archive

October 24, 2012 Tom Wolfe's new novel is a sprawling portrait of Miami and its many ethnic groups, centering around a Cuban-American police officer and an immigration conflict. NPR editor Luis Clemens says the book nails the physical descriptions of Miami, but falls down badly in the portrayal of actual humans.

Summary

October 18, 2012 In Master of the Mountain, historian Henry Wiencek uses an explosive interpretation of evidence to show how, by the 1780s, Founding Father and slave owner Thomas Jefferson had gone from championing equality to rationalizing an abomination.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

October 18, 2012 Film critic and historian David Thomson's new collection of essays covers a wide array of films, from Casablanca all the way to Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel. Thomson digs through cinematic history to unearth truths about how what we watch reflects who we are.

Summary

October 17, 2012 Argentine author César Aira's newest novel, The Miracle Cures of Dr. Aira, is the story of a doctor's quest for miracle cures for imagined illnesses — and to defeat his wicked archnemesis, the sinister Dr. Actyn. Reviewer Pablo Medina says it's worth a read.

Transcript

On All Things ConsideredPlaylist

October 17, 2012 Husband and wife cartoonists Robert and Aline Crumb have worked jointly on autobiographical comics for nearly four decades. The panels of their new graphic novel overflow with voluminous speech bubbles filled with the Crumbs' honest observations about anything and everything.

Summary

October 11, 2012 In A.M. Homes' suburbia, yawning sinkholes will suddenly open up in front lawns, swallowing cliched plotlines and opening portals to other dimensions. In her latest novel, she serves up an old-fashioned American story that's more Norman Bates than Norman Rockwell.

Transcript

On Fresh Air from WHYYPlaylist

October 11, 2012 Michael Klarman, a Harvard law professor and former clerk for Ruth Bader Ginsburg, traces the judicial history of gay marriage in America from WWII to the present. According to Klarman, the "handwriting on the wall" indicates the imminent legalization of same-sex marriage.

Summary

October 9, 2012 Graphic novelist Chris Ware's latest, Building Stories, is a collection in many formats, following the (mostly) sad and lonely lives of the inhabitants of a Chicago brownstone. But reviewer Glen Weldon says the work is colorful, intricate and ultimately beautiful.

Summary

October 3, 2012 The debut novel of Robin Sloan, a former Twitter and Current TV employee, tells the thoughtful, magical story of Clay, a worker in a mysterious literary emporium. Aside from the occasional groaner insight, the buoyant narrative demonstrates Sloan's gift of charismatic prose.

Summary

October 2, 2012 Dennis Lehane's latest novel moves from the modern Boston of books like Mystic River to Prohibition-era Florida. Reviewer Jennifer Reese says the story is weighed down by too much lovingly researched period detail, and not enough attention to character development.

Summary