Book Alert April-May 2005

Literature and Language

69. Boyd, Valerie.

Wrapped in Rainbows – the first biography of Zora Neale Hurston in twenty-five years – illuminates the complexities of an extraordinary life. Born in Alabama in 1891, Hurston moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, when she was still a toddler. In this close-knit community – the first incorporated all-black town in America – she spent a pleasant childhood, happily imbibing the rich language and folk culture of the rural black South. When Hurston was still a girl, her mother died, and her father's swift remarriage led to the family's dispersal. Hurston spent the next decade wandering in search of parental figures, working menial jobs, and charting her own course into adulthood. Reinventing herself at the age of twenty-six, she entered high school in Baltimore by claiming to be ten years younger – a fiction she would maintain throughout her life. Hurston went on to attend Howard University and Barnard College, and during this time launched her writing career in the midst of the blossoming Harlem Renaissance. In New York, she developed relationships with luminaries such as Langston Hughes, Ethel Waters, Fannie Hurst, and Carl Van Vechten. Hurston periodically left New York to travel the country (and the world) collecting black music, poetry, and literature – becoming one of the most important folklore collectors of her time, as well as one of the most enduring writers of her century. Wrapped in Rainbows presents a full picture of Hurston as both a writer and a woman, shedding new light on her public and private lives. Drawing on meticulous research and a wealth of crucial information that has emerged over the past twenty years, Valerie Boyd delves into Hurston's thirst for the limelight, her sexuality and short-lived marriages, her mysterious relationship with Vodou, and her occasionally controversial political views. With the Harlem Renaissance, the Great Depression, and World War II as historical backdrops, Wrapped in Rainbows not only positions Hurston's work in her time but offers implications for our own. ISBN 0684842300: $30.00 CH/M/ND

70. The Cambridge companion to Edgar Allan Poe / edited by Kevin J. Hayes. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 266 p. 818.309 POE

This Companion consists of 14 essays by leading international scholars. They provide a series of new perspectives on one of the most enigmatic and controversial American writers. Specially tailored to the needs of undergraduates, the essays examine all of Poe's major writings, his poetry, short stores and criticism, and place his work in a variety of literary, cultural and political contexts. This volume features a detailed chronology and a comprehensive guide to further reading. ISBN 0521797276 (pbk.): $21.50; ISBN 0521793262 C

71. The Cambridge companion to Sam Shepard / edited by Matthew Roudane. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 329 p. 812.54 CAM

Few American playwrights have exerted as much influence on the contemporary stage as Sam Shepard. His plays are performed "on" and "off" Broadway as well as in all the major regional American theaters. They are also widely performed and studied in Europe, particularly in Britain, Germany and France, finding both a popular and a scholarly audience. This companion explores the various aspects of Shepard's career, providing fascinating first-hand accounts and substantial critical chapters on the plays, poetry, music, fiction, acting, directing and film work. ISBN 0521777666 (pbk.): $20.70;
ISBN 0521771587 C/CH

72. Chomsky, Noam.

On nature and language / Noam Chomsky ; edited byAdriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi. Cambridge University Press, 2002. 206 p. 401 CHO

Including transcripts of three lectures and an interview, this work presents results from noted linguist Chomsky's November 1999 visit to the University of Siena's Certosa di Pontignano, a secluded research center. The varied collection of essays offers a unique introduction to the minimalist approach to linguistics, which views language as optimally enabling the brain to express thought. Adriana Belletti and Luigi Rizzi, two University of Siena linguistics professors, contribute a lengthy introductory essay highlighting progress in linguistic research (Chapter 1) as well as a transcript of their interview with Chomsky (Chapter 4). Both in the interview and the lectures reproduced in Chapters 2 and 3, Chomsky explains how the minimalist approach fits with other scientific research. In Chapter 5, he discusses political topics. ISBN 052101624X (pbk.): $18.50; ISBN 0521815487 C/CH/M (Adapted from Library Journal, ©2002)

73. Doctorow, E.L.

Reporting the universe / E.L. Doctorow. Harvard University Press, 2003. 125 p. DOC

The writer, according to Emerson, believes all that can be thought can be written. In his eyes a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported. And what writer worth his name, E.L. Doctorow asks, will not seriously, however furtively, take on the universe? Human consciousness, personal history, American literature, religion, and politics – these are the far-flung coordinates of the universe that Doctorow reports here, a universe that uniquely and brilliantly reflects our contemporary scene. Rich with philosophical asides, historical speculations, personal observations, and literary judgments, Reporting the Universe ranges from the circumstances of Doctorow's own boyhood and early work to the state of modern society. An account of the "Childhood of a Writer," along with pieces on Kenyon College and the author's first novel, comprise a pocket-sized memoir. In reflections on Emerson, on "texts that are sacred, texts that are not," and on literature and religion Doctorow concerns himself with the status and fate of literature. And in "Why We Are Infidels" and "The Politics of God" he engages some of the most pressing anxieties and ideologies of our day. This series of reflections comes together as an artfully sustained meditation on American consciousness and experience. ISBN 0674004612: $22.95 C/CH/M/ND

74. Evans, Michael Robert.

Unlike the myriad writing manuals that emphasize grammar, sentence structure, and other skills necessary for entry-level editing jobs, this engaging book adopts a broader view, beginning with the larger topics of audience, mission, and tone, and working its way down, layer by layer, to the smaller questions of grammar and punctuation. Based on Michael Evans's years of experience as an editor and supplemented by invaluable observations from the editors of more than sixty magazines – including The Atlantic, Better Homes and Gardens, Ebony, Esquire, and National Geographic – this book reveals the people – oriented nature of the job. ISBN 0231128614 (pbk.): $29.00;
ISBN 0231128606 CH

There are three wars in the mind and in the art of William Faulkner – the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II. Although he did not fight in any war, he postured as a veteran flyer, for he had enlisted in the Royal Flying Corps in Canada. In his novels, short stories, essays, and letters, war remained a looming subject. Faulkner and War, a collection of essays from the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, held at the University of Mississippi in 2001, explores the role that war played in the life and work of a writer whose career seems forever poised against a backdrop of conflicts going on or recently ended or in the volatile years between. Perhaps most significant for all his works was the Civil War, which had ended thirty-two years before Faulkner was born. Yet it was the vast, inescapable panorama against which he set his novels of the anguished South. John Liman discusses Faulkner's attempt to show how much of the sense of reality that the Great War produced could be rendered in fiction without explicit reference to it, as, for example, in one novel seemingly remote from the war, As I Lay Dying. Lothar Honnighausen examines Faulkner's evolving ideological attitudes toward war in Soldiers' Pay, A Fable, and The Mansion. These and other essays give illumination to Faulkner's close analysis of war and its consequences as they appear in his work ISBN 1578065593: $46.00 C

76. Halpern, Nick.

The everyday is what the prophetic poet focuses on, that is what fills him with rage, that is what he wants to transform. Everyday and Prophetic describes and analyzes at length the complex relationship between the prophetic voice and the everyday voice in postwar and contemporary American poetry. Halpern demonstrates the ways in which the tension between these voices is centrally important to poetry and argues that focusing on this crucial relationship will allow readers to describe more accurately and precisely the inner operation of an enormous variety of poems. After a comprehensive introduction, Halpern offers extended readings of the work of Robert Lowell, A. R. Ammons, James Merrill, Adrienne Rich, Jorie Graham, and Louise Gluck, presenting readers with a fresh and original context in which to see their work and to understand postwar and contemporary American poetry as a whole. Halpern traces the complex relationship between the everyday and prophetic voices, arguing that their failure or success in the poem determines whether the reader is rewarded with sharp disappointment or tremendous excitement. ISBN 0299173402: $35.00 C/CH

77. The Harvard guide to African-American history / Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, editor-in-chief ; Leon F. Litwack and Darlene Clark Hine, general editors ; Randall K. Burkett, associate editor ; foreword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Harvard University Press, 2001. 923 p.
REF 973 HAR

This guide offers a compendium of information and interpretation on over 500 years of black experience in America. The first section includes 12 essays on historical research aids divided by topics such as films, newspapers, Internet resources, primary sources on microform, government documents, manuscript collections, and oral history archives. The second section contains comprehensive bibliographies prepared by distinguished scholars such as John Thornton, Stephanie Shaw, Eric Foner, Nancy Grant, and Clayborne Carson and further subdivided into specific themes such as race relations, religion, color and class, politics and voting, urban conditions, and science and technology. The third section provides sources related to special subject matters: autobiographies of African-Americans, studies identified by geographic region, and studies of African-American women by editor-in-chief Higginbotham. ISBN 0674002768: $125.50 (For use only in the AIRC) ND (Adapted from Library Jounal, ©2001)

78. Hix, H.L.

Hix offers readings of Gass's works, from the early books, Omensetter's Luck and In the Heart of the Heart of the Country, to his later The Tunnel and Cartesian Sonata. Hix identifies the continuous presence of psychological, metaphysical, and ethical themes, including the lingering effect on adults of childhood hurts, the results of being "trapped" in language, and the consequences of hatred. While agreeing with critics who label Gass's novels and stories metafiction, he contends that to stop the exploration there would be to miss a complete appreciation of the novelist. Hix demonstrates instead how Gass's writings both break and follow tradition – as metafiction belonging to the company of works by John Barth but also as moral fiction belonging to the long American tradition that includes The Scarlet Letter and To Kill a Mockingbird. ISBN 1570034729: $29.95 C/ND

79. Koch, Stephen.

The modern library writer’s workshop : a guide to the craft of fiction / Stephen Koch. Modern Library pbk. ed. Modern Library, 2003. 246 p. 808.3 KOC

Koch, former chair of Columbia's graduate writing program, takes the beginning fiction writer through the entire writing process, from conceptualizing a story to making characters come alive. Seeing writing as a vocation, he persuasively argues that it is hard work and craft (and not always talent) that enables writers to succeed. This book is filled with practical advice and insights gained not only from the author's experience as a writer and teacher but, more importantly, from the myriad famous writers whom he quotes and whose work he analyzes for character, point of view, and style. Thus, the "workshop" here is conducted not only by Koch but also by all of those he invokes, from Aristotle to John Gardner and Ray Bradbury. There is also a wonderful chapter on memoir or autobiographical writing and the relationship between fiction and fact. This very readable book will appeal not only to serious fiction writers but also to all students of literature. ISBN 0375755586: $12.95 C/CH/M/ND (Adapted from Library Journal, ©2003)

80. McGruder, Krista.

Beulah land / Krista McGruder. Toby Press, 2003. 283 p. MCG

The most surprising thing about this first published work by McGruder is the vast disparity of voices, characters, images, and locales in its 13 stories. Dense yet understated, the prose swings from the farmland to the city with remarkable ease. "Divination" finds old farmer Gerald struggling in the heat of late summer in the upper Midwest with a drought. The strained relationship with his truck-driver daughter is tersely portrayed as she sets him up with a woman who "witches" for water. The title story is a short novella divided into five parts, in which a lawyer returns to her Native American hometown to try to discover from her grandmother, the truth about a family death. ISBN 1592640273: $19.95 C/M/ND (Adapted from Library Journal, ©2003)

81. Oates, Joyce Carol.

From its opening words, this riveting and at times highly disturbing novel will have listeners firmly in its grip. Oates's (Blonde) knack for portraying the poor and uneducated interacting with the wealthy intellectual is in perfect form here. Alma, a girl of indeterminate age with disturbing tattoos all over her face and arms, has gotten used to being a prostitute and slapped around by her lover and has been brought up to hate Jews. Joshua Seigi – wealthy, a brilliant but reclusive novelist, Greek translator, and expert in Holocaust literature – takes her in to "assist" him, for reasons even he himself can't figure out. With these and other characters captured in perfect pitch, Oates's novel builds drama and tension, turning misunderstanding and stupidity into insightful glimpses of lives we can barely fathom. Not a word is wasted. With Kate Fleming's reading, the book builds to almost thriller intensity and might well be appreciated by listeners who would normally shun more literary works and writers.
ISBN 006053107X (pbk.): $13.95; ISBN 0060531061 C/CH/ND (Adapted from Library Journal, ©2004)

The rich and sometimes discordant strains of American self-scrutiny fill this wide-ranging anthology. Kennedy (The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis) arranges the more than 200 selections according to themes like "The Flag," "Freedom of Speech," "Work, Opportunity and Invention" and "The Individual," and devotes equal space to the official, the devotional and the oppositional. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution are reprinted in full, along with a large selection of presidential inaugurals and farewells and excerpts from landmark Supreme Court decisions. Popular songs include "Yankee Doodle," "This Land Is Your Land" and "Surfin' USA." Poems and fiction from such luminaries as Whitman, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Stephen Crane, Alice Walker and Annie Proulx explore the variegated textures of American life. The dissident voices of Thoreau, Susan B. Anthony and Frederick Douglass hold America to account for its injustice; H.L. Mencken castigates it as "a commonwealth of third-rate men"; and Oscar Wilde raises a sardonic eyebrow at the whole dubious enterprise. Combining traditional touchstones of Americanism with many insightful surprises, Kennedy's thoughtful arrangement of works of historical significance and literary quality will reward both casual browsers and those conducting a more focused investigation of the nation's patriotic literature. ISBN 0786869186: $27.95 C/CH/M/ND (Adapted from Publisher’s Weekly, ©2003)

83. The sheltering sky ; Let it come down ; The spider’s house / Paul Bowles. Library of America : Distributed to the trade in the U.S. by Penguin Putnam, 2002. 938 p. BOW

Paul Bowles had already established himself as an important American composer when, at the age of 38, he published The Sheltering Sky and became widely recognized as one of the most powerful writers of the postwar period. By the time of his death in 1999 he had become a unique and legendary figure in modern literary culture. From his base in Tangier he produced novels, stories, and travel writings in which exquisite surfaces and violent undercurrents mingle. Bowles – who once told an interviewer, "I've always wanted to get as far as possible from the place where I was born" – charts the collisions between "civilized" exiles and unfamiliar societies that they can never really grasp. In fiction of slowly gathering menace, he achieves effects of horror and dislocation with an elegantly spare style and understated wit. This Library of America volume, containing his first three novels, with its companion Collected Stories and Later Writings, is the first annotated edition of Bowles' work, offering the full range of his literary achievement: the portrait of an outsider who was one of the essential American writers of the last half century. The Sheltering Sky (1949), which remains Bowles' most celebrated work, describes the unraveling of a young, sophisticated, and adventuresome married couple as they make their way into the Sahara. In a prose style of meticulous calm and stunning visual precision, Bowles tracks Port and Kit Moresby on a journey through the desert that culminates in death and madness. "In Let It Come Down (1952), Bowles plots the doomed trajectory of Nelson Dyar, a New York bank teller who comes to Tangier in search of a different life and ends up giving in to this darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles' second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism. ISBN 1931082197: $35.00 CH/M

84. This bridge we call home : radical visions for transformation / edited by Gloria E. Anzaldua and AnaLouise Keating. Routledge, 2002. 608 p. 810.8 THI

More than twenty years after the ground-breaking anthology This Bridge Called My Back called upon feminists to envision new forms of communities and practices, Gloria E. Anzaldua and AnaLouise Keating have painstakingly assembled a new collection of over eighty original writings that offers a bold new vision of women-of-color consciousness for the twenty-first century. Written by women and men – both 'of color' and 'white' – This Bridge We Call Home will challenge readers to rethink existing categories and invent new individual and collective identities. ISBN 0415936829 (pbk.): $22.50; ISBN 0415936810 C

With the end of the 1900s, the time has come for a thorough assessment of one hundred years of poetry – from the widely acclaimed to the subtly influential – and with an eye to the importance and meaning of poetry in America. Compiled by three poets and poetry scholars – including 2002 American Book Award Winner Dana Gioia – this anthology presents American poetry across the twentieth century from Stephen Crane to Kevin Young. The collected works are arranged according to the major movements in American poetry, offering a valuable teaching resource for American Literature and Poetry courses. ISBN 0071427791: $49.95; ISBN 0072400196 C

86. Wolff, Geoffrey.

The art of burning bridges : a life of John O’Hara / Geoffrey Wolff. Knopf, 2003. 373 p. 813.52 OHA

Fueled by alcohol and a lifelong inferiority complex, he bullied everyone in his path. His rages – against women, editors and critics – have become the stuff of literary legend. While admitting his subject's character flaws, Wolff believes they have obscured the quality of O'Hara's best work, particularly the novel Appointment in Samarra and several short stories. But in addition to restoring O'Hara's literary reputation, Wolff has a more personal motive: he details the many ways in which O'Hara reminds him of his own father (memorialized in his notable The Duke of Deception), and as much as he declines to reach any conclusions about their similarities, one cannot help thinking that the author's soft take on O'Hara's nasty behavior is informed by respect and compassion for his father's legacy. Wolff refuses to speculate on what drove O'Hara's emotional and artistic life, instead adhering to the facts as much as possible – not that the facts are dull. Wolff weaves an engrossing narrative, taking us from O'Hara's privileged but provincial beginnings as a doctor's son in Pottsville, Pa. (the model for his fictional Gibbsville), to his cocktail years among the New York literati and his stint as a Hollywood script doctor. Wolff offers a clear-eyed analysis of O'Hara's gifts as an acute observer of social manners, with an uncanny ability to illuminate the customs, morals and hypocrisies of the rich and, more tragically, the arrivistes who never quite arrived. ISBN 0679427716: $30.00 CH (Adapted from Publisher’s Weekly, ©2003)

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