Books and Literature
Subterms
More stories
- in Elections
Book Review: ‘Long Island Compromise,’ by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE, by Taffy Brodesser-AknerWhat does it mean to come by one’s life honestly? This is the question at the heart of Taffy Brodesser-Akner’s generation-spanning sophomore novel, “Long Island Compromise,” which tells the story of a wealthy, dysfunctional suburban Jewish family.Given the unavoidable success of her debut, “Fleishman Is in Trouble,” I will spare curious readers the suspense and answer a more cynical question: Is this book as good? It’s better. Sprawling yet nimble, this is her Big American Reform Jewish Novel. In an assimilatory turn, it’s less reminiscent of Roth (Philip or Henry) than of Franzen (Jonathan), whom Brodesser-Akner profiled in her role as staff writer for The New York Times Magazine.A fictionalized account of a true story, “Long Island Compromise” begins in 1980, when the prominent businessman Carl Fletcher is ambushed in his driveway, taken to unknown parts and tortured by unknown parties. Bubble burst, the house is suddenly teeming with F.B.I. agents as Carl’s frantic wife, Ruth, finds herself taking her younger son, Bernard, on an elaborate ransom drop, a day that will scar both him and his older brother, Nathan, for life.Not to mention Carl himself, who, upon his release, is advised by his mother to compartmentalize his trauma (“Listen to me, boychick. This happened to your body. This did not happen to you. Don’t let it in”). No dice. Carl spends the next several hundred pages on an ineffective cocktail of antidepressants, alternating between jags of hysteria and vegetation, a glass ornament of a father to Nathan, Bernard and Jenny, who has the questionable luck of being born just after the family tragedy. Ruth, who was so sure she’d escaped the paranoia hurricane of her scrappy childhood, finds herself back in its eye. “It started right now, the real division of her life,” Brodesser-Akner writes: “before the kidnapping and after it.”The novel is loosely divided into three sections, told from the third-person perspectives of the three children, now in their late 30s and early 40s, laying out the cornucopia of ways in which they are screwed up by latent generational trauma, their father’s repression and the affluence that insulates them. “They spent their money like third-generation American children do: quickly, and without thinking too hard about it.”Bernard, or Beamer, has become a handsome, BDSM-loving, shiksa-marrying, drug-addled screenwriter who cannot think of a single plot without a kidnapping at its core and is constantly pretending to take phone calls, sometimes for the sake of avoidance, sometimes for the illusion of importance. (Each character has a conversational tic; I’m partial to the way Ruth mumbles some iteration of “Leonard Bernstein over here” or “Julius Rosenberg over here” whenever she’s displeased with her seditious spawn.) Then there’s Nathan, a neurotic and servile land-use lawyer who has put all his eggs in a friend’s S.E.C.-violating basket and is married to a moral Orthodox woman who just wants to redo the kitchen. Finally, Jenny is a drifting intellectual snob who eschews attachment to friends, men, money or careers until the day she becomes aware of the concept of union organizing.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Elections
A Romance Bookstore Boom
The arrival — and success — of brick-and-mortar romance stores.There’s a boom in romance bookstores. More than 20 of them have sprung up around the United States in the past few years — up from just two in 2020 — and more are on the way.They have quirky names like the Ripped Bodice, Tropes & Trifles, Love’s Sweet Arrow, and Kiss & Tale. They’re sprinkled across the country, from Alaska to Maine. They’re largely owned and operated by women, and have become vibrant community hubs for romance fans.As a reporter who covers publishing, I’ve been following the soaring sales for romance, which is by far the top-selling fiction genre. But the arrival of brick-and-mortar romance stores struck me as something new, and surprising.For a story in The Times, I visited romance stores in South Florida and Brooklyn, and talked to booksellers, publishers and fans of the genre, to find out why romance bookstores are suddenly thriving.How readers fell for romanceRomance writers and their fans point out that, about a decade ago, there wasn’t much enthusiasm for the genre in independent bookstores. Even though romance has long been a major moneymaker for publishers, the literary world tended to look down on it as frothy and unserious, or worse, as smut.Rebecca Zanetti told me that after she started publishing paranormal romance in 2011, it was hard for her to book a signing at a store, even though her novels were best sellers.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Elections
Mythical Sword’s Disappearance Brings Mystery to French Village
Legend says the Durandal sword had been stuck in a French hillside for nearly 1,300 years. When it went missing in June, an investigation to find France’s Excalibur began.As legend has it, a sword from God given to Roland, an 8th century military leader under Charlemagne, was so powerful that Roland’s last mission was to destroy it.When the blade, called Durandal, proved indestructible, Roland threw it as far as he could, and it sailed over 100 miles before slicing through the side of a rock face in the medieval French village of Rocamadour.That sword, as the story goes, sat wedged in the stone for nearly 1,300 years, and it became a landmark and tourist attraction in Rocamadour, a very small village in southwestern France, about 110 miles east of Bordeaux. So residents and officials there were stunned to discover late last month that the blade had vanished, according to La Dépêche du Midi, a French newspaper.An officer with France’s national police force in Cahors, a town 30 miles southwest of Rocamadour, said that the sword disappeared sometime after nightfall on June 21, and that the authorities opened an investigation after a passerby reported the next morning that it was missing.The officer, who declined to give his name, emphasized that the sword is “a copy,” but acknowledged that it had symbolic significance.He referred further questions to the office of the prosecutor of the republic in Cahors, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Elections
The Authors Call It Fiction, but in These 2 Novels the Facts Don’t Lie
A philandering father; a literary affair.Tim Graham/Getty ImagesDear readers,Back before the memoir boom, when the barbarous neologism “autofiction” was not yet in vogue, a more titillating vocabulary was deployed when works of fiction flirted with personal disclosure. The facts of life were “thinly veiled.” Stories were “semi-autographical,” their gossip value suggested by the French term roman à clef. You could imagine someone, possibly the author, whispering in your ear: “But you know who that’s really supposed to be…”A degree of self-exposure — not quite baring all, but not quite staying fully clothed either — used to be part of the business of the novel. Rewriting personal experience as fiction can be a way of processing trauma, exacting revenge or asserting control over emotional chaos. Some novels work hard at transforming the material, and show the work. Others, like the two below, wear the cloak of artifice lightly, creating an intimacy with the readers that carries a hint of prurience. Are we really supposed to know about this? In the age of perpetual TMI, it’s good to be reminded that decorum can be its own kind of transgression.And who doesn’t love to be let in on somebody’s family secrets — especially if the somebody in question is witty, elegant and ruthlessly honest? Other people’s parents can be wonderful monsters, and the act of depicting them that way combines Oedipal rebellion and filial loyalty. In these books, dutiful children turn the tables on their parents, giving birth to them as terrible, pitiful, unforgettable characters.—A. O.“The Seraglio,” by James MerrillFiction, 1957We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
- in Elections
5 New Books We Recommend This Week
Suggested reading from critics and editors at The New York Times.It’s Independence Day, when Americans traditionally gather to grill meat and blow things up while they celebrate the nation’s founding — but in our recommended books this week, we’re casting an eye on more recent history: Tom McGrath’s “Triumph of the Yuppies” looks back to the “greed is good” era of the 1980s and shows how it marched unimpeded to the present day, while John Ganz’s “When the Clock Broke” finds the roots of today’s culture wars and ascendant right wing in the seemingly quieter politics of the early 1990s. Also up: the biography of an influential book editor, a novel set on a small Welsh island in the 1930s, and a graphic novel that explores themes of independence and self-invention. Happy reading, and Happy Fourth. — Gregory CowlesTRIUMPH OF THE YUPPIES:America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal NationTom McGrathIn this breezy history, McGrath sets out to explain why the United States suddenly fell in love with finance while inequality skyrocketed in the 1980s. He follows a series of colorful figures in their pursuit of crass materialism, including the junk bond king Michael Milken and the former yippie activist Jerry Rubin.“Graduating from an elite college and moving to the city to try to get rich has become so common that we barely notice it. The ultimate triumph of the yuppies is that we don’t even call them yuppies anymore.”From Jacob Goldstein’s reviewGrand Central | $32WHEN THE CLOCK BROKE:Con Men, Conspiracists, and How America Cracked Up in the Early 1990sJohn GanzThe 1990s marked the end of the Cold War and the beginning of Clintonian “triangulation,” giving the impression of a bland consensus coalescing around a political middle. But as Ganz shows, the early part of the decade was also a time of social unrest and roiling resentments. His vibrant narrative account captures an emerging “politics of despair” that would eventually benefit the far right.“Captures the sweep of the early ’90s in all its weirdness and vainglory…. Ganz recounts all of this with a formidable command of the history. But he also has the skills of a gifted storyteller — one with excellent comedic timing, too — slipping in the most absurd and telling details.”From Jennifer Szalai’s reviewFarrar, Straus & Giroux | $30WHALE FALLElizabeth O’ConnorBrief but complete, blunt but exquisite, Connor’s debut is set in the fall of 1938 on an unnamed Welsh island with a population of 47, including the bright and restless 18-year-old Manod, her mysterious younger sister and her lobster fisherman father. Unsettling disruptions to the landscape include a whale corpse washed up on the beach and English ethnographers who enlist Manod’s help but woefully distort island life in their work.“An example of precisely observed writing that makes a character’s specific existence glimmer with verisimilitude. … Understanding is hard work, O’Connor suggests, especially when we must release our preconceptions.”From Maggie Shipstead’s reviewPantheon | $27THE EDITOR:How Publishing Legend Judith Jones Shaped Culture in AmericaSara B. FranklinThis essential if adulatory biography argues that Jones has been given short shrift, credited mostly as the culinary editor who championed Julia Child, but who did much more to burnish Knopf’s exalted reputation in the book business.“Jones’s contribution to the history of regular old literature has often been minimized or outright erased. … She burnished and sustained Knopf’s reputation as the most prestigious publishing house in the country while also earning it piles of money.”From Alexandra Jacobs’s reviewAtria | $29.99VERA BUSHWACKSig BurwashIn this graphic novel debut, Burwash transports the reader to Nova Scotia by exploring the lives of a nonbinary protagonist named Drew and their alter-ego, Vera Bushwack (a chainsaw-wielding, chaps-wearing nonbinary hero of sorts), as they work to clear land in order to build a cabin in the woods, exploring gender, independence and several other big themes along the way.“Burwash gives the book’s art a lovely personality. It is surprisingly plastic; sometimes their renderings of Drew and her environs are simple contours, sometimes the images are drawn from such a height that they’re almost maps.”From Sam Thielman’s graphic novels columnDrawn & Quarterly | $29.95 More
- in Elections
Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment Files Chapter 11
The parent company of Redbox, which rents movies through kiosks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday.Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment, the parent company of the movie rental company Redbox, which is known for its distinctive red kiosks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday.In the filing, Chicken Soup listed debts of about $970 million, and total assets of about $414 million. It owes millions to entertainment and media companies, including Universal Studios, Sony Pictures and BBC Studios Americas, as well as some retailers, such as Walgreens and Walmart, according to court filings.Chicken Soup for the Soul was founded in 1993 by two motivational speakers, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen. The company’s inspirational book series, with titles like “From Lemons to Lemonade” and “Angels Among Us,” contains collections of stories for specific audiences, for example new mothers or cat lovers.Its original book, published more than 30 years ago, dispensed life advice and stories of overcoming obstacles with the hope that it would heal readers’ souls just as “chicken soup has a healing effect on the body of the ill.”The company, which has published more than 300 titles, has sold more than 500 million copies worldwide.Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment is separate from its book-publishing arm, which is unaffected by the bankruptcy filing. It was not immediately clear whether the Chapter 11 filing would affect the Redbox operation. The company declined to comment on Sunday.In 2022, Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment acquired Redbox, a business founded in 2002 and recognized for its bright red DVD rental kiosks outside supermarkets and pharmacies. Redbox has about 27,000 kiosks across the United States.William J. Rouhana Jr. became the company’s chief executive in 2008 and ran the company with his wife, Amy Newmark, the publisher and editor in chief of the book division.Mr. Rouhana tried to expand the company into different products, including a line of soups, which ultimately failed. He founded the entertainment division of Chicken Soup for the Soul in 2016.The company requested relief to pay its employees, which it has been unable to do “for the two-week period ending on June 14, 2024.” Chicken Soup for the Soul Entertainment has about 1,000 full- and part-time workers.The company reported $636 million in net income loss in 2023, compared with $111 million in 2022, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. At the time that Chicken Soup for the Soul acquired Redbox, the movie rental company had more than $300 million in debt. More
- in Elections
2 Books to Make You Love Karaoke, or at Least Respect It
In a memoir and a novel, the characters deal with grief by singing in front of strangers.Jackie Molloy for The New York TimesDear readers,Let’s get one thing out of the way: I have zero interest in making you do karaoke. Like most enthusiasts (or so I assume), I don’t want to force anyone into sacramental public humiliation, nor do I want to watch from the stage while you silently ponder what kind of repressed loser is driven to sing White Town to a room full of drunk people who wandered in from an advertising convention at the Javits Center. On a Monday night.I don’t know when my entire personality became Someone Who Does Karaoke, and by extension Someone Oddly Defensive. But as exhibitionism goes, it’s pretty harmless — and as therapy goes, pretty cheap. More than this, something magical can happen when a roomful of strangers comes together to (voluntarily) do something that has nothing to do with their real life, for no reason other than the joy of singing.—Sadie“Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love & Karaoke,” by Rob SheffieldNonfiction, 2013Candice Watson via PangoBooks“To enter into that karaoke mind-set, you have to leave behind all your notions of good or bad, right or wrong, in tune or out of tune,” Sheffield writes in this, the “Walden” of karaoke memoirs. “The kara in the word karaoke is the same as the one in karate, which means ‘empty hand.’ They’re both ‘empty’ arts because you have no weapons and no musical instruments to hide behind — only your courage, your heart, and your will to inflict pain.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More
