A Disorder Peculiar to the Country

This Ken Kalfus novel about Sept. 11, 2001, and its effects on a couple going through a divorce has a patchwork feel. One scene near the end about a suicide bomb is completely out of sync tonally with the rest of the book. Blurbs promising a "savagely funny" and "hilarious" work lied (again). There is no doubt some good stuff here, but the divorce proceedings become tedious and the fanciful ending feels like cheating.

Sea of Tranquility

Whatever Emily St. John Mandel writes, I will read. This novel, which stands alone but also references characters from previous works, has the same flowing style that first attracted me, along with a propulsive plot and satisfying twists. What Mandel understands more than many authors is that the novel is a form that is capable of so much more than it is usually asked to accommodate. She fills the form, not with unbelievable silliness like, say, Chuck Palahmiuk often does, but with real human behavior in a setting that is science fiction but glows with truth.

Camera Man

Dana Stevens's biography of Buster Keaton appears to hit all the high (and low) points of his life while also taking welcome side trips into the cultural and political context of his time. This essayistic approach allows the book to take in the technology of movies, the burgeoning child welfare movement, Alcholics Anonymous, F. Scott Fitzgerald and other trends and figures that touched on Keaton's life.

Night Train

For whatever reason – perhaps because Martin Amis thought he could use a genre mold and pour his own type of book into it – Night Train doesn't come off. From the opening sentence, "I am a police," with its odd construction, it's clear that Amis is more interested in subversion than anything.

The Possession

In just 62 pages, Annie Ernaux explores the subject of jealousy and obsession with a clarity and depth that most writers couldn't achieve in 300 pages. Everything rings true, mined from her experience of an ended affair and written in a vibrant cinematic style.

A Third Face

Sam Fuller's experiences would fill the lives of ten ordinary people. His autobiography covers his work in the newspaper business (copyboy, crime reporter, traveling chronicler of the Depression, cartoonist), his time in the Army in World War II (North Africa, Sicily, Omaha Beach, Battle of the Bulge, Falkenau), his novels and screenplays (The Dark Page was published while he was at war), his first job as a director (I Shot Jesse James), his productive relationship with Darryl Zanuck, his eventual alienation from the American movie business, his late films and acting cameos, and, finally, a message on the last page that would bring a tear to even a crusty old cuss like Fuller himself.