This third Kawakami co-translation from Bett and Boyd contains ample evidence of a thriving collaboration. Their choices are especially strong in scenes where Fuyuko finds emotional relief in language. One drunk evening, “with a cheek pressed against the floor,” she flips through flyers and various ad books that have accumulated in her mailbox. Her copy-editor mind, even inebriated, spots seven errors, which she can’t help marking with her fingernail, defaulting in her off-hours to the work that has become her only stable identity. There is something delightfully bookish, and true, about her attraction to “a substantial booklet made with good-quality paper.”
“Raw”, a word that will probably be used a lot of Nonfiction, captures its headlong intensity but simultaneously undersells the authorial alchemy at play here. Because this novel blazes with truths about not just addiction but female identity and maternal love, compassion and creativity. And in its bare-knuckle engagement with what it means to be a writer – with the compulsion to turn life into art, whatever the cost, and the extent to which any wordsmith can ever really be trusted – it’s almost shockingly exposing. More so, perhaps, than true nonfiction.
Following up on a well-received debut novel is never an easy task, but it’s what Brendan Jones faced after his 2016 tale “The Alaskan Laundry” drew widespread acclaim. That book offered a poignant meditation on how people come to Alaska hoping for one last chance to redeem themselves, and how Alaska can repeatedly derail such efforts. It was one of the finest works of Alaska literature to emerge in the past decade, and it left readers with high expectations for where Jones would go next.
On his second outing, Jones answers that question by sidestepping those expectations and writing a young adult novel that explores similar themes while highlighting his versatility as an author. This time, however, he also dives into the ecological and economic conflicts that bedevil Alaskans, stakes out some middle ground, and gives his readers a story that’s both heartwarming and hopeful.
Set on a Single Day When Everything Seems on Edge, as a Climate Protest Takes Hold in Dublin, It Follows Ruth, a Therapist Who Herself Seems at Breaking Point, and Neurodivergent Teen Pen, Who Needs “Not So Much a Label as Strategies to Calm the World’s Chaos”. Told From Their Alternate Perspectives — With a Handful of Other Key Voices Sprinkled in — as the Day Creeps Along, Pine Says It’s About What Happens When You Stop Asking the World for Permission to Be Yourself.
With a Twisty, Evocative Plot, and a Prose Style That Deftly Pivots From Spartan to Poetic, Lockhart Delivers a Captivating, Cautionary and Ultimately Rewarding Atmospheric Mystery Told as a Haunting Confession That Lingers in the Imagination Long After Turning the Final Page.