By Kiley Reid
Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Popkey, Hass, Reid, Palahniuk, and More
Here's a quick look at some notable books—new titles from the likes of Miranda Popkey, Robert Hass, Kiley Reid, Chuck Palahniuk, and more—that are publishing this week.
Topics of Conversation by Miranda Popkey
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Topics of Conversation: "The women in Popkey's astute debut bristle with wanting. Readers meet the unnamed narrator in Italy, 'twenty-one and daffy with sensation,' where she is working as a nanny for a well-off friend's younger brothers while her friend leaves her behind in favor of Greek tourists she's met on the beach. In her third week, she has a late-night conversation with her friend's mother, Artemisia, an Argentinean psychoanalyst, about their paralleled romantic histories with much older men, both their former professors. These conversations about power, responsibility, and desire, often as they manifest in relationships with men, provide the backbone for the subsequent sections of the novel, which follow the narrator through breakups with friends, with lovers, and motherhood. As the years progress, the narrator's hyperawareness and cheeky playfulness when it comes to her narrative as something she owns, grows as well. At a new moms meetup in Fresno 14 years after that night in Italy, the narrator asks the rest of the moms to share 'how we got here.' The story she herself shares is an echo of the one she told Artemisia, but better, the details burnished and editorialized. Popkey's prose is overly controlled, but this is nonetheless a searing and cleverly constructed novel and a fine indication of what's to come from this promising author."
Summer Snow by Robert Hass
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Summer Snow: "In this ruminative, endlessly clever book, Pulitzer Prize–winner Hass (The Apple Trees at Olema) turns his eye toward nature, love, and even drone strikes, as, when chronicling a visit to a Las Vegas Air Force base for a protest, he juxtaposes the specter of commerce at a nearby casino with headlines detailing drone-related deaths in the Middle East. Though death may be the prevailing theme, these poems are far from dirges, as images of his Northern California environs shimmer with life: 'you can almost hear the earth sigh/ As it sucks up the rain.' Hass experiments with form, vacillating between long and short lines, stanzas and long unbroken blocks of verse. His language is lofty but accessible, as in 'The Archaeology of Plenty,' a loose, associative riff about finding meaning in a callous and capricious world, in which the poet argues for poetry as a cure for existential dread: 'reach into your heavy waking,/ The metaphysical nausea that being in your life,/ With its bearing and its strife, its stiffs,/ Its stuff, seems to have produced in you,/ Reduced you to, and make something with a pleasing,/ Or teasing, ring to it.' Hass is a rarity, a poet's poet and a reader's poet who, with this newest endeavor, bestows a precious gift to his audience."
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Such a Fun Age: "In her debut, Reid crafts a nuanced portrait of a young black woman struggling to define herself apart from the white people in her life who are all too ready to speak and act on her behalf. Emira Tucker knows that the one thing she's unequivocally good at is taking care of children, specifically the two young daughters, Briar and Catherine, of her part-time employer, Alix Chamberlain. However, about to turn 26 and lose her parents' health insurance, and while watching her friends snatch up serious boyfriends and enviable promotions, Temple grad Emira starts to feel ashamed about 'still' babysitting. This humiliation is stoked after she's harassed by security personnel at an upscale Philadelphia grocery store where she'd taken three-year-old Briar. Emira later develops a romantic relationship with Kelley, the young white man who captured cellphone video of the altercation, only to discover that Kelley and Alix have a shared and uncomfortable past, one that traps Emira in the middle despite assertions that everyone has her best interests at heart. Reid excels at depicting subtle variations and manifestations of self-doubt, and astutely illustrates how, when coupled with unrecognized white privilege, this emotional and professional insecurity can result in unintended—as well as willfully unseen—consequences. This is an impressive, memorable first outing."
Qualityland by Marc-Uwe Kling (translated by Jamie Searle Romanelli)
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Qualityland: "The latest from Kling (The Kangaroo Chronicles), already in production at HBO, is a hilarious romp through an absurd hypercapitalist dystopia. After the third 'crisis of the century' in a decade, a country is renamed QualityLand. There, each person is named after their parents' professions, has a social media feed specially created by a corporation, and is assigned a level from 1 to 100, which dictates what partner someone can match with, what job someone can have, and so on. Peter Jobless is a low-level metal recycling scrapper who, one day, receives a delivery from TheShop that he didn't order—not unusual in itself, as TheShop anticipates all desires (its motto is 'We know what you want')—but more importantly, that he doesn't want. Aided by the defective robots living under his shop that he saved from the scrapper, Peter embarks on a journey to return his unwanted delivery. Peter's quest unfolds against the backdrop of a presidential election, where voters can choose between a maximally intelligent, socialist-minded robot programmed for objectivity, and a celebrity right-wing chef, prone to contradicting himself in the same sentence. No need to guess who's leading the polls. Sharp and biting, the most implausible aspect of Kling's novel is the relative note of optimism that ends it. This is spot-on satire."
Consider This by Chuck Palahniuk
Here's what Publishers Weekly had to say about Consider This: "Palahniuk (Adjustment Day) delivers a fine book on writing, full of advice and anecdotes garnered from his career as a novelist, that will help both those aspiring to write bestsellers and those hoping to write from the heart. His practical tips range from the importance of surprising one's readers to the need to torment one's characters. He concludes the book's nuts-and-bolts component with a troubleshooting chart (he asks those whose beginnings don't hook readers, 'Do you begin with a thesis sentence that summarizes, or do you begin by raising a compelling question or possibility?'). Palahniuk also writes about his own life, in recurrent 'Postcards from the Tour' sections on the joys and trials of being a famous author (the latter including an incident when a book-signing attendee, angered that Palahniuk refused to sign a Don DeLillo novel, attacked him with a tube full of mice). The book finally rises to a moving emotional crescendo, in a final chapter that shares moments of serendipity from Palahniuk's time on the road. Reminiscent of Stephen King's On Writing in never failing to entertain while imparting wisdom, this is an indispensable resource for writers."
December Preview: The Millions Most Anticipated (This Month)
We wouldn't dream of abandoning our vast semi–annual Most Anticipated Book Previews, but we thought a monthly reminder would be helpful (and give us a chance to note titles we missed the first time around). Here's what we're looking out for this month—if you need more reading inspiration to close out 2019, check out our Second-Half Preview. Let us know what you're looking forward to in the comments!
Want to know about the books you might have missed? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Millions keep churning out great books coverage? Then sign up to be a member today.
The Story of a Goat by Perumal Murugan (translated by N. Kalyan Raman): National Book Award nominee Murugan returns with an allegorical novel from the perspective of Poonachi, a helpless and rare black goat. When taken in by a poor farming family, Poonachi discovers the world is far more precious, uncertain, and dangerous than she could have ever dreamed. Kirkus' starred review calls the novel "an affecting modern fable reflecting Murugan's enchanting capacity to make a simple story resonate on many levels." (Carolyn)
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer: Not all writers can make you feel human emotions about ectoplasmic goo, but not all writers are Jeff VanderMeer. In his latest spin-off from Borne and The Strange Bird, VanderMeer again invites us to the hallucinatory ruins of an unnamed City, beshadowed by the all-powerful Company, and rife with all manners of mysterious characters. Fish, foxes, and madmen, Oh my. (Nick M.)
Migrating to Prison by César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández: García Hernández, a University of Denver law professor and immigration lawyer, offers a powerful critique of immigration dentention. In exploring the intersection of the immigration system and criminal justice, historian Aviva Chomsky says: "García Hernández brings a sharp legal eye to showing how our immigration system has become so twisted that we take for granted the outrageous." (Carolyn)
Fish Soup by Margarita García Robayo (translated by Charlotte Coombe): García Robayo's first English translation is comprised of two novellas—Waiting for a Hurricane and Sexual Education—and Worse Things, her Casa de las Américas Prize award-winning short story collection. Publishers Weekly's starred review calls the collection a "gorgeous, blackly humorous" glimpse into the lives of Colombians home and abroad. (Carolyn)
Africaville by Jeffrey Colvin: In his long-awaited debut, Colvin's triptych debut follows three generations of the Sebolt family from the 1930s through the 1980s. In a small Novia Scotia town settled by their freed ancestors, the Sebolts must contend with family history, racial discrimination, identity and the idea of home. Publishers Weekly called the debut "a penetrating, fresh look at the indomitable spirit of black pioneers and their descendants." (Carolyn)
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid: Reid's debut novel follows the complicated relationship between Emira, a 25-year-old black babysitter, and Alix, her white employer. When Emira is accused of stealing the boy she nannies by a grocery store security guard, their lives are thrown into turmoil stoked by secrets, racism, and obsession. Kirkus' starred review calls the novel "charming, challenging, and so interesting you can hardly put it down." (Carolyn)
The Heart is a Full-Wild Beast by John L'Heureux: Compiled in the twilight of his life, the late writer's posthumous collection features both new and previously published stories exploring tragedy, joy, doubt, and faith. Kirkus' starred review calls the stories "moral tales full of love and irony written by a master." (Carolyn)