During this holiday week, The Common is presenting highlights from the past year. Today’s highlights come from “Reviews.”
Read Melinda Misener’s review of Townie by Andre Dubus III, here, and Sarah Malone’s review of NW by Zadie Smith, here.
REEVE LINDBERGH
Her clear voice and her deep intelligence thread this lovely book together, giving weight to every observation, shining light into the dark corners of memory, revealing both the habits and the dimensions of lost and present loved ones.
BRITTA STROMEYER
The narrative suggests that time doesn't necessarily heal wounds but instead makes them less visible. I asked Poppy if this was her intention, and if she agreed with the statement, that time, while making old wounds less visible, creates new forms of emotional hurt and displacement.
OLGA ZILBERBOURG
Sometimes, the perspective shifts unexpectedly from one character to another across time and space, and in other stories a first-person narrator’s voice that begins a story disappears and the story continues in the third person, as though looking over the shoulder of the earlier first-person narrator.
Don’t miss an issue! Subscribe to The Common.