The Killing of the Unicorn

As a tribute to the murdered Playboy playmate and actress Dorothy Stratten, this account by film director Peter Bogdanovich is loving and seemingly sincere. As a takedown of the Hugh Hefner lifestyle and an argument for his partial culpability in Stratten's death, it is less convincing.

The Genius

Theodore Dreiser's enormous novel (736 pages of small print) boils down to an examination of the artistic temperament and the sex drive. The hero, Eugene Witla, has a weakness for women aged 18 that causes him no end of trouble. He leaves behind a career as a successful painter for supposedly bigger and better things, only to be brought low by another in a series of these women, despite having a decent and loving wife. This 1915 novel scandalized some elements of polite society, and the New York Times review said it left little to the imagination. A modern reader will find that, instead, it leaves almost everything to the imagination. There is nary a bare ankle in sight. Dreiser's style has never been considered his strong point, and his prose is hardly euphonious here, but he manages to sustain interest in a character who is in many respects a silly cad, and that's no small feat.

A Hero of Our Time

The Russian poet Lermontov's only novel, published in 1840, is a character study of a cynical, cruel and yet heroic military officer, Pechorin by name, who is a reflection of the author. It is startlingly modern in its treatment of human motivations and desires, making American novels of eight decades hence that tackle the same themes seem childlike in comparison.

A Clue to the Exit

A cold, posturing and largely tedious novel by Edward St. Aubyn about consciousness and death.

Orson Welles's Last Movie

Josh Karp's account of the making of The Other Side of the Wind, Orson Welles's last (and still unreleased) film, is at its best when describing Welles's personality, recounting his stories, and detailing his shooting and editing techniques and interactions with actors. The supporting cast is fascinating and includes John Huston, Peter Bogdanovich and, curiously, Rich Little. The money chase and the endless financial conflicts that are a key reason the film has not seen the light of day are less interesting and presented in a plodding style.

Mr. Hire's Engagement

The cruelty of the title of this Georges Simenon roman dur only becomes apparent near the end, but the dark motives and human failings that the author plumbs in all his books are present throughout. Simenon's unblinking gaze on life is not for the squeamish.

They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

Horace McCoy's Depression-era novel makes a marathon dance contest the stage for several types: the dreamer, the lost, the con man, the lech. Once the contest is set in motion, it is largely McCoy's skill with dialogue that carries it across the miserable finish line.

Hunting Tigers Under Glass

This '60s collection of essays and reports by the Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler will remind many readers of the shortage today of nonfiction that is engaged, funny, worldly, and doesn't show off. Richler is one of those writers, and Geoff Dyer might be another, who could write on just about any subject and make it readable.

Maggie Cassidy

Kerouac's tale of adolescent love is bad poetry turned into worse prose.

Between the World and Me

An angry, necessary book that rightly takes to task the "Dreamers" who deal in gauzy nouns in favor of an ethic of verbs, specifically "struggle."