Geese and Cats and Dogs Better Scurry: It's Your BookWag!Great New Reads from Emily Witt, Rumaan Alam. Richard Flanagan, and More ...
Letter from Xenia Dear Wags, Truth is the best defense against calumny. If you dust off a venerable libel—say, that vile outsiders lurk among us, snacking on pets and perhaps a juicy baby, when the getting’s good—you should get slammed for it. To suggest that such a lie is OK because anything goes in the interests of attention-getting is beyond cynical. That goes triple if you went to Yale Law School. The Great Springfield Hoax persists because we are mired in a rotten political age. Politicians lie, but this smear is one for the books. After days of mockery and memes, its propagators have no intention of letting it go; it’s red meat for the base, appalls the enemy, and is too insane not to keep clicking on. Whether it inches them closer to victory is another thing. That another unhinged gunman got dangerously close to Donald Trump in the midst of this nonsense makes it even more perverse. Some of those trafficking in dog/cat/goose malarkey claim that pointing out their guy’s documented crumminess puts his life at risk. Now that really is bunk. Political figures get criticized for the lousy things they do — that’s the gig. Knocking a powerful person isn’t toxic rhetoric, spreading falsehoods at the expense of vulnerable bystanders is. Also, geese are fair game. And now, let's hit the books. Yours Ever, M.V. Fenwick
Entitlement by Rumaan Alam When it comes to money, heed the great philosopher Cyndi Lauper. It changes everything. Alam (Leave the World Behind) delivers a morality tale about avarice. Like many of us, Brooke Orr, the well-brought-up daughter of a reproductive rights lawyer, is hungry for more: She wants to change the world and get noticed for her nobility. More importantly, she’d like to realize her gilded dreams. A job with Asher, an aging billionaire who wants to give his fortune away, is her ticket. Soon, she’s being ferried around in black cars and finding photogenic projects to endow. But temptation—Michelin star restaurants, an expense account, an apartment she can’t possibly afford—is corrupting. Alam indicts not just our new oligarchs, but an educated class that betrays its values for a piece of the action.—Judy Trenor
Third Ear by Elizabeth Rosner The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Rosner grew up in a home where horror was hidden by words. Her multilingual parents kept secrets from their children by speaking tongues they did not understand. The experience helped her to grasp communication as more than what is spoken; we come to know one another using an intricate vocabulary of sounds, gestures, and silences. Rosner explores this deeper language with scientists, musicians, journalists, and theologians. Along the way, she swims among talkative dolphins and delves into how infants are attuned to sounds beyond the hearing of adults. This scholarly and personal investigation into how we connect makes its own kind of music. —T. Sullivan
Scaffolding by Lauren Elkin Elkin, a cultural critic (Art Monsters), trains her powerful intellect on fiction in this comedy of sex, manners, and real estate set in pre-Covid Paris. Anna, a psychoanalyst in the depths of depression after a miscarriage, can’t seem to ...  Unlock this post for free, courtesy of JD Heyman.
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