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Friday, February 3, 2017
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Rutu Modan
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Dear Reader...
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| Feeling gloomy? You are not alone, as the statistics for depression clearly show. But it is also true that out of darkness emerges great literature, and often, great memoir. (Think William Styron's "Darkness Visible.") On this week's cover we feature Daphne Merkin's long-awaited new book, "This Close to Happy: A Reckoning With Depression." Andrew Solomon, author of "The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression" and no stranger to the subject, writes an incisive, thoughtful review. | | Let's move on to happier works. Fans of Kevin Wilson's 2011 best seller, "The Family Fang" will be pleased to see that he has a new novel, "Perfect Little World," reviewed by John Irving. Also in fiction: "The Animators," a debut novel about a female animation team, Elliot Ackerman's "Dark at the Crossing," his follow up to "Green on Blue," and Min Jin Lee's enthralling new novel about Korean immigrants to Japan, "Pachinko." | | More memoirs: Patricia Bosworth has written a fun and gossipy look at "The Men in My Life," Stéphane Gerson's "Disaster Falls" is a father's chronicle of losing a son and Meghan Daum's "Egos" column rounds up more recent memoirs of note. | | Please stay in touch and let us know what you think – whether it's about this newsletter, our reviews, our podcast or what you're reading. We read and ponder all of it. I even write back, albeit belatedly. You can email me at books@nytimes.com. | | Pamela Paul | | Editor of The New York Times Book Review |
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Fiction
One Young Man's Life Served Up Four Ways
By TOM PERROTTA
Paul Auster's new novel, "4 3 2 1," imagines diverging paths for its hero's life. "It's actually four books in one, or at least three and a third," Tom Perrotta writes.
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Viet Thanh Nguyen: By the Book
The author, most recently, of "The Refugees" says the Star Wars stories are relevant to our age, "where most people identify with the rebels but so many in fact are complicit with the Empire."
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The Shortlist
Paris
By NANCY KLINE
In fiction and nonfiction about the City of Light, wander its streets and meet some of its most interesting citizens.
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Crime
The Best and Latest in Crime Fiction
By MARILYN STASIO
Marilyn Stasio's crime column investigates a strangling in Scotland, a philandering British psychiatrist, the love life of a Danish cop and an interlude of Long Island noir.
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Egos
Songs of Themselves
By MEGHAN DAUM
New memoirs by an oboist who learns discipline and discord; a troubled virtuoso who finds freedom at the keys; and a guitarist who soothes the sick after his own life was saved by music
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Open Book
New Life for Dracula
By JOHN WILLIAMS
An Icelandic version of "Dracula" turns out to be a radically different version of the story.
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Paperback Row
By JOUMANA KHATIB
Six new paperbacks to check out this week.
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