Previews+Reviews: Books

Larry McMurtry

By Sorrow's River

Simon & Schuster

Buy this at BookPeople.com


How much Larry McMurtry is too much? Ready or not, here he comes again with the third installment of his seriocomic Berrybender Narratives a scant six months after book two. By Sorrow's River (Simon & Schuster) won't win him another Pulitzer, but the pages blow by like a prairie wind in this 1830's-era yarn about taciturn trappers and hedonistic Brits braving Indian territory for the sake of adventure in the New World. Reviewed by Mike Shea

Jim Lewis

The King Is Dead

Knopf

Buy this at BookPeople.com


The King Is Dead (Knopf), Austinite Jim Lewis's sterling novel of politics, race, fidelity, and regret, is a model of literary economy. In an epicworthy tale packed into a brisk 260 pages, Walter Selby, a top aide to Tennessee's governor, wrestles with the dodgy ethics of political life and the toll it takes on his marriage; his breakdown—inevitable and violent—becomes a mystery for his son to crack. Lewis dredges up the dirty secrets behind his characters' public faces, not gratuitously, but to reveal their true nature. This is grand fiction. Reviewed by Mike Shea

DBC Pierre

Vernon God Little

Canongate

Buy this at BookPeople.com


Before the curtain rises on DBC Pierre's coal-black comedy Vernon God Little (Canongate), fifteen-year-old Vernon Little is just another potty-mouthed high school loser trapped in the fictional Texas town of Martirio. After his much-abused friend Jesus shoots sixteen classmates and then himself, Vernon is branded a probable psychokiller (or at least a very strange boy) by the cops, the press, and his loony mother's kaffeeklatsch. Our antihero is drolly hilarious—he's the bastard child of Holden Caulfield and Ignatius Reilly—and astoundingly unlucky; he lands in a Texas courtroom in a trial worthy of Kafka. Shortlisted for the U.K.'s prestigious Booker prize, Pierre's raucous farce skewers the media for their shameless exploitation of tragedy and small-town folk for their small-mindedness; it's a profane plea for sanity in our crazed times. Reviewed by Mike Shea

E-mail

Password

Remember me

Forgot your password?

X (close)

Registering gets you access to online content, allows you to comment on stories, add your own reviews of restaurants and events, and join in the discussions in our community areas such as the Recipe Swap and other forums.

In addition, current TEXAS MONTHLY magazine subscribers will get access to the feature stories from the two most recent issues. If you are a current subscriber, please enter your name and address exactly as it appears on your mailing label (except zip, 5 digits only). Not a subscriber? Subscribe online now.

E-mail

Re-enter your E-mail address

Choose a password

Re-enter your password

Name

 
 

Address

Address 2

City

State

Zip (5 digits only)

Country

What year were you born?

Are you...

Male Female

Remember me

X (close)