A gem among the manure of hot takes about how we got to here. Taking social media as his beat, New Yorker writer Marantz embedded himself with the internet cretins who tweeted while America burned. He shows how the trollish likes of Mike Cernovitch and Milo Yiannopolis seized the national conversation away from gatekeepers like CNN and the New York Times, and steered it towards a fateful reckoning at the Charlottesville Unite the Right valley. There's a bit of Didion and Foster Wallace to Marantz's writing, but he has fashioned a tapestry of keyboard warriors who cry about free speech but are unable to accept the sometimes violent consequences of their superficial supplement-addled thinking. A stick of TNT that's lit in every sense of the word. ~ Reviewed by Charles Bottomley
Is there anything left to be said about Prince, Elvis Presley, Steely Dan or Charlie Parker? As it turns out, plenty. These collected essays are thoughtful and heartfelt takes on a musical Mount Rushmore that tries to understand musicians as only a deep fan can. Penman's metaphors are as sharp as his wit, and he has a detective's eye for the telling detail. From a memorable image like Elvis going on a drug-fuelled visionquest in the desert to Parker conducting his life from the backseat of a cab to Prince regarding himself in a bathroom mirror, Penman mines facets that will send anybody who loves music back to their stack of vinyl. Hear with new ears. ~ Reviewed by Charles Bottomley
Evaristo finds the light in a dismal time that seems blighted by prejudice and uncertainty. A night at the theatre brings together 12 characters - or are they single aspects of the same self? - representing the diversity of the woman warrior. They also reflect in their myriad manner the way that we live now. The poetic prose crackles with inventiveness and the sheer excitement of creating these indelible portrait, connected in ways both overt and subterranean. It's a joy to read - treat yourself to one of the year's great literary experiences. ~ Reviewed by Charles Bottomley
Erin Williams commutes by train from upstate New York into the city for her day job. Along the way, the glances of the men she moves through provide the impetus for this searing examination of how the patriarchy reduces women to nothing. Her memories of alcoholism and rape make this more than a feminist screed. They lay bare how a masculine society exploits women for their own interests. A graphic Between the World and Me, Commute will leave the reader shaken regardless of gender—and reading long past their stop. ~ Reviewed by Charles Bottomley
Up to his neck in gambling debts, a young man gets the first job to hand: washing dishes in one of Montreal's busy Italian restaurant. There he meets an assortment of very real characters coping with the stresses and occasional triumphs of the restaurant world. He might just have found a way to save his life, too. Larue's Roman a clef is simply told and involving, a down-and-dirty story of the underworld behind the dish of the day. ~ Reviewed by Charles Bottomley