Sam Shepard’s life was as dramatic as his theater
Fear was the renaissance man’s guiding principle
Books
Wednesday
Tuesday
Kamala Harris is living in dreamland
The general impression in 107 Days is one of listlessness, torpor, a failure to really grasp the stakes of what’s happening
Addie E. Citchen’s debut novel is unsettling and ambitious
Dominion offers no answers, only the clear recognition of how power corrodes those bound to it
A compelling account of actor Robert Shaw’s life
Christopher Shaw Myers outlines his uncle’s story with lesser-known information and anecdotes
Inside the Cartel is not your average true-crime memoir
Martin Suarez’s storytelling is precise, even surgical. But it’s the content that burrows under the skin
Saturday
What’s happened to the trade paperback?
Down with ebooks!
Tuesday
Is Dan Brown finished?
The novelist’s Happy Meal plotting serves up the same constituent parts over and over
Francesca Wade’s Gertrude Stein biography is a study in frustration
The writer’s posthumous reputation and influence continue to manifest themselves in writing, music and theater
Against abstinence-based approaches to sobriety
Katie Herzog has all the serial relapser energy you would expect from the addict who has forsworn AA
Martin Mull’s short stories bring levity to serious themes
One leaves these stories not depressed, but wanting to punch the air in solidarity with these ornery old dudes
Friday
What is going on with Amy Griffin?
Who says a memoir has to be true?
Tuesday
Two wholly different but complementary ways of looking at Christianity
Twelve Churches is a hugely accomplished and endlessly readable book, rich in historical and ecclesiastical detail
Patricia Lockwood’s latest novel transcends genres
Many books mix fiction and memoir. Successfully incorporating criticism into a novel is more unusual
Patrick Ryan’s second novel doesn’t pretend to be perfect
Buckeye is a fine illustration of how drawing-room tensions can fester and become matters of historical significance.
The Life of Violet catches a side of Virginia Woolf that has been obscured
A new Woolf typescript is cause for celebration. Two cheers for Seshagiri. But this new edition is a weak casket
Tuesday
Frank S. Meyer was a political paradox
Noel Parmentel’s quote, ‘The right wing was fun back then,’ is one of the takeaways from Daniel J. Flynn’s new book
The thrill of ghostwriting
Julia Clark’s new novel succeeds both as a gripping mystery and a sly commentary on the art of storytelling itself
A more rounded picture of James Baldwin
Nicholas Boggs has written the first major biography of the writer in more than 30 years
Sunday
Camus comes to America
His travel journals reveal him to be a hopeful, humane thinker – unlike Sartre
Wednesday
Inside Mahler’s mind
Stephen Downes’s Gustav Mahler (Critical Lives) penetrates the composer’s psyche
