Critical Notes

Andre Aciman, Edison, queer literature and more new reviews

By Carolyn Kellogg

The latest reviews, interviews and more from our members this week.

Clea Simon reviewed Andre  Aciman’s Find Me , the follow-up to Call Me by Your Name, for the Boston Globe.

Rien Fertel reviewed Paul Freedman’s American Cuisine for the Wall Street Journal and Zadie Smith’s Grand Union for the A.V. Club.

NBCC board member Mark Athitakis reviewed Shannon Pufahl’s debut novel, On Swift Horses, for the Los Angeles Times.

Nathan S. Weber wrote about Opioid, Indiana by Brian Allen Carr for the Daily Beast.

Kevin O’Rourke reviewed two poetry collections: Timothy Donnelly’s The Problem of the Many at the LA Review of Books and Bohumil Hrabal’s All My Cats in the Michigan Quarterly Review.

Sarah Neilson rounded up 11 anticipated queer books for Electric Literature and reviewed Gabby Rivera’s YA novel Juliet Takes a Breath for the LA Review of Books.

Rayyan Al-Shawaf reviewed Rajia Hassib’s A Pure Heart for the LA Review of Books and Older Brother by Mahir Guven for Popmatters.

For diaCRITICS, Eric Nguyen interviewed Monique Truong about her novel The Sweetest Fruits.

Ellen Wayland-Smith reviewed Rachel Monroe’s Savage Appetites for the LA Review of Books.

Kirk Walsh came up with 100 Texas-centric books for Texas Highways to coincide with the Texas Book Festival.

For the San Francisco Chronicle, Alexis Burling did a joint review of Last of Her Name by Mimi Lok and The Beadworkers by Beth Piatote, and separately reviewed Jeanette Winterson’s Frankisstein. Alexis also talked to Sarah Valentine about her memoir When I Was White for the Chicago Tribune.

Patricia Schultheis reviewed The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy at the   Washington Independent Review of Books.

Tobias Carroll talked to Deborah Levy at Longreads. He also wrote about Edison by Edmund Morris for Inside Hook, where he also talked to Kevin Wilson about his new novel Nothing to See Here. At Tor.com, he reviewed Benjamin Percy’s Suicide Woods and Stefan Spjut’s Trolls. Additionally, he interviewed MCD executive editor Daphne Durham for Vol. 1 Brooklyn and wrote about Stephen Crane and Asbury Park for Literary Hub.

Michael J. McCann reviewed Agent Running in the Field by John Le Carré and The Night Fire by Michael Connelly for the New York Journal of Books.

Brian Haman reviewed Wang Anyi’s novel Wu Ping for the Asian Review of Books.

Shoba Viswanathan interviewed Sujatha Gidla about her 2017 book Ants Among Elephants for Bloom.

And in more member news:

On Nov. 5, Elaine Szewczyk will interview Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea live on stage for the launch of his memoir Acid for the Children at Powerhouse Area in Brooklyn.

The anthology The Peanuts Papers, edited by member Andrew Blauner, has just been published by the Library of America.

Joan Frank’s forthcoming essay collection Try To Get Lost was reviewed by Publishers Weekly and got a starred review from Kirkus Reviews.

C.M. Mayo interviewed Sergio Tronocoso about his short story collection, A Peculiar Immigrant’s Son, at her blog.

On her blog Picking Books, Laura Sandonato wrote about Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

NBCC members: Send us your stuff! Your work may be highlighted in this roundup; please send links to new reviews, features and other literary pieces, or tell us about awards, honors or new and forthcoming books, by dropping a line to NBCCcritics@gmail.com.

Photo: Armie Hammer  and Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics).