This is a novel that pulls no punches. It’s just a gut-wrenching, sad-as-hell story about two sisters, young love, and the terrible consequences when that love curdles into murder.
Told from four different female points of view, this is also a continuing display of Stewart’s uncanny, chameleonic ability to meld into his characters and let us see how, through their blindered eyes, everyone is doing what they think is right, even if it’s so obviously wrong. The last page of this book is almost too tragic to bear.
For almost 25 hours, l was riveted by David Pittu narrating the story of the Hildebrandts: the pastor father, the oddball mother, the forthright son, the uber-popular daughter, and perhaps the most interesting character, the too-sensitive, and too-smart Perry.
If you have a choice to read or listen to this book, go for the audio. Pittu’s performance matches what is demanded by this novel, which is what you’d expect from Franzen: hilarious and horrifying, densely written and yet easily digestible. The nexus of the novel snuck up on me, and once I was inside, I couldn’t wait to see where and how all those interesting paths would lead.
Jonathan Franzen’s gift for wedding depth and vividness of character with breadth of social vision has never been more dazzlingly evident than in Crossroads.
It’s December 23, 1971, and heavy weather is forecast for Chicago. Russ Hildebrandt, the associate pastor of a liberal suburban church, is on the brink of breaking free of a marriage he finds joyless—unless his wife, Marion, who has her own secret life, beats him to it. Their eldest child, Clem, is coming home from college on fire with moral absolutism, having taken an action that will shatter his father. Clem’s sister, Becky, long the social…
This is Don’s second short story collection, and the thing I’ve always adored about him is his attention to detail.
Reading him, you instantly know he does his research, especially when it comes to his characters’ jobs. The second story here is “Commis,” and it’s about a cook. After I came to the last page, I felt like I could work at a restaurant. This level of specificity is all over The Partition, as it was in his first collection Yellow, published more than two decades ago.
This is a less hopeful, more mature work than his debut, and it’s all the richer for it.
A thrilling new story collection from acclaimed writer Don Lee exploring Asian American identity, spanning decades and continents
"Don Lee is one of those masterful storytellers who is both classic and modern, who can transport you into any setting, with any character." —The TODAY Show, recommended by author Weike Wang
"The organizing conceit of all [Lee’s] fiction has remained consistent: Asian Americans are not monoliths . . . Lee narrates from a collective perspective, his stories offering a kaleidoscopic vision of all the ways it feels to be yellow." —New York Times Book Review
After solving her first case, private eye Siobhan O’Brien is hired by Phillip Ahn, an octogenarian billionaire with his own personal island in the Pacific Northwest. Ahn, a genius in artificial intelligence, swears that Duke, his youngest child and only son, is an impostor. Is Ahn crazy, or is Duke really someone else? As Siobhan attempts to arrive at the truth, her biggest challenge will be dealing with Ahn’s family, who all live under the same gilded roof: his current wife, his two ex-wives, and their awful, privileged children.
What is the real reason that Siobhan was brought to this isolated estate? If she can keep her head – literally and figuratively – she’ll learn that family secrets have some very Deep Roots.
