Subscribe
Attachments fierce, funny, fateful, and forever.
By Vivian Gornick
This memoir by one of our most eloquent essayists details, with alertness and candor, the Bronx-born-and-raised Gornick's struggle to liberate herself from her mother's fierce grip. It's a doomed battle, redeemed by an adult recognition of the way love, in the end, outlasts liberty.
By Amy Tan
Tan's brilliant, bestselling 1989 novel moves around a mah jong table to reveal -- in the moving life stories of four Chinese-American women and their daughters -- the power of the mysteries, truths, and consequences one generation embodies for another.
By James McBride
Subtitled A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother, McBride's poignant exploration of his biracial identity bears witness to the life of Ruth Shilsky McBride Jordan, a rabbi's daughter, born in Poland and raised in the American South, who moved to Harlem, married a black man, and put 12 kids through college.
By Shirley Jackson
The author of the novel We Have Always Lived in the Castle and the hauntingly horrifying short story "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson was a master of the psychologically macabre. Here she reveals a different side to her disposition, recounting with hilarity and comic exasperation just how crazy raising kids can be.
By Patricia Hampl
Hampl (A Romantic Education, Virgin Time) is an accomplished memoirist, as this volume, a reflection on the matter and meaning of parental attachment inspired by a vigil at her mother's deathbed, proves beyond a doubt. Happy families may be all alike, but each deserves a distinction as telling as this book.
Email
Print
Share
With dates announced for his upcoming Old Ideas concert tour, we celebrate the inimitable Leonard Cohen: bard, survivor, legend. His most recent album is a return to form for the balladeer, exploring signature themes of lust and longing, spirituality and struggle, all overlaid with a droll sense of humor as familiar as Cohen's prophetic voice.
When Jack Luxton hears that his estranged brother has been killed in combat, long-buried memories begin to well up like groundwater, and difficult choices Jack thought he reconciled himself to years ago turn out to be close at hand. Man Booker Prize-winner Graham Swift's novel plumbs timeless themes of regret, renewal, and the bonds of love.
The opening story in Matthew Battles's electric collection, "The Dogs in the Trees", documents the inexplicable appearance of arboreal canines. Further gorgeous fantastika follows, producing a volume sure to draw comparisons to Borges and George Saunders.
Please sign in to add a comment on this article.