Sameer Pandya’s ‘Our Beautiful Boys’ Is Vulnerable and Powerful
Sameer Pandya mines the pain of immigrant parents wrestling with America’s existential crises in Our Beautiful Boys .
fiction
Tom Robbins’ Crazy Wisdom
An undercurrent of seriousness prevails in Tom Robbins’ comedic expressions, occasionally bubbling to the surface to convey profundities on the nature of the universe, the human condition, et al.
Ayşegül Savaş’ Weirdo Artists and Anxious Women
For Turkish author Ayşegül Savaş, a midway point between “normalness” and artistry seems both bridgeable and impossible.
The Slavic Fairytale’s Baba Yaga Upends Japanese Yakuza Culture
In Akira Otani’s thriller The Night of Baba Yaga, the Slavic Fairytale’s Baba Yaga refuses to conform to women’s roles in patriarchial Japanese yakuza culture.
The Best Books of 2024
PopMatters Best Books of 2024 include a broad range of nonfiction, many books on music, short fiction, a novel that turns a Mark Twain classic inside out, and much more.
Neal Stephenson’s Thriller ‘Polostan’ Is a Wild Ride Through 1930s America
Neal Stephenson’s thrilling and slow-burn historical thriller Polostan presents the 1930s as a calamitous carnival ride building inexorably toward Hiroshima.
The Journey Motif in ‘The Half-Life of Guilt’ Is No Guilt Trip
There is no guilty pleasure in reading Lynn Stegner’s The Half-Life of Guilt. There is only pleasure.
Feminine Discontents in ‘Back from the Dead’ and ‘The Other One’
Catherine Turney, a top-drawer writer of classic films about strong women, adapts her supernatural novel The Other One for Back from the Dead.
Tommy Orange Testifies to the Power of Cultural Reclamation
In Wandering Stars masterful storyteller Tommy Orange shifts our lens from historically imposed assimilation to contemporary cultural reclamation.
Colin Barrett’s Debut Novel ‘Wild Houses’ Unfolds Predictably
The narrative in Colin Barrett’s debut novel Wild Houses unfolds predictably, without much in the way of plot twists or surprises.
Living with Uncertainty in ‘The Sterns Are Listening’
Below the surface clutter of its frenetic plot line, The Sterns Are Listening deftly deals with dwelling ‘peacefully in doubt’.
Author Jerome Charyn on the Complex Demons in ‘Ravage & Son’
Author Jerome Charyn’s Ravage & Son is a brutal novel written with a beauty that transcends the violence, providing an empathetic look into human complexity.