sábado, 26 de febrero de 2011

Sunday's Book Review


On the Cover of Sunday's Book Review

A security checkpoint at the edge of Marja, Afghanistan, May 2010.

'The Wrong War'

By BING WEST
Reviewed by DEXTER FILKINS
This crushing critique of the war in Afghanistan goes a long way toward explaining why America's embrace of counterinsurgency strategy has not delivered its promised success.

Also in the Book Review

Author Andre Dubus III

'Townie: A Memoir'

By ANDRE DUBUS III
Reviewed by DARCEY STEINKE
Andre Dubus III recalls his upbringing in a Massachusetts mill town, and the tormentors he and his siblings had to fight through.
Bruce Chatwin

'Under the Sun: The Letters of Bruce Chatwin'

Reviewed by THOMAS MALLON
The letters of the travel writer Bruce Chatwin provide sharp renderings of misadventure and mores.
Alison Espach

'The Adults'

By ALISON ESPACH
Reviewed by ALEX KUCZYNSKI
As this first novel's 14-year-old narrator looks on, her affluent suburban family disintegrates.
Ethel Waters, circa 1970.

'Heat Wave: The Life and Career of Ethel Waters'

By DONALD BOGLE
Reviewed by DAVID HAJDU
A historian of African-American entertainment seeks to rehabilitate the image of the pioneering actress and singer Ethel Waters.

'The Oracle of Stamboul'

By MICHAEL DAVID LUKAS
Reviewed by JAMES HYNES
A young girl is swept up by the intrigue of the sultan's court in this novel of the late Ottoman Empire.
Teju Cole

'Open City'

By TEJU COLE
Reviewed by MIGUEL SYJUCO
The peripatetic hero of Teju Cole's indelible novel reflects on his adopted New York, the Africa of his youth, today's America and a Europe wary of its future.

'The Night Season'

By CHELSEA CAIN
Reviewed by ZOE SLUTZKY
The serial killer Gretchen Lowell is locked up, but a new threat confounds Detective Archie Sheridan in Chelsea Cain's new thriller.

'The Secret Soldier'

By ALEX BERENSON
Reviewed by TODD PRUZAN
With Saudi Arabia reeling after a series of terrorist attacks, Alex Berenson's reluctant hero is the kingdom's only hope.

'Portraits of a Marriage'

By SANDOR MARAI
Reviewed by LIESL SCHILLINGER
In monologues set in Budapest, Rome and New York, Sandor Marai's characters explore a decades-old love triangle.
Kevin Brockmeier

'The Illumination'

By KEVIN BROCKMEIER
Reviewed by SCOTT HUTCHINS
All across this deeply felt novel's world, human pain has been made literally visible.

'How to Run the World'

By PARAG KHANNA
Reviewed by STEPHANIE GIRY
Parag Khanna offers a chaotic view of power in the 21st century.

'Montecore: The Silence of the Tiger'

By JONAS HASSEN KHEMIRI
Reviewed by ANDER MONSON
Jonas Hassen Khemiri's novel is told in two voices, a generation and the distance from Tunisia to Sweden separating them.

'Never Say Die: The Myth and Marketing of the New Old Age'

By SUSAN JACOBY
Reviewed by TED C. FISHMAN
Susan Jacoby challenges the optimistic marketing that has made old age seem pleasant and carefree.
Eleanor of Aquitaine

'She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth'

By HELEN CASTOR
Reviewed by MIRANDA SEYMOUR
Helen Castor examines the lives of four plucky royal consorts who struggled over the throne of England.
The poet and the czar: Pushkin and Nicholas I.

'Romanov Riches: Russian Writers and Artists Under the Tsars'

By SOLOMON VOLKOV
Reviewed by JENNIFER HOMANS
In Solomon Volkov's telling, the Romanovs nurtured and sustained Russia's great creative minds.
Randall Gibson

'The Invisible Line'

By DANIEL J. SHARFSTEIN
Reviewed by RAYMOND ARSENAULT
A history of how three African-American families of mixed ancestry stopped being black.
An ivory bust of the fourth century B.C., thought to represent Alexander as a young man.

'The Landmark Arrian'

Reviewed by STEVE COATES
A newly annotated edition of "The Campaigns of Alexander," by the second-century Greek historian Arrian.

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