles is thorougly enjoyable from its hilarious opening piece covering the porn industry's equivalent of the Oscars to the title piece, in which he was assigned to cover a lobster festival for Gourmet. The finished piece is a tour de force that spends more time considering the ethics of cooking lobsters than the tony magazine was probably expecting. That's a running theme in this collection - what Wallace turned in versus what his editors were expecting - and the collection reads like an indulgent "Director's Cut" version of these pieces, but in Wallace's case, indulgence was key to his style. This reader's personal favorite piece is a shockingly lengthy and passionate review of an obscure grammar book, but the long profile of McCain on the campaign trail in 2000 may be the most timely to mention. |
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The Girl with the dragon tattoo / |
In this international bestseller from Sweden, journalist Mikael Blomkist is a disgraced financial journalist whose career is on the rocks after he has been sued for libel over an exposé he wrote about a powerful industrialist. Luckily, a mysterious offer arrives from elderly reclusive business tycoon Henrik Vanger, who wants Blomkist to help investigate the decades-old disappearance of his niece. Blomkist is intrigued, especially when the tycoon offers to help him clear his name at the end of the contract. As Blomkist delves into his employer's family secrets, another player enters the scene, a young computer hacker with an ambiguous set of social mores and an unquenchable curiosity who gets involved in the mysteries of the missing girl, the crooked industrialist, and Blomkist himself. Although more leisurely paced than some American thrillers, this is an engrossing read that will keep you guessing and turning pages until the final reveal. |
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Neverwhere / |
Richard Mayhew is an ordinary guy living in London, going about his ordinary life when he encounters a young woman named Door. While their meeting is brief, it leaves Richard's world turned upside down. In an attempt to set things right, Richard goes in search of Door. He finds her in a world he never knew existed, London Below. This discovery is just the beginning of the adventure for Richard. He soon realizes that the only way to get his old life back is to follow Door on her mission to uncover secrets about her dearly departed family. Along the way they meet an array of characters who join them in their pursuit of the truth -- and many other characters who will stop at nothing to put an end to their journey. Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere is a world like none other. London Below is dark, strange and often terrifying, inhabited by assassins, hunters, villains and angels. Gaiman paints a fantasy world so vivid and engrossing, once you enter you may not want to leave. |
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Telex from Cuba : a novel / |
Rachel Kushner's debut novel vividly recalls the years leading up to Castro's rule in Cuba. A rich cast of characters, primarily American expats in the sugar and nickel mining industries, inhabit the novel which is told from multiple points of view. The expats live privileged lives relatively unconcerned about the politics of the country until it hits close to home. One even loses a son to the revolutionary cause. There is also a burlesque dancer with patrons from every facet of Cuban society and a shadowy Frenchman with several dubious relations. Even Hemingway makes an appearance. Kushner portrays 1950s Cuba in wonderful detail with richly drawn characters. |
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The third angel : a novel / |
Alice Hoffman's novels are known for their deft examinations of human relationships, and they usually have just a dash of otherworldly phenomena for spice. In her latest she explores the nature of love through the connected stories of three women and a rundown, possibly haunted hotel in London. Each woman is looking for something to renew her faith in life and love, and Hoffman shows her usual ability to tug on heartstrings. The supernatural elements are small but used to great effect to make the human emotions seem that much more real. |
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The Zero : a novel / |
Brian Remy wakes to find himself lying in a pool of his own blood, from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Frighteningly, he has no memory of the incident, and this is just the first of many memory gaps for Remy. It's only days after September 11, and Remy, a cop who was at the site that fateful day, is giving tours of The Zero to visiting politicians and celebrities. As we lurch forward with Remy through increasingly disorienting memory lapses, we discover that he has a new job with an unnamed government agency, trying to uncover a terrorist cell. Each new lucid surfacing is like joining a movie midway through, and Remy starts to fear what he may be doing during his blacked-out gaps. Walter infuses his feverish story with equal parts black humor and paranoia, and brilliantly skewers our post-9/11 war on terror. |