Publisher's Weekly Review
Playwright Corthron's big, open-hearted debut novel has echoes of noted writers from the mid-20th century, which serves as its backdrop: the social conscience of Steinbeck, the epic sweep of Ferber, the narrative quirks of Dos Passos. Reading Corthron's novel adds racial context to the classic works of these earlier writers. The story follows two pairs of brothers: white Randall and B.J., who grow up in rural Alabama; and black Eliot and Dwight, who grow up in small-town Maryland. For all its size, this is a modestly plotted quartet of coming-of-age stories. It begins in 1941, with studious teenage Randall sharing his love of literature and his family history. B.J., who is five years his elder, is deaf, and Randall has become his de facto caretaker. Brilliant Eliot, who's all of six years old, and hard-working Dwight, who's 12, narrate the parallel storyline in counterpointed first-person chapters. Eliot's rackety prose plays nicely off Dwight's crisp, dutiful sentences. The story moves to the late '50s, with all four young men growing up in the thick of the Civil Rights movement. Randall's ambition and B.J.'s condition necessitate a separation, with Randall moving to New York. Eliot goes to law school and Dwight gets a sensible job as a postman. The story then moves to 1993; Eliot and Randall cross paths, as readers suspect they must, and there are consequences for both. Corthron jumps to 2010 for a lengthy epilogue. This huge novel has the intimacy of memoir; Corthron's narrative voice makes it easy for readers to immerse themselves in the book, rarely coming up for air. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
New York Review of Books Review
INCARNATIONS: A History of India in Fifty Lives, by Sunil Khilnani. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $18.) India's history, as it is usually told, is "a curiously unpeopled place," Khilnani writes. He offers an overview of the country's 2,500-year history through 50 short biographies of people who shaped it. Some figures, like Buddha and Gandhi, are well known, but he also focuses on poets, artists and social reformers. IDAHO, by Emily Ruskovich. (Random House, $17.) In this debut novel about grief, secrets, and violence, a woman tries to uncover what happened to her husband's first wife - and the circumstances of his daughter's mysterious death. As our reviewer, Smith Henderson, said, "Ruskovich's language is itself a consolation, as she subtly posits the troubling thought that only decency can save us." WEAPONS OF MATH DESTRUCTION: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy, by Cathy O'Neil. (Broadway, $16.) O'Neil, a mathematician and former Wall Street analyst, offers a frightening look at the algorithms that regulate and shape people's lives. Whether you're applying for a loan or a job, machines make decisions at critical junctures with little oversight, and with profound consequences. THE CASTLE CROSS THE MAGNET CARTER, by Kia Corthron. (Seven Stories Press, $23.95.) Two pairs of brothers - one white in rural Alabama, the other black, growing up in Maryland - come of age in the mid-1900s, against a backdrop of World War II and the civil rights era. Our reviewer, Leonard Pitts Jr., praised Corthron: "There are whole chunks of writing here that are simply sublime, places in which one gets swept away by the way she subverts the rhythm of language to illuminate the familiar and allow it to be seen fresh." THANK YOU FOR BEING LATE: An Optimist's Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations, by Thomas L. Friedman. (Picador, $18.) Three major forces - technology, globalization and climate change - are accelerating at a rapid clip, with significant effects across the world. Friedman, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist, explains each of these shifts with humanizing anecdotes. THE PATRIOTS, by Sana Krasikov. (Spiegel & Grau, $18.) It's and Florence Fein is bound from Brooklyn to the Soviet Union, hoping to align herself with the socialist cause. Florence soon finds herself on Stalin's list of enemies, but her loyalty to the revolution doesn't waver. Decades later, her son travels to Russia, determined to learn more about Florence's past - and to persuade his own American son to return to the United States.
Library Journal Review
[DEBUT] In her much-anticipated debut novel, acclaimed playwright and Wire TV writer Corthron tells a sweeping narrative of American history that spans from 1941 to the 21st century. It follows the lives of four men-two white brothers from rural Alabama and two black brothers from small-town Maryland. Randall is a gifted middle schooler who teaches his deaf 18-year-old brother to read while growing up beneath the cloak of his father's racism. Dwight and Eliot are the gifted sons of a Pullman porter who are influenced by the labor activist A. Philip Randolph and the legacy of a lynched great-aunt. The families' lives collide; sadly, the encounter leads to tragedy. This work is epic, drawing on major moments in history, including World War II and the killing of Emmett Till. Those details make the characters more relatable, especially as they respond to the events surrounding them. Verdict Recalling Alex Haley's Queen, this work is hauntingly poetic and culturally enlightening and will appeal to lovers of historical fiction.-Ashanti White, Yelm, WA © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.