> NEW AND NOTABLE
burnt sugar, avni doshi (Overlook Press) The most recent Booker shortlist was packed with powerful, debut reads — the winner “Shuggie Bain,” from Glaswegian writer Douglas Stuart, and “burnt sugar,” a searing debut from avni doshi, who now lives in Dubai but was born in New Jersey. A story about a mother and daughter: artist Antara’s very demanding mother, Tara, is beginning to show the signs of Alzheimer’s. Theirs has always been a complicated relationship, defined, seemingly, by an intense resentment of each other, obvious from the novel’s first line: “I would be lying if I said my mother’s misery had never given me pleasure.” The tightness and tension immediately establishes a sense of urgency that propels the narrative forward.
The Plague Cycle, Charles Kenny (Simon & Schuster) For those who are able to step back from pandemic life or who would like some contextualizing about where the plague we’re living through stands in line with others over the millenia, Kenny looks at the history of plagues — and how they have driven change in our civilization, the good, the bad and the ugly. Ever thought of heart disease as a good thing? It is when you realize people didn’t used to live long enough to actually get it. He examines how cities and growing urbanization created the perfect breeding ground for plagues; how vaccinations, an understanding of hygiene and nutrition have made us healthier; and how our increased use of antibiotics, for example, is leading to strains of bacteria we don’t know how to fight.
The Making of the American Creative Class:
New York’s Culture Workers and Twentieth-Century Consumer Capitalism, Shannan Clark (Oxford University Press) For media and culture junkies — and those who work in those industries — this is an interesting and heartening, if academic, look at the rise of the cultural industry and labour relations in the middle of the last century. As job losses in our media and cultural class continue to deliver body blows to tens of thousands of workers, it would seem there are parallels to be drawn.
The Riotous Passions of Robbie Burns, John Ivison (Ottawa Press and Publishing) Monday, Jan. 25 is Robbie Burns Day — but instead of making an address to a literal haggis amongst people wearing kilts and sipping whisky, you might want to approach celebrating the day devoted to the Scottish bard’s life and work by reading about Burns himself. This book is described as being “born of frustration.” With Burns’ life and poetry now often seen as more kitsch than art, Ivison, a native of the Dumfries area of Scotland where Burns, too, was from, used the poet’s letters as a basis for the dialogue in this imaginative novel of Burns’ life, from his beginnings with his tenant farmer parents to his fame and philandering.