Review by New York Times Review
THE CULTURAL REVOLUTION: A People's History, 1962-1976, by Frank Dikötter. (Bloomsbury, $20.) This volume spans a period from Mao's reassertion of political control to the Cultural Revolution's shiftfrom cities to the countryside. As our reviewer, Judith Shapiro, put it, "The book paints such a damning portrait of Mao and Communist Party governance that if it were widely circulated in China, it could undermine the legitimacy of the current regime." RICH AND PRETTY, by Rumaan Alam. (Ecco/HarperCollins, $15.99.) Two longtime friends attempt to maintain their relationship, even as their lives sharply diverge in this debut novel. Sarah, the daughter of a wealthy family who works at a charity, is planning her wedding, while Lauren, single and adrift, bristles at her maid-of-honor expectations. The friendship is tested, in part by a surprise pregnancy and conflicting values. WHO COOKED ADAM SMITH'S DINNER?: A Story About Women and Economics, by Katrine Marçal. Translated by Saskia Vogel. (Pegasus, $15.95.) "Feminism has always been about economics," Marçal, a Swedish journalist, writes in the prologue to this book. "Virginia Woolf wanted a room of her own, and that costs money." In this lively analysis, she argues that economics (and economists) consistently devalue women's contributions, in both the United States and Europe. BEFORE WE VISIT THE GODDESS, by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. (Simon & Schuster, $15.99.) Three generations of unlucky women - from Bengal, India, to Houston - repair their connections to each other in this novel. Sabitri, a poor girl in a rural village, loses her chance to seek an education after a fateful mistake. Years later, her daughter, Bela, tries to make a new life in the United States; when plans go awry, they have lasting consequences for her own child, Tara. DINNER WITH EDWARD: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship, by Isabel Vincent. (Algonquin, $14.95.)When Vincent, a journalist for The New York Post, arrived in New York, she faced an unwelcoming city and an unraveling marriage. But she also met Edward, a widower in his 90s and her friend's father, whose conversation - and sumptuous, home-cooked dinners - were a welcome contrast. HERE I AM, by Jonathan Safran Foer. (Picador, $17.) In overlapping story lines, the Blochs - the multigenerational family at the center of Foer's brilliant novel - are linked to modern Israeli politics and broader Jewish culture. Our reviewer, Daniel Menaker, praised the novel's "emotional intelligence and complexity" and "certain set pieces that show a masterly sense of timing and structure and deep feeling."
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Family and what it means to be Jewish, subjects of infinite complexity, are novelist Foer's preoccupation and inspiration. In his first novel in 11 years a far longer, edgier, and more caustically funny tale than Everything Is Illuminated (2002) and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (2005) he choreographs the disintegration of the once blissfully close marriage of architect Julia and TV writer Jacob, exploring how their changing relationship affects their three sons (so cannily portrayed), especially the eldest, Sam, who escapes whenever possible into a virtual alternative world, Other Life. Foer has enhanced his mastery of rapidly volleying dialogue and churning inner monologues and raised them to torrential proportions as the Blochs of Washington, D.C., relentlessly analyze and argue about every feeling, thought, occurrence, and action with Talmudic exactitude. By mining elements of his life to construct the many-chambered domestic tale, Foer achieves the ringing clarity of authenticity. But for all his focus on familial intricacy (including attachment to an aging dog), intellectual musings, rogue eroticism, and various neuroses, Foer is also grappling with the larger forces of anti-Semitism and war. The novel's provocative title is taken from Genesis. When God thunders, Abraham! Abraham declares, Here I am. He is present and obedient; he will even sacrifice his son. This total commitment is anathema to Foer's argumentative, fiercely inquisitive American characters, recalcitrance amplified when Jacob's Israeli cousins, Tamir and his younger son, Barak, come to visit, catalyzing a running comparison between cushy American Jewish lives and the rigors of battle-ready Israelis. This contrast is further intensified when a major earthquake strikes the Jewish state, emboldening its enemies to attack. What are Jacob and Julia's duties to the Jewish homeland? To their family and to themselves? As Sam contemplates Abraham's predicament in preparation for his bar mitzvah, he thinks, it is primarily about who we are wholly there for, and how that, more than anything else, defines our identity. Foer's voluminous (verging on overblown), polyphonic, and boldly comedic tale of one family's quandaries astutely and forthrightly confronts humankind's capacity for the ludicrous and the profound, cruelty and love.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2016 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Foer's novel requires a very talented narrator-and it got one. The prose is fast, forceful, funny, and friendly, and actor Fliakos handles it all superbly. He distinguishes children of different ages as well as fathers, grandparents, and even great-grandparents. He catches the nuances and emotional intricacies of each character's thoughts and conversations, while his diction is perfect but not intrusive. He's especially good at highlighting the gentle humor and major absurdities of the novel. The only difficulty for the listener is that Foer constantly raises thought-provoking questions about the meaning of friendship, marriage, family, country, religion, happiness, and angst, forcing the listener to stop the audio from time to time to mull over these issues. Listeners will find themselves hitting the pause button to think things through, but will remain eager to resume Fliakos's wonderful performance. A Farrar, Straus and Giroux hardcover. (Sept.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
In Foer's first novel in 11 years (after Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close), Julia and Jacob Bloch's marriage, once buoyed by the determination always to act with purpose, has been worn thin by a slow withholding and the demands of daily life. Jacob writes ruefully for television, steel-spined Julia is fed up with his timidity, and now son Sam has been accused by the rabbi of writing a list of offensive epithets. As Jacob insists that his son couldn't have done it and Julia retorts that Sam must apologize, it's not just Sam's upcoming bar mitzvah that is threatened. The Blochs' marriage is on a collision course, powerfully framed by reference to the biblical story of Abraham and Isaac, which makes this richly conceived work more than another tale of marital woe. As Sam himself explains, Abraham answered "Here I am" when God demanded the sacrifice of Isaac and when Isaac asked why they had brought no animal to the altar, with Abraham showing a willingness to be fully present for both in a way that Sam's own parents had failed to show him when he was accused of hate speech. Inattention is its own bad move, and as we see throughout, as when Jacob's Israeli cousin scrambles as the Middle East explodes, "not to have a choice is also a choice." VERDICT Rigorous questions within an accessible story; highly recommended. [See Prepub Alert, 3/7/16.]-Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
