Critical Notes

Roundup: Leanne Shapton, Clarice Lispector, Wallace Stegner, and More

By Mark Athitakis

Kick off the week with two Olympic-themed reviews: Craig Seligman on Chris Cleave’s novel Gold for Bloomberg, and Carolyn Kellogg on Leanne Shapton’s memoir, Swimming Studies, for the Los Angeles Times.

Andrea Scrima reconsiders Robert Walser’s novella The Walk at the Rumpus.

Karen L. Long reviews Lisa Cohen&rrsquo;s biography of New York intellectuals Esther Murphy, Mercedes de Acosta, and Madge Garland, All We Know, for the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Morris Dickstein reviews New York Review Books’ recent Dwight Macdonald collection, Masscult and Midcult, for the East Hampton Star.

Steve Weinberg reviews Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright’s A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation for the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

Adam Kirsch reviews four novels by Clarice Lispector recently retranslated and reissued by New Directions at Tablet; Leora Skolkin-Smith reviews one of the new reissues, The Hour of the Star, for the Quarterly Conversation.

Cody Corliss reviews Peter Piot’s memoir, No Time to Lose: A Life in Pursuit of Deadly Viruses, for the West Virginia Gazette-Mail.

John Reed reviews Cynthia Carr’s biography, Fire in the Belly: The Life and Times of David Wojnarowicz, for Out.

David Duhr reviews Stephen Graham Jones’ novel Growing Up Dead in Texas for the Dallas Morning News.

Rigoberto Gonzalez reviews Carolina De Robertis’ novel Perla for the El Paso Times. (It’s his 200th review for the paper.)

Gerald Bartell reviews Dominic McHugh’s Loverly: The Life and Times of “My Fair Lady” for the Washington Post.

Laura Miller revisits Wallace Stegner’s classic novel Angle of Repose for a new series on audiobooks at Salon.

Joseph Peschel reviews Paul Bailey’s novel Chapman’s Odyssey for the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.

David L. Ulin reviews Ted Gioia’s The Jazz Standards: A Guide to the Repertoire for the­ Los Angeles Times.

Your reviews and recommendations help seed these roundups: If you’re an NBCC member with a review you’d like considered for inclusion, please email nbcccritics@gmail.com. You can also get our attention by using the Twitter hashtag #nbcc, posting on the wall of our Facebook page, or joining our members-only LinkedIn group.