The Millstone

The pleasures of this Margaret Drabble novel are manifold. It has wit, depth, humor, and a poignancy that is never forced or facile. It can be summarized in a very few words: A woman has a baby. But where Drabble goes with that basic fact reveals her to be a sensitive and thoughtful interpreter of human experience.

Nutshell

The plot of Ian McEwan's new novel isn't much: It is essentially a mash-up of Hamlet and a Dateline episode. But the beautiful sentences follow one after another for 200 pages, and the digressions on the state of the world are always on point, and that's enough. The novelty of a fetus as narrator mostly works, although there are some noticeable contortions.

The Quiet American

No one can remain aloof; everyone eventually becomes engaged. The cynical nonbeliever, Fowler, and the true believer, Pyle, provide the two poles of behavior around which the world revolves. Graham Greene presents the conflict with the lightest finger on the scale, throwing suspense and even humor into the mix. Easily Greene's finest novel in my experience.

Really the Blues

The autobiography of Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow, co-authored by Bernard Wolfe, is a valuable historical document in the history of jazz, but it is also a work that touches on sociology, race relations, language, drug abuse — a partial but detailed portrait of America between the wars. Mezzrow's jazz snobbishness is not appealing, but a reader can surely recognize today that the further jazz moved away from Louis Armstrong, the more of a niche form it became. Mezzrow's ideal was music as a statement of defiance and vitality by black Americans. Would he have thought that rap was the natural descendant of the New Orleans music he so loved? 

Criminal Conversation

Nicolas Freeling gets points for original structure by making this Van der Valk novel a two-parter: Part One being a detective's investigation, if somewhat atypical; and Part Two being a memoir of sorts addressed to the detective. As with others in the series, it is the exploration of human nature, rather than "clues" as such, that recommends Criminal Conversation.