American Exceptional
/Adam Begley's long and exhaustive biography of iconic 20th century author John Updike reads like one long string of new books and new love affairs - but does it capture the man?
Read MoreThe Great Blacksby
/If Richard Pryor had spent time in the ghettos of L.A. County and had any interest in writing a novel, he might have come up with a book like Paul Beatty's The Sellout: a beautifully offensive meditation on riches and race.
Read MoreShort Tales on a Tight Rein
/The contemporary American short story is a kind of stunt double for the novel. Monica McFawn’s Bright Shards of Someplace Else is one such collection, each of its eleven stories posturing like a dare accepted.
Read MoreMy Life as a Mannequin
/A young man on a tentative law school track encounters the fiction of Philip Roth, and suddenly, his lostness acquires a commanding sense of purpose. An essay by Barrett Hathcock.
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