NATIONAL BESTSELLERS
1. “Fourth Wing” by Rebecca Yarros
(Red Tower) Last week: 2
2. “Iron Flame” by Rebecca Yarros
Last week: 1
(Red Tower)
3. “The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store” by James McBride
4. “The Exchange: After the Firm” by John Grisham
(Doubleday) Last week: 4
5. “The Little Liar” by Mitch Albom
week: 6
7.“Alex Cross Must Die: A Thriller”by James Patterson
week: 11
(Riverhead) Last week: 3
6. “Holly” by Stephen King
(Harper) Last
(Scribner) Last week: 7
(Little, Brown) Last week: 8
8. “Fourth Wing (Special Edition)” by Rebecca Yarros
(Red Tower) Last week: 5
9. “The Edge” by David Baldacci
Last week: 10
10. “Tom Lake” by Ann Patchett
(Grand Central)
(Harper) Last
Here’s an eye-opening statistic cited in “Kids Run the Show”: One-third of children already have a digital life at birth.
I’m guessing it’s not something author Delphine de Vigan made up, anymore than she invented the performative online existence depicted in her book: “This staging of the self, of one’s family, one’s everyday life, the pursuit of ‘likes’ ... It had all become a way of life, a way of being in the world.”
The staging, in this case, is done by Mélanie, a Frenchwoman who dreamed of being a reality TV star and has finally found her medium in motherhood. Mélanie’s YouTube channel, Happy Recess, that features her children Sammy and Kimmy is a sensation.
Then Kimmy goes missing — playing hide-andseek, she’s never found — and Clara Roussel, evidence custodian on the Paris Crime Squad, is called in. In Clara, as determinedly offline as Mélanie is on, we have our surrogate explorer of the novel’s virtual realm.
With Kimmy’s kidnapping at its center, “Kids Run the Show” has the shape of a thriller, but it’s more sociological than mysterious and more interesting than involving. Clara’s investigation is a study of the strangeness of family life as performance. Mélanie’s story is an extended reflection of how one goes from “searching for an intoxication that might fill that nameless void” or “dream(ing) of a world of solidarity and exchange” to turning one’s family into “The Truman Show.”
Santiago Valdo, a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, offers an expert perspective on the consequences of children “being made to play their own role, every day ... And ‘role’ is the operative word here, because in reality no one is ever their real self in front of the camera.”
But what if, as one suspects in Mélanie’s case, the self in front of the camera is in fact the real one? It’s hard to say, as the novel puts us into the viewer’s position, participating vicariously in the story de Vigan tells, but never really, never quite, feeling it. — Ellen Akins, Minneapolis Star Tribune
“California, here we come.”
The refrain
from the Phantom Planet tune “California” that served as the theme song for “The O.C.” welcomed viewers to Fox’s much-loved primetime soap that focused on a group of teenagers and parents navigating the emotional ups and downs of life in affluent Newport Beach.
Now, 20 years after the show’s debut, Rolling Stone TV critic Alan Sepinwall is taking readers “right back where we started from” in a splendid retrospective that relies on the memories of those who brought the show’s 96 episodes to life. “Welcome to The O.C.” features recollections from creator Josh Schwartz, executive producer Stephanie
Savage, the show’s stars, Fox executives and more.
The oral history serves as a definitive look back at the four-season series that introduced “Chrismukkah” (a celebration of both Christmas and Hanukkah) and a host of indie-rock bands whose songs played over some of “The O.C.’s” biggest moments with the characters who came to be known as The Core Four: Adam Brody’s Seth Cohen, Ben McKenzie’s Ryan Atwood, Rachel Bilson’s Summer Roberts and Mischa Barton’s Marissa Cooper.
None was more monumental than the controversial decision to kill off Cooper in Season 3’s finale in 2006. The book devotes a chapter to the behindthe-scenes intrigue that led to Barton’s exit as well as the fallout.
“The O.C.” lasted one more season. The Core Four had become stars, and the show gave screen time to future headliners such as Chris Pratt, Olivia Wilde and Shailene Woodley.
“Welcome to The O.C.” is a must-read for viewers of the show’s original run, but it works, too, for those meeting the Orange County residents for the first time via streaming services. — Mike Householder, Associated Press