SERIOUS MEN by Manu Joseph

Manu Joseph’s debut book is seriously good – a wickedly funny, surprisingly warm and stunningly stylish satire that strikes its target over and over again, taking the reader along for a rollicking ride.

The book SERIOUS MEN introduces us to two equally willful men with runaway egos: Arvind Acharya, a bigger-than-life astrophysicist at the prestigious Institute of Theory and Research, a would-be Nobel candidate who is rumored to have been banned from the Vatican for whispering something untoward in the pope’s ear. The other is his personal assistant, Ayyan Mani, a Dalit (or “untouchable”) who is “smarter than the average bear” (in this case, the average Dalit) with an IQ of 148.

January 2, 2011 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: Class - Race - Gender, Debut Novel, Humorous, India-Pakistan, Satire, World Lit, y Award Winning Author

GREAT HOUSE by Nicole Krauss

An imposing wooden desk with nineteen drawers floats through this book like a buoy, and sometimes with shackles, loosely uniting four disparate but interconnected narrative threads. The desk is largely a monument to Jewish survival, loss, and recovery, and mirrors the dissolution, pain, and dire hope of each character. Additionally, it is a covetous object, given a poignant and existential significance by the chorus of voices that are bound to it by their memories.

October 6, 2010 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: , ,  · Posted in: Contemporary, Facing History, Literary, National Book Award Winner, Theme driven, Unique Narrative

PERFECT LIFE by Jessica Shattuck

Jessica Shattuck’s PERFECT LIFE takes a satirical look at a group of former college chums in their mid-thirties who are, in some ways, still floundering emotionally.

August 3, 2009 · Judi Clark · No Comments
Tags: ,  · Posted in: Contemporary, NE & New York, Satire