Jonathan Coe’s The Proof of My Innocence, Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Lower Than the Angels, and Dan Nadel’s Crumb, all feature among the best reviewed books of the week.
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1. The Fact Checker by Austin Kelley
(Atlantic Monthly Press)
4 Rave • 4 Positive • 1 Mixed
Read an essay by Austin Kelley here
“It’s a sprightly hyperlocal caper that is also, intentionally or not, a Notes and Comment on the fragile state of urban intellectual masculinity … One of the novel’s charms is uncovering the vulnerable ornaments—wacky statues, call girls on 11th Avenue, subterranean oyster restaurants—of an increasingly ‘Big Box Manhattan.’”
–Alexander Jacobs (The New York Times)
2. The Proof of My Innocence by Jonathan Coe
(Europa Editions)
4 Rave • 3 Positive • 2 Mixed
“There’s a lot going on, and Coe marshals it all with ingenious ease … Coe’s subject may be inertia and nostalgia, but The Proof of My Innocence is full of energy. It’s a madcap caper, a sideways memoir, a tricksy jeu d’esprit that is also a quiet defence of fiction in a post-truth age, and enormous fun to read.”
–Justine Jordan (The Guardian)
3. The Imagined Life by Andrew Porter
(Knopf)
2. Rave • 2 Positive
Read an excerpt from The Imagined Life here
“Like [Richard] Yates, Porter writes in a style that is lucid and unadorned; in outfitting his prose, he skipped the metaphor shop, though he does make an occasional segue into lyricism to capture moments of repose amid the discord. He is less caustic than Yates, and more forgiving; generosity, rather than contempt, is the animating impulse.”
–Rand Richard Cooper (The New York Times Book Review)
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1. Lower Than the Angels: A History of Sex and Christianity by Diarmaid MacCulloch
(Viking)
6 Rave • 7 Positive
“A superb history of Christianity’s 2,000-year relationship with our animal instincts … Masterly … MacCulloch deals candidly with the clumsy and often cruel way in which churches in the post-second world war period dragged their feet on contraception, gay and lesbian rights and the ordination of women.”
–Kathryn Hughes (The Guardian)
2. Crumb: A Cartoonist’s Life by Dan Nadel
(Scribner)
4 Rave • 3 Positive
Read an excerpt from Crumb here
“Nadel capably lays it all out for us to see, creating a nuanced picture of an influential figure, whose work shaped the landscape of comics to come. Incorporating interviews with Crumb, his family, and the artists who work with or were inspired by him, this first major biography of the iconic cartoonist is unsparing in its detail, acutely aware of social and historical context, and unapologetically in awe of Crumb’s artistic talent. A revealing portrait of an artist, yes, but also of an art form.”
–Sarah Hunter (Booklist)
3. What’s Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis by Malcolm Harris
(Little Brown and Company)
1 Rave • 3 Positive
“[A] provocative and galvanizing treatise … Written in a lively and elegant style, this will convince readers that a better world, or at least the continued existence of this one, really is possible.”
