Favorite Books issue: books coverage for Dec. 7, 2008

December 7, 2008

Special Issue: Favorite Books 2008

Special Issue: Favorite Books 2008: Fiction and Poetry

All of It Singing

The Siren's Call: New narratives, old myths

December 7, 2008

FAVORITE BOOKS/MYTH AND LORE

The Siren's Call: New narratives, old myths

Myth is an extremely rich vein that writers have always mined. This year was no exception, as demonstrated by Kate Summerscale's splendid nonfiction study of a 19th century murder, "The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher" (Walker: 380 pp., $24.95).

December 7, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

'Correspondences' by Ben Greenman

"Correspondences" by Ben Greenman (Hotel St. George Press: $50, 250-copy limited edition) is a beautiful, letterpressed, book-like object containing seven short stories that literally unfold before you. The case is earth-colored cardboard with a wine-red sleeve, almost like a box of stationery. The first story, "What He Was Poised to Do," is revealed as you open the case; the text includes numbers corresponding to postcards the characters write to one another. You might expect to find those postcards inside; instead there is a blank one there, inviting you to fill in one of those from the story. This is a challenge, because Greenman's writing is wonderfully intimidating, bountiful yet compressed; one willing lover is "like a penny rolling across the floor." Maybe you ought to read the other stories first? Each story involves letters -- to lovers, friends, a daughter -- but few correspondents hope to receive anything in return. Yet one story is set on the impossible border of India and Australia and focuses on a karmic boomerang business (talk about karmic return). The enclosed stories are printed on opposite sides of accordion-style inserts -- "Hope," for example, is a story that is paired with another that has little, a reminder that correspondence is a kind of relationship, connection. "Correspondences" is a gorgeous collection of short stories, integrated in its content and construction, yet unfinished; it waits for your postcard to arrive.

December 7, 2008

BOOK REVIEW

Behind the laughter

They say that timing is everything in comedy. What "Make 'Em Laugh: The Funny Business of America" (Twelve: 384 pp., $45) makes clear is what a time and place 20th century America was for the art. In this chock-full-of-photos volume, authors Laurence Maslon and Michael Kantor don't peddle nostalgia as much as aim to enlighten.