Barbara Kingsolver’s Partita, Sarah Perry’s Death of an Ordinary Man, T. Geronimo Johnson’s The Occidental Book of the Dead, and Nathaniel Philbrick’s The Rush all feature among the best reviewed books of the week. Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. 1.
Partita by Barbara Kingsolver (Harper) 12 Rave • 2 Positive • 1 Mixed • 1 Pan Read an interview with Barbara Kingsolver here “A hallmark of the decorated novelist’s work is her flair for pithy sentences that illuminate the human experience, giving voice to our private longings and secret vulnerabilities … Kingsolver brings the full weight of her experience and her other work to the page in this entirely new story. It hits the same chords, but it is full of discovery and insight. She’s different, and we’re different too.” –Heather Scott Partington (The Los Angeles Times) 2.
The Occidental Book of the Dead by T. Geronimo Johnson (William Morrow and Company) “The book is doing a lot, but for good reason … A book for readers seeking wild, ambitious literature … Even with occasional misfires, The Occidental Book of the Dead just might be something the literary world needs to see more of: It’s ambitious, creative and, most important of all, unapologetic … It will not be a novel for everyone. And that’s a large part of why it succeeds.” –Jason Mott (The New York Times Book Review) 3.
Fair Ones by Lydia Millet (W. Norton and Company) 3 Rave • 3 Positive Read an interview with Lydia Millet here “Her prose is sharp and quick, while her eccentric, deeply human characters balance grim humor with keen emotional insight. Themes of loneliness, survivors’ guilt, and chosen family run throughout, enriched by Millet’s understanding of the tiny loyalties, irritations, and intimacies that sustain long friendships.
Particularly affecting is Millet’s portrayal of grief as an ongoing reshaping of identity rather than a single transformative event.” 4. Every Story Is A Love Story by Imbolo Mbue (Random House) “Beginning slowly and building in intensity, Cameroon-born Mbue’s introspective novel examines a love that springs from tragedy. Readers who enjoyed Abraham Verghese’s The Covenant of Water will be drawn to this story.” 5.
The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Scribner) 3 Rave Read an essay by Nafissa Thompson-Spires here “Thompson-Spires’s beguiling story, full of competing versions of the truth, is enriched by commentary on capitalistic excess and male chauvinism, and by its exploration of the limits of individualistic social theories put forth by such Black leaders as Marcus Garvey and Booker T. Readers will be floored.” 1. Death of an Ordinary Man by Sarah Perry (Mariner) “As Kafka once wrote, ‘a book should serve as an ax for the frozen sea within us.’ This book, and this author, are that ax … Much is laid before us, with great precision: finely tuned metaphors, graceful repetitions.
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