Lush Life, by Richard Price '71 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Lush Life by Richard Price '71 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
rice sets his story of race and class in the sociological laboratory of New York City's trendy Lower East Side. Three young artists are out on a bar crawl when two kids from the projects try to rob them. One artist gets shot, one has an alcoholic blackout, and the third, Eric Cash, acts so guilty, the police finger him for the shooting and try to force him to confess. When they realize Cash is innocent, he refuses to help them find the murderer. Price's razor-sharp dialogue reveals the moral compromises and bitterness of the cops, hipsters, grieving families, and petty thieves.
The Storks' Nest by Laura Lynne Williams '91, with photographs by Igor Shpilenok (Fulcrum). In 1993, Williams set up the World Wildlife Fund's first office in Russia to coordinate biodiversity projects. But she left that well-paying job in Moscow to work in a remote nature preserve. Now she and her husband, naturalist and photographer Igor Shpilenok, live in a rural village in the Bryansk Forest in western Russia where they protect the forest, monitor the rare black stork, try to reintroduce the European bison, root out poachers, survive the harsh winters, and learn the tangled history of the villagers of Chukhrai.
Pitch Perfect by Mickey Rapkin '00 (Gotham). There are more than 1,200 college a cappella groups in the United States. Diane Sawyer, Art Garfunkel, and Anne Hathaway sang in a cappella groups—and so did Osama bin Laden. "So where does the impulse to step out in front of a group of identically dressed men and hum into a microphone before a crowd of thousands come from?" asks Mickey Rapkin, a senior editor at GQ and a past member of Cayuga's Waiters. He follows the Tufts Beelzebubs, the University of Virginia Hullabahoos, and the University of Oregon's all-female Divisi, giving an insider's look at the subculture.
The Wildly Irish Sextet by Dick Wimmer '58 (Soft Skull). Seamus Boyne, ladies' man and self-proclaimed greatest painter in the world, returns as the picaresque hero of Wimmer's new collection of linked tales. He is still greedy for new experiences and refuses to settle into placid middle age. Bouncing between Dublin and New York, Boyne avoids being killed, tries to thwart a forger, and fakes his own death. To further complicate matters, Boyne's daughter Tory plans to marry his best friend, Hagar. As in the earlier Irish Wine trilogy, Wimmer writes about eccentric characters with a comic inventiveness akin to Flann O'Brien and J. P. Donleavy.
Why We're Liberals by Eric Alterman '82 (Viking). Though Americans tend to shy away from the word "liberal," opinion polls by Harris, NPR, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and other groups show that around 60 percent of the electorate ascribes to liberal beliefs—they just don't want to use the label. Alterman, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and a professor at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, disposes of false characterizations and examines the development of modern liberalism.
Recently Published
Fiction
The Way, by Joseph Bruchac '64 (Darby Creek). When Cody LeBeau enters a new high school, he becomes the target of bullies. His uncle teaches him martial arts, and they help each other follow the path of peace.
Drama
edited by Sarah Blacher Cohen and Joanne B. Koch '61 (SUNY). Ten contemporary plays, including I'm Not Rappaport, Fires in the Mirror, Driving Miss Daisy, and the co-editors' play Soul Sisters, explore the interwoven destinies of blacks and Jews in American society.
Nonfiction
Riding Toward Everywhere, by William T. Vollmann '81 (Ecco). The National Book Award winner lights out for the territories, hopping rides on freight trains in search of a freedom that he finds in short supply in America. He questions whether he is tapping into a rich vein of myth or engaging in "privileged railroad follies."
At the Mercy of the Mountains, by Peter Bronski '01 (Lyons). For Bronski, an outdoor writer and former search and rescue team member, the Adirondacks constitute the ideal place. The region makes up one-fifth of New York State, and its 6 million acres are a magnet for adventure and, all too often, misadventure. Bronski recounts historic and recent stories of survival.
It's a Dog's Life . . . But It's Your Carpet, by Justine A. Lee, DVM '97 (Three Rivers). Lee answers those nagging questions about canine behavior, from what is the smartest breed to why dogs sniff each other's backsides, and many other topics.
by Kathryn Hochstetler and Margaret E. Keck '70 (Duke University). Two political scientists examine how Brazilian environmentalists address both ecological destruction and social injustice.
Brian Friel, Ireland, and the North, by Scott Boltwood '83 (Cambridge University). This study of the playwright's work delves into Friel's problematic relationship with Irish nationalism and his critical examination of the Irish psyche. Boltwood, an associate professor of English at Emory and Henry College, argues that Friel is doubly disenfranchised, "alienated from both Irish states and unable to identify with either."