The Down and Dirty Dish on Revengeby Eva Nagorski
Sometimes, the only solution is an eye for an eye. Or two eyes.
Ready your blowtorch, ladies. But before you fire it up, you better consult the new manual: The Down and Dirty Dish on Revenge by Eva Nagorski. It’s a how-to for anyone who’s ever been down in the jowls after a little heartbreak, and, instead of forgiveness, wants cold, hard revenge. And luckily, since the “Internet has put a new spin on vengeance,” there now are more creative ways of seeking revenge than ever before (nude pictures, anyone?). Nagorski, a former TV writer who has surely experienced one or two bad breakups of her own, has even included a history of adultery and a wide array of expert opinion. Says Nagorski: “I think the best revenge is moving on and not caring what that other person thinks of you anymore—and you don’t care what’s happening in his or her life at all.”
In The Kitchenby Monica Ali
Part Kitchen Confidential, part murder mystery, a former Booker nominee uses a posh hotel as a window into British society.
Monica Ali, who catapulted to literary stardom when she was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2003, takes an ambitious look at England in the global era through the lens of a hotel restaurant in In The Kitchen. Overworked and underpaid, much of the kitchen staff are undocumented immigrants from all over the world. The chef in charge of managing this motley crew, Gabriel Lightfoot, has plenty of problems of his own, including a dying father. But Lightfoot's issues fall on the back burner when a Ukrainian porter turns up dead in the hotel basement. Thus begins a mystery involving human traffickers and an enchanting Belarusian woman on the run. Several reviews have said that the book lacks narrative drive, and that many of the ruminations on society assume too didactic a tone. Others argue that the cast of characters created by Ali are " wonderfully drawn," and evoke the changing face of England.
The Last Great Revolutionby Robin Wright
A definitive account of the Iranian revolution by a Washington Post star reporter.
When Robin Wright's book chronicling Iran's haphazard evolution since the 1979 revolution was published in 2000, reformists had just won a resounding victory in parliamentary elections. Many said the moment signaled that Iran was moving toward more Western-style reforms. Now, with the turmoil in Iran revolving around reformist and conservative factions, it is clear that sweeping change did not occur in 2000, and likely is not on the agenda anytime soon. In The Last Great Revolution, Wright recognized the sharp divisions in Iranian society, highlighting that the revolution of 1979, which stands as a remarkable uprising against thousands of years of autocracy, created a unique form of government that tried to marry democratic institutions with a theocracy. Even when Iran was much more peaceful, Wright astutely noted these opposing forces as being fundamental to understanding the country; her book seems more prescient than ever.
Strangers by Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner's Jamesian novel explores the depths of human loneliness—and desire.
London, beneath its gray shroud of fog and rainy bleakness, is certainly the most suitable setting for the obsessions, insecurities, and isolation common among so many of Anita Brookner's characters. Brookner—a longtime Londoner and distinguished author of both fiction and nonfiction—is a stylist, often drawing detailed atmospheres from minimal plots. In her new novel, Strangers, she lives up to her reputation. Following in the vein of her earlier novels, Strangers' story and protagonist, Paul Sturgis, may at first glance give the impression of staidness—Sturgis is a recluse in his late 70s who is utterly tormented by intense loneliness and a cursed ambivalence toward his relationships with women. But, like any weathered artist, Brookner's vast experience penetrates the spare frame of her novel, giving it unforeseen life. Often likened to the 19th-century realist Henry James, Brookner offers a measured look into the torture and tumult of solitude.
Wheels for the Worldby Douglas Brinkley
Revisiting the glory days of Ford automobiles.
The Ford Motor Company appears to be the most responsible of the Big Three, and Wheels for the World—Douglas Brinkley’s 2003 book—reveals why. The book offers a tour of the hundred years of the company, from the advent of the Model T to the sleek Taurus. It describes Henry Ford as an innovator with the foresight to see women as the future of the auto industry, explains how the company rose to prominence in the industry—and mistakes they made along the way. “As I grew up in Perrysburg, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo located on the Maumee River, Henry Ford and his motor company were a part of my life,” Brinkley writes in the introduction. “Through the company or his own constant activity, the influence of Henry Ford was felt on American history and on human civilization, for good and ill.” But it's Brinkley’s comment about Ford that now feels especially prescient: “Henry Ford never really changed,” he has said. “The times changed.”
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