Critical Notes

Reviews of Mary Gaitskill, Stacy Schiff, Luc Sante, William Gass, and more

By Carmela Ciuraru

Your reviews seed this roundup; please send items, including new about your new publications and recent honors, to NBCCCritics@gmail.com. Make sure to send links that do not require a subscription or username and password.

Chris Barsanti reviews Gerard Koeppel and Umberto Eco for Pop Matters.

Bharti Kirchner reviews Luc Sante's “The Other Paris” for the Seattle Times.

Matthew Jakubowski writes about the first English translation of Mercè Rodoreda's final novel, “War, So Much War.”

Priscilla Gilman reviews Mary Gaitskill for the Boston Globe and Cammie McGovern for the New York Times Book Review.

Megan Labrise interviews Carrie Brownstein for Kirkus Reviews.

Rochelle Spencer's roundtable interview, “Diversity is Magic,” with seven writers of YA speculative fiction, is featured in the L.A. Review.

NBCC Board Member Colette Bancroft reviews John Irving's “Avenue of Mysteries” for the Tampa Bay Times.

Gerald Bartell interviews Daniel de Visé for Kirkus Reviews.

Jeffrey Ann Goudie reviews Joy Castro for the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Wendeline O. Wright reviews Stephen King's “The Bazaar of Bad Dreams” for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews Michel Houellebecq for the Philadelphia Inquirer.

NBCC Board member and 2013 Balakian winner Katherine A. Powers reviews Jeanette Winterson's “The Gap of Time” and T. J. Stiles's “Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America” for Barnes & Noble Review.

Kimberly Chrisman Campbell writes about Ulinka Rublack and Maria Hayward's “The First Book of Fashion” for TheAtlantic.com.

Susan Balee reviews David Mitchell's “Slade House” for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Mike Berry's latest reviews for the San Francisco Chronicle, Portland Press Herald, and Austin Chronicle.

Robert K. Landers reviews Scott Donaldson's “The Impossible Craft: Literary Biography” for Commonweal.

Philip Belcher reviews Carol Frost's “Entwined: Three Lyric Sequences” for Shenandoah.

John Domini reviews Lincoln Michel for the Brooklyn Rail.

Barbara Spindel interviews Mary-Louise Parker abut “Dear Mr. You” for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Michael Magras reviews Oscar Hijuelos for BookPage and David Mitchell for the Houston Chronicle.

David Cooper reviews William Gass for the New York Journal of Books.

Gregory Wilkin reviews John Irving for the New York Journal of Books.

John Strawn reviews Stacy Schiff's “The Witches” for the Oregonian.