What should you read next? Here are the best-reviewed books of the week ‹ Literary Hub

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Rachel Cuss paradeFrancine Proses 1974and Andrew O’Hagan’s Caledonian Road They are all among the best-reviewed books of the week.

Brought to you by Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews.

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fiction

1. Caledonian Road by Andrew O’Hagan
(W.W. Norton)

5 Enthusiastic • 6 Positive • 5 Mixed
Read an excerpt from Caledonian Road Here

“Halfway through Caledonian Road deaths occur, and the tone, which had been slightly satirical, with the odd epigrammatic flourish, becomes darker again… Incredibly readable, full of energy and entertaining contemporary detail. Cheeky, chatty characters roam the pages demanding attention and understanding; yet in Andrew O’Hagan’s redistributive narrative justice, the most sincere and heartbreaking moments tend to concern those fated to lurk in the margins.”

–Suzi Feay (Literary supplement of the Times)

2. parade by Rachel Cusk
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

6 Rave • 7 Positive • 5 Mixed • 2 Pan

“An icy thought experiment… Intellectually, these thoughts can be intoxicating. Instead of plot or character development, Cusk offers a keen analysis of what it means to be the creator of a world where no one really exists… That Cusk-esque narrative voice – cold, distant, judgmental, castigating – emerges as a dominant and distinctive energy, an individual… This deepening of chaos is Cusk’s artistic project here, and she brings it across coldly. No doubt she pauses now to observe our pain.”

–Lucy Atkins (The guard)

3. sandwich by Catherine Newman
(Harper)

6 enthusiastic • 1 positive • 1 criticism

“Newman creates an elegant transition from comic passages like this one in the style of Nora Ephron to an elegy. After all, returning to the same place every summer means regularly being held up by the passage of time… sandwich is my idea of ​​the perfect summer novel: dazzling and rich. Another aspect of Newman’s book deserves to be highlighted: As in many other recent novels by bestselling female authors – I’m thinking of Jennifer Weiner, Ann Patchett and Megan Abbott – Newman introduces a storyline about abortion. She writes about this controversial topic – and the emotions it evokes – in a way that I have never seen in fiction before.”

–Maureen Corrigan (NPR)

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Non-fiction

1. When the clock broke: fraudsters, conspiracy theorists and how America collapsed in the early 1990s by John Ganz
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

6 Raves

“Followers of Ganz’s combative writing on Substack might be surprised by the restraint he displays in his first book. When the clock broke is a work of narrative history that contains comparatively little confrontation and polemics… Opponents of the far right have an unfortunate tendency to caricature it as a coalition of helpless fools, incapable of developing ideas and therefore not to be seriously considered. Ganz knows that he should not take this condescending and intellectually dishonest approach. Instead, he tackles reactionary aggressiveness with due rigor.”

–Becca Rothfeld (The Washington Post)

2. Thom Gunn: A cool queer life by Michael Nott
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

4 enthusiastic • 1 positive

“There are two basic kinds of poetic biography: the critical study with biographical elements, and the full biography for scholarly posterity. Nott’s biography belongs to the latter, with the emphasis on ‘full’… He set out to create a work solid enough to support commentary on Gunn for decades to come. He has succeeded – this book contains everything you ever wanted to know about Thom Gunn but never thought to ask.”

–David Orr (The New York Times Book Review)

3. 1974: A personal story by Francine Prose
(Harper)

4 enthusiastic • 2 positive
Read an excerpt from 1974 Here

“Prose deftly weaves together the political and personal elements of this pivotal period… She widens her lens on every intimate anecdote and narrows it down to information-rich passages that might otherwise feel dryly didactic. One would have to read many, many books to deduce what Prose serves up here in just a few sentences: a revolution presented as a roux… The era that Prose describes under the title 1974brought about crucial social advances and caused collateral damage to those, like Russo, who were driven mad by the effort required. Fortunately for us, this period also produced the best book yet by the prolific, astonishingly talented Francine Prose.”

–Meredith Maran (The Los Angeles Times)