Six new books for fall readers.
The Keep
by Jennifer Egan
The Keep
, Jennifer Egan's latest novel, takes place somewhere in indeterminate Europe, where the borders between countries are blurred, as are lines between reality and the imagined world. Years after a traumatic childhood incident, Danny is invited by his cousin Howard to restore a decrepit castle somewhere near the
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convergence of the Czech Republic, Austria and Germany. Howard, an awkward and isolated child, has become an overnight millionaire success, while Danny has morphed from a suburban soccer star to an insecure New York scenester.
The Keep
is a story of our fears, both imagined and real, and the impressions left on a place after centuries of blood and warfare, tragedy, birth and death. It forces us to question the rationale behind the way we live our lives, particularly where technology and communication are concerned, while being a brusque and absorbing read. Egan employs the somewhat successful technique of a double narrative, which comes together only at the close of the book-though many readers will have guessed its significance long before. The story aims to be haunting and indeed, many of Egan's descriptions are vivid enough to recall powerful images and sensations that are lasting.
The Ruins
by Scott Smith
Suspense novelist Smith last brought us
A Simple Plan
, the story of a stolen-money scheme gone awry. In
The Ruins
, we are transported to Mexico, specifically vacation central Cancun. Stacy, Eric, Amy and Jeff are recent college grads who meet Mathaias and Pablo, a vacationing German and Greek, respectively. When
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Mathaias' brother goes missing, the group travels to an archaeological dig of an abandoned mine shaft near a Mayan village in the jungle east of Cancun. Upon arrival, they encounter hostile villagers and make increasingly sinister discoveries about the ruins. Smith's book is fast-paced enough to make it good at its objective: sheer suspense. However, Smith's gifts don't lie in his prose-the descriptions are laborious, the dialogue is laughable and many of the events that transpire make you want to groan out loud, even in the middle of a crowded coffee shop. Smith spends too much time trying to scare us, and not enough trying to impress us with his command of language or indeed, a plotline for a believable thriller.
The Ruins
is emotional in the basic sense-you feel nervous as you read it. But it translates almost too well to screenplay; many of Smith's scenes emphasize the visual aspects, (and Ben Stiller's already purchased the film rights) meaning this book could go the way of
A Simple Plan
and soon be showing at a theater near you.
Babylon and Other Stories
by Alix Ohlin
Alix Ohlin's sophomore effort (following debut novel
The Missing Person
, which is set in Albuquerque) is nothing if not broad in scope.
Babylon
's stories take place everywhere from Montreal to rural New Mexico, and the title story in Long Island. Ohlin's characters are
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distinct in their alienation and loneliness, and she highlights the ways in which they are apart: In "Simple Exercises for the Beginning Student," Ohlin opens with: "He did not have friends. He was silent much of the time. He picked his nose, and when told to stop he would remove his finger slowly and stare at the snot, seemingly hypnotized, then put his hand in his pocket without wiping it." Ohlin is unflinching in her descriptions, and this brings us closer to the humanity of her characters. Each of the stories is character-driven, by their strengths as well as their vulnerabilities. Many of the vignettes are about people who have been left-and what they make of themselves and their lives in the aftermath. The characters in
Babylon
mingle tragedy with the mundane realities of everyday life, and this is what makes it so compulsively readable and relatable. In "Ghostwriting," Karin, a middle-aged woman, writes: "
An ex-wife, a part-time copy editor, a mother in an empty nest. A new stage in my life is about to begin.
After staring at these lines for a few minutes, she added,
If I write any more of this crap I will kill myself
. Then she took the dog for a walk." Ohlin is as matter-of-fact as she is subtle: It is the unique combination of the two in her work that makes the settings in her stories feel like places we've been, and her characters like people we've met before.
The Coast of Akron
by Adrienne Miller
Adrienne Miller's novel is a little like going to a party you've been looking forward to for weeks and weeks; one imagines the food, the booze, the guests and costumes with such fervor and anticipated rapture, that once you finally arrive, the gala can't help but be a little bit of a letdown.
The Coast of Akron
(that's Akron, Ohio, folks-the coast bit is part of the joke) is the story of the Haven family: Lowell,
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the self-aggrandizing, egomaniac painter; his ex-wife, Jenny (they met in swinging '70s London) who also paints; their daughter Merit, who sells ad space for a magazine called Ohio Is; and Fergus, Jenny's childhood best friend and Lowell's current put-upon fabulously wealthy lover. Fergus and Lowell live in a 65-room 1970s-built Tudor mansion. The family is beyond dysfunctional, and Lowell is ordering Fergus to gather everyone together for a costume party for his
muse du jour
, a blonde singer called Drisana-Nari. Miller is the fiction editor at Esquire, but one gets the sense that she doesn't edit herself much in
Akron
. Most of the time, this is a good thing; like a big swig of champagne that bubbles down your throat and goes straight to your head, Miller's sentences and language plays are giddy and rambling. But by the end of the novel, we're so sick of Fergus' wheezing, Merit's timidity and everyone's anecdotal tangents, that, like a champagne bottle uncorked for too long, it falls a little flat.
The Sinner's Guide to the Evangelical Right
by Robert Lanham
The man who brought us
The Hipster Handbook
(a not-quite-ironic look at the clothing, lifestyle and entertainment choices of today's über-cool urban dweller) is back with a new cultural phenomenon guide.
The Sinner's Guide
is a user-friendly (there are lots of pictures and special diagrams) look at the increasingly powerful and alarmingly large movement that is the Evangelical Right in 21st century America. With a
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clear left-wing agenda, Lanham presents us with the tidbit that there are now drive-up McDonald's windows at mega-churches in Arizona, profiles of Evangelicals from Pat Robertson to James Dobson (the Evangelical "pope") and a handy chart of which US Senators received "perfect scores" from the Christian Coalition. In addition, there are quotes peppered throughout from real Evangelicals whom Lanham interviewed: We have Amanda, the lesbian who's against gay marriage; Ronnie James Dio, the Devil rocker; and Pastor Mike, who heads up an anti-porn ministry, among others. While
The Sinner's Guide
is at times too cheeky for its own good (does everyone really need a fire and brimstone rating?) it's actually informative while also being entertaining. It's the sort of book that might absorb you for an evening, or one you can stick on the coffee table and pick up during dinner parties when the conversation lags.
The Rough Guide to Conspiracy Theories
by James McConnachie and Robin Tudge
The moon landing was a fake, Marilyn Monroe was murdered, JFK was offed by the CIA, the Titanic wreck was planned, and Freemasons control the globe, if not the galaxy. So state some of the theories offered in a fascinating book that aims to debunk everything we think we know, or at least make us question some of the information we take for granted. To be clear, the
Guide
isn't a "we're all gonna die tomorrow" free-for-all; it's instead a thoroughly researched and relatively unbiased look at some of the major events of human history-everything
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from the Black Plague to assassinations that shook the world. Divided into handy sections, like "Assassinations," "Corporate Clampdown"
and "Mega-Conspiracies and Master Plans," the book may be read straight through (for the die-hard-lone-gunman conspiracy theorist) or read bit by bit as interest in a specific subject is piqued. The book opens with the warning: "This is a guide not to conspiracies, but to conspiracy theories. It doesn't freshly unveil hidden agendas or dramatically unmask sinister conspirators-though there's endless material here that you won't easily find published elsewhere." Thus, this isn't a book for those of you who stand on street corners heralding the coming of Armageddon-or maybe it is, it just won't help you prove it. The
Guide
offers a look at what those on the fringe think really happened, and may just provoke enough doubt to make readers question their own sacred truths. As an added bonus, the authors are fanatical about listing sources, so there's a plethora of books and Web sites at the end of each section for those who find themselves particularly engaged in a theory or two.
