Review by New York Times Review
THE HOUSE OF GOVERNMENT: A Saga of the Russian Revolution, by Yuri Slezkine. (Princeton University, $39.95.) This panoramic history describes the tragic lives of Bolshevik revolutionaries who were swallowed up by the cause they believed in. The story is as intricate as any Russian novel. THE UNWOMANLY FACE OF WAR: An Oral History of Women in World War II, by Svetlana Alexievich. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. (Random House, $30.) This oral history, one of a series that won Alexievich the literature Nobel in 2015, charts World War II as seen by the Russian women who experienced it and disproves the assumption that war is "unwomanly." A LIFE OF ADVENTURE AND DELIGHT: Stories, by Akhil Sharma. (Norton, $24.95.) In eight haunting, revelatory stories about Indian characters, both in Delhi and in metropolitan New York, this collection offers a cultural exposé and a lacerating critique of a certain type of male ego. FREUD: The Making of an Illusion, by Frederick Crews. (Metropolitan/Holt, $40.) Crews's cohesive but slanted account presents, for the first time in a single volume, a portrait of Freud the liar, cheat, incestuous child molester and all-around nasty nut job. THE SEVENTH FUNCTION OF LANGUAGE, by Laurent Binet. Translated by Sam Taylor. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) Binet's playful detective novel reimagines the historical event of the literary theorist Roland Barthes's death. It's a burlesque set in a time when literary theory was at its cultural zenith; knowing, antic, amusingly disrespectful and increasingly zany. TO SIRI WITH LOVE: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines, by Judith Newman. (Harper/HarperCollins, $26.99.) Newman's tender, boisterous memoir strips the usual zone of privacy to edge into the world her autistic son occupies. In freely speaking her mind, Newman raises provocative questions about the intersection of autism and the neurotypical. IMPOSSIBLE VIEWS OF THE WORLD, by Lucy Ives. (Penguin Press, $25.) In this dark and funny first novel about a mystery in a museum, a young woman stuck in an entry-level job as her private life unravels waits for the baby boomers to pass from the scene. LIFE IN CODE: A Personal History of Technology, by Ellen Ullman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $27.) A pioneering programmer discusses her career and the dangers the internet poses to privacy and civility. THE DESTROYERS, by Christopher Bollen. (Harper/HarperCollins, $27.99.) The heir to a construction empire goes missing on the Greek island of Patmos in Bollen's third novel, a seductive and richly atmospheric literary thriller in which wealth and luxury are inherent, but also inherently unstable. The full reviews of these and other recent books are on the web: nytimes.com/books
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [August 30, 2019]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The eight stories in this collection from the author of Family Life follow modern Indians at home and abroad as they face the trials of marriage, parenthood, and assimilation. In "Cosmopolitan," the solid first story, a husband abandoned by his wife and daughter begins a short-lived affair with his reticent neighbor. In "Surrounded by Sleep," a young boy reevaluates his worldview after a freak accident forces his brother into a coma. A wife in an arranged marriage tries to recapture the fleeting moment she felt love for her husband in "If You Sing Like That For Me." The title story is the collection's most accomplished, relating the romantic highs and lows of an Indian PhD student in New York City with wry humor and psychological complexity. While there are moments of genuine insight and heartbreak, the collective effect of the stories seems subdued to a fault. Those seeking quiet moments of revelation will find them here. (July) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Badly behaved Indian and Indian American men claim the spotlight in Sharma's first story collection, yet moments of unexpected humor and pathos save at least some of them from utter disdain. In "Cosmopolitan," a recently single older man studies women's magazines to become a better partner; he also improvises from 1,001 Polish Jokes at parties, in which "Poles became Sikhs." In "Surrounded by Sleep," Sharma reprises tragic autobiographical details from his novel, Family Life, about the devastating consequences of a pool accident on an immigrant family. A distant relative disappoints the family that raised him in "We Didn't Like Him," a graduate student frequents prostitutes in the titular story, a father initiates murder in "Are You Happy?," and a man impregnates an unattainable woman in "The Well." Arranged marriage inspires a death threat in "A Heart Is Such a Heavy Thing" and unequal love in "If You Sing Like That for Me." Neil Shah, with his smooth, chameleonic narration, manages to add a hint of sympathy to the bad boys in seven of the eight stories. For the single tale told from a woman's perspective, "If You Sing," Deepti Gupta reads empathically, with natural ease. VERDICT Tales well told, enhanced further with voices well tuned. ["Recommended for readers interested in diverse fiction and short stories": LJ 4/15/17 review of the Norton hc.]-Terry Hong, -Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2018. 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.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Neither adventure nor delight await the characters of this ironically titled collection.The first line of the title story sets the scene: "The side door of the police van slid open, rattling, and he was shoved inside." Gautama has been arrested for hiring a prostitute; "like many foreign students in America who are living away from home for the first time," he quickly gravitated to the illicit joys offered on the internet. After his brush with the law, he begins dating another Indian grad student. When his parents reject his choice, he ends up back on Craigslist. "Adventure and delight"? Hmmmm. An apter phrase might be "bad luck and isolation," and that is the real throughline in this collection of stories. In "Cosmopolitan," an Indian man who has been abandoned by his wife and daughter begins an affair with his neighbor Mrs. Shaw after she stops by to borrow a lawn mower. Despite his assiduous study of women's magazines, Mrs. Shaw remains a mystery. He also attempts to win some friends in the Indian expat community by memorizing a book called 1,001 Polish Jokes and changing the Poles to Sikhs. It doesn't work. The narrator of "If You Sing Like That for Me" experiences love in her arranged marriage only once, for just a few hours. (Once you've met her husband, you'll sympathize.) "You Are Happy?" is the story of a boy who is miserablehis mother is an alcoholic who is eventually sent to India to be murdered by her own family. In "A Heart Is Such a Heavy Thing," the protagonist's 12-year-old brother threatens to hang himself on the day of the nuptials. "If you want to stop the wedding, remember to kill yourself before, not after, we are married," advises the groom-to-be. A short story which seems to have been the origin of Sharma's breakout novel (Family Life, 2014)same names, same swimming accident, same brain-dead brotheris included as well. Filled with a strong sense of the odds against any kind of happiness, these stories have a psychological acuity that redeems their dark worldview. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
