Books

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  Book Review Glen Weldon: Superman: The Unauthorized Biography

  A smart, savvy overview of 75 years of Superman tracks how the character has changed to meet the needs of every era.

  April 1, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Richard Hell: I Dreamed I Was A Very Clean Tramp

  The pioneering punk behind Television and The Voidoids alternates between conventional and eccentric in an autobiography that ends too soon.

  March 25, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Ron Currie Jr.: Flimsy Little Plastic Miracles

  This bizarre piece of autobiographical fiction features the author faking his own death to become famous, somewhat inadvertently.

  March 25, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Owen King: Double Feature

  Stephen King’s son and Joe Hill’s brother joins the family profession with this debut novel about a debut film gone terribly wrong.

  March 25, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Alexander Theroux: The Grammar Of Rock: Art And Artlessness In 20th Century Pop Lyrics

  Are modern rock lyrics all banal and empty? A particularly cranky novelist and biographer thinks he’s the first person to ask.

  March 18, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Jamaica Kincaid: See Now Then 

  Poetry trumps content in this lyrical, emotive novel about divorce, which follows the author’s life in some respects.

  March 18, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Sam Lipsyte: The Fun Parts: Stories

  The author of The Ask returns with a collection of stories about the hapless and the helpless. 

  March 18, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Jay Farrar: Falling Cars And Junkyard Dogs

  The Uncle Tupelo/Son Volt vet takes potshots at his former bandmate Jeff Tweedy in this dull memoir, but that’s its only spark of life.

  March 11, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Stephen Dobyns: The Burn Palace

  A character-packed horror novel in the Stephen King tradition has a huge cast looking for a kidnapped baby amid an endless array of suspects.

  March 11, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Sean Ferrell: Man In The Empty Suit

  A fascinating, twisty, Looper-esque time-travel novel has a man trying to solve his own murder, with other versions of himself interfering or helping.

  March 11, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman: Top Dog: The Science Of Winning And Losing

  A new pop-science book from the authors of NurtureShock explores studies that define how people compete and succeed or fail.

  March 4, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Tom Folsom: Hopper

  A new Dennis Hopper biography goes awkwardly gonzo.

  March 4, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Karen Lord: The Best Of All Possible Worlds

  Massive events spark small-scale romance in this frustratingly micro-focused but well-executed science-fiction novel.

  March 4, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Karen Russell: Vampires In The Lemon Grove: Stories

  The author of Swamplandia! and St. Lucy’s Home For Girls Raised By Wolves returns with another stellar set of short stories that expand her range.

  February 25, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Tommy Mottola with Cal Fussman: Hitmaker: The Man And His Music

  In this babbly, unsatisfying memoir, the longtime head of Sony Music Entertainment paints himself as a nice guy who was elsewhere when controversy happened.

  February 25, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Alejandro Zambra: Ways Of Going Home

  An acclaimed Chilean author tries to translate the effects of poetry into a ruminative novel, with mixed results.

  February 25, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Dwayne Epstein: Lee Marvin: Point Blank

  The star of Cat Ballou, Point Blank, and many more finally gets the full bio treatment, but it reads like a first draft.

  February 18, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review R.S. Belcher: The Six-Gun Tarot

  This debut Western fantasy reads like the comfortable finale of a colorful TV series.

  February 18, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Dave Barry: Insane City

  The humorist and novelist continues his transformation into a cut-rate Elmore Leonard.

  February 18, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Lawrence Wright: Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, & The Prison Of Belief

  A New Yorker profile on how Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis broke from Scientology gets the full book treatment with this riveting history of the organization.

  February 11, 2013 | 12:02am -

• Book Review Adam Mansbach: Rage Is Back

  The author of Go The Fuck To Sleep returns to adult novels with this flawed but compelling novel about a tagger’s murder by an up-and-coming politico.

  February 11, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review J. G. Ballard: Miracles Of Life: Shanghai To Shepperton

  Diagnosed with terminal cancer, the author of Crash and Empire Of The Sun wrote this final book, a telling, analytical autobiography.

  February 11, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Pete Wentz with James Montgomery: Gray

  Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz ventures into semi-biographical novel-writing, but can’t escape his own abstracted navel.

  February 4, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Ali Smith: Artful 

  The Accidental’s author tries another literary stunt by fusing college lectures with a narrative frame, but never finds a complete book in the process.

  February 4, 2013 | 12:01am -

• Book Review Ludmilla Petrushevskaya: There Once Lived A Girl Who Seduced Her Sister’s Husband, And He Hanged Himself: Love Stories

  A Russian veteran brings a book of taut, elegant short stories to America.

  February 4, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Peter Hook: Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division

  The Joy Division/New Order bassist gives a yobbo’s-eye view of his former band, but without a yobbo’s energy.

  January 28, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Benjamin Nugent: Good Kids

  Two kids vow never to cheat on anyone, then have their resolve tested as adults, in this clever, pop-culture-inflected novel.

  January 28, 2013 | 12:01am -

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  Book Review Juliann Garey: Too Bright To Hear Too Loud To See

  The hot mental illness of the hour receives an internal examination in this sometimes harrowing debut novel.

  January 28, 2013 | 12:00am -

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  Book Review Steven Gould: Impulse

  1992’s Jumper series finally continues, with a sequel that will hopefully never become a Hayden Christensen movie.

  January 21, 2013 | 12:02am -

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  Book Review Nicholas Christopher: Tiger Rag

  A real-life jazz pioneer inspired the threads of this novel, as various characters hunt down a long-lost session recording for their own reasons.

  January 21, 2013 | 12:01am -