As one of the biggest fans of Department of Speculation, I could not wait for Weather to come out...and I was not disappointed. Written in her signature style of scenes as vignettes--little slices of life reported in the way we actually live them--this book chronicles the end of the world as we will (probably) know it: at the hands of climate change. Weather is smart, funny, and emotional, with just the right amount of paranoia to make it utterly relatable to us all.
Don't let the sheer bulk of this six-volume autobiographical novel keep you from enjoying one of the best voices in fiction today. The first book is a rewarding, accessible, and largely self-contained work that's easy to devour. Knausgaard creates an internal world that feels truly expansive in its beauty, pain, and humor. He has an extraordinary eye for the quotidian details of life that so often get glazed over in fiction. This skill, combined with a carefully digressive narrative style, allows him to create an epic from the personal.
One of the best debuts of the year, Real Life is a novel of startling emotional intelligence and clarity. It centers on Wallace, a gay black grad student surrounded by white peers in a Midwestern biochemistry program. Over the course of a long weekend, the shy and suspicious Wallace is forced to confront the simmering tensions beneath his personal and professional relationships. Taylor uncovers wounds that are wrought by casual prejudice and deeper trauma with the same level of care. Real Life excels at capturing the volatile intersection of race, class, and sexuality through the eyes of a deeply compelling protagonist.
