Book Reviews | Chapter 16

Don't Chase It, And It Will Come Back

In Nightwoods, Charles Frazier has written a tender love story, a taut thriller, and a worthy successor to Cold Mountain

By Ed Tarkington | September 23, 2011

September 26, 2011 Charles Frazier catapulted to fame in the late nineties thanks to the unlikely and extraordinary success of Cold Mountain. All of his work since has been characterized by the same patient plot development and gorgeously meticulous period detail. At the center of each of his novels are pairs of lovers separated by time and circumstance, each longing for the other, convinced that the love between them can somehow heal a soul damaged by the random cruelty of an unmerciful world. His new book, Nightwoods, is no exception. Frazier will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville. All events are free and open to the public.

The Lady Vanishes

Stewart O’Nan paints a detailed, recognizable portrait of old age

By Paul V. Griffith | September 16, 2011

September 16, 2011 Emily Maxwell is nearing the end of life. Her beloved husband Henry has preceded her in death; her children have moved away and begun families of their own. In her old Pittsburgh neighborhood, Emily is the last of a faded generation, her remaining friends as decrepit as herself. This may not sound like the premise for a dramatic and engaging novel, but read on. With Emily, Alone, the sequel to his bestselling Wish You Were Here, Stewart O’Nan proves to be a master of wringing the profound out of the everyday. In her taken-for-granted-ness, Emily emerges as a powerful protagonist whose inner life is remarkably—and perhaps typically—intriguing. O’Nan will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

Runaway

In Diana Abu-Jaber’s new novel, a teen leaves home for no reason—and upends her family’s future

By Sarah Norris | September 13, 2011

September 13, 2011 Birds of Paradise by Diana Abu-Jaber is structured like literary Chinese handcuffs: no character in this book can be free without first moving closer to the others, and no reader can finish it without looping backwards, too, through her own history. Abu-Jaber will discuss and sign copies of Birds of Paradise at the Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on September 21 at 6 p.m.

Spinning Ariadne

Tracy Barrett’s retelling of the Theseus myth subverts ancient tradition—and will delight young readers

By Fernanda Moore | September 12, 2011

September 12, 2011 Tracy Barrett has a way with classical myth. Her last young-adult novel, the brilliant King of Ithaka, is an astonishingly original and surefooted reworking of Homer’s Odyssey, in which she somehow discovered new paths on what must be the Western canon’s most heavily trodden ground. Her newest book, Dark of the Moon, takes another famous Greek legend—the story of Theseus and the Minotaur—and makes it fresh and fascinating, even as it honors the foundations of the original tale.

A Happy Family, Supersized

Acclaimed journalist Melissa Fay Greene delivers a witty account of her exceptional family

By Maria Browning | September 9, 2011

September 9, 2011 For acclaimed journalist Melissa Fay Greene and her husband, the prospect of being home alone after their four children grew up was not a happy one. No Biking in the House Without a Helmet is Greene’s account of how her family adopted five more children—a son from Bulgaria, and three sons and a daughter from Ethiopia—and found all their lives “enlivened and enriched” in the process. Melissa Fay Greene will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

Anything for Art

Kevin Wilson’s debut novel tells the tale of a wildly funny dysfunctional family

By Maria Browning | September 1, 2011

September 1, 2011 In his funny, whimsical debut novel, The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson creates a familiar family drama with an outrageous twist. Kevin Wilson will appear at the 2011 Southern Festival of Books, held October 14-16 in Nashville.

The Rise and Fall of Treason in English History

By Allen Boyer and Mark Nicholls
Routledge
340 pages
$180

The book “explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book.”

~the publisher