Critical Notes

Saunders and More Saunders

By Bethanne Patrick

All hail George Saunders, whose Lincoln in the Bardo is this week's most-reviewed title. Viet Nguyen's The Refugees, David Grossman's A Horse Walks into a Bar, and Lauren Elkins' Flâneuse each garner a couple of reviews as well, and there are shout-outs for Jim Shepard, Christina Baker Kline, Paul Auster, even a roundup of Georges Simenon titles. The last week in February cannot be predicted, weather-wise OR review-wise. 

Dean Rader reviews Layli Long Soldier's Whereas for Ploughshares.

Ellen Akins reviews The Schooldays of Jesus by J. M. Coetzee for the Minneapolis Star Tribunethe sequel to Coetzee's The Childhood of Jesus, which she reviewed as well.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviews The Refugees, a collection of short stories by Viet Thanh Nguyen, in the San Francisco Chronicle. 

Joseph Peschel reviews Jim Shepard’s story collection The World to Come in the The Raleigh News & Observer. 

George DeStefano reviews The Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine at Gay City News and In the Midnight Hour at Pop Matters.

David Cooper reviews A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman in New York Journal of Books. 

Steven G. Kellman reviews A Horse Walks into a Bar by David Grossman in The Boston Globe. 

Elaine F. Tankard reviews Quicksand, Malin Persson Giolitto's forthcoming Swedish crime novel (due out March 7) in the March/April issue of World Literature Today and Carlos Fonseca's Colonel Lágrimas on The Woven Tale Press.

Marion Winik reviews Lincoln in the Bardo by George SaundersThe Refugees by Viet Nguyen (both for Newsday), and Queer Rock Love by Paige Schilts on Books Are Not A Luxury .

Heller McAlpin reviews Flâneuse by Lauren Elkin at the LA Times, and Stephen O'Shea's The Alps for NPR Books

Colette Bancroft reviews Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders  and interviews Saunders there, as well.

Joan Silverman reviews A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline in The Portland Press-Herald. 

Ron Slate reviews Elliot Ackerman's Dark at the Crossing on his blog.     

Michael Berry reviews Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders,  in the San Francisco Chronicle and new books by Michael Tolkin, Neil Gaiman and Kameron Hurley, also in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Amy Brady interviews Adelia Saunders about her novel Indelible for the Chicago Review of Books, Lisa Lucas about The National Book Foundation for the same, and has a piece on Lit Hub called “MFA by the Numbers.”

Julia M. Klein reviews Lauren Elkin's Flâneuse for the Boston Globe.

David Nilsen reviewed Yehoshua November's Two Worlds Exist at The Rumpus. 

Michael Magras reviewed 4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

NBCC Board member and past Balakian winner Katherine A. Powers reviews Sara Baume's A Line Made by Walking for the Irish Times and Richard Mason's Who Killed Piet Barol? for the Barnes & Noble Review.

Elizabeth Rosner reviews The Weight of Him by Ethel Rohan in The San Francisco Chronicle.

Chuck Twardy reviews Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders for The Las Vegas Weekly.

John Domini reviewed Glenn Frankel’s High Noon in the Washington Post, for The Philadelphia Inquirer three of George Simenon’s classic Maigret mysteries, and again for the Washington Post, Steve Erickson’s Shadowbahn

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.