Book Reviews

March 13, 2012 In her debut novel, Amy Franklin-Willis tells the story of a family that seems destined to repeat the same mistakes, generation after generation. With Ezekiel Cooper, there’s finally a real chance to make a new life, but can he break the family pattern? In answering this question, The Lost Saints of Tennessee—which has been praised by Pat Conroy, Dorothy Allison, and Mark Satterfield—seems destined to take its place among novels that truly capture the heartbreak and hope of the working poor. Amy Franklin-Willis will read from The Lost Saints of Tennessee on March 17 at 1 p.m. at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis, and on March 21 at 6:30 p.m. at Parnassus Books in Nashville.

March 12, 2012 Manuel Muñoz’s first novel, What You See in the Dark, weaves together the stories of two murders. In the fictional world of the novel, one story is “real,” and one is based on the filming of Psycho’s infamous shower scene. Through these twinned killings, Muñoz explores the way stories are embedded in lived experience, from the movies we consume to the stories we tell ourselves about our lives to the narratives we (mostly unwittingly) construct to make sense of strangers and intimates alike. With the turn of every page, he lays bare the constructed nature of reality—the multiplicity of constructions of any one event. Muñoz will give a reading at Vanderbilt University in Nashville on March 15 at 7 p.m. Click here for details.

March 7, 2012 In his novel When the Killing’s Done, T.C. Boyle sets conservationists against animal-rights activists in a battle royal over the ecosystem of the Channel Islands off the coast of California. It’s a fight both philosophical and physical, and it leaves no one unscathed. Boyle will discuss and sign When the Killing’s Done on March 16 at the Nashville Public Library as part of the Salon@615 series. A free public reception begins at 6:15 p.m. and will be followed by a reading at 7. Click here for details.

February 27, 2012 Musician and poet Gil Scott-Heron, who died in 2011, became a pop culture icon thanks to his classic spoken-word recording “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and he is widely regarded as the father of rap and hip-hop. His posthumously published book, The Last Holiday: A Memoir, traces his life as an artist and activist.