| Tom Shroder’s biographical subject is his grandfather MacKinlay Kantor, one of the most famous and successful writers in the world in the middle of the 20th century who is now all but forgotten. A friend of Ernest Hemingway and a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1955 Civil War novel “Andersonville,” Kantor was the celebrated author of more than 30 novels, dozens of short stories, articles and even some wildly popular epic poems… Kantor’s story is fascinating — a biographical gold mine and an object lesson in the ultimate fading away of the best-selling, prize-winning success many writers dream about. But it is just one of three books folded into this valuable memoir. | | | | | | | | October’s Book Club Selection: “The Most Famous Writer Who Ever Lived: A True Story of My Family” | | Tom Shroder’s biographical subject is his grandfather MacKinlay Kantor, one of the most famous and successful writers in the world in the middle of the 20th century who is now all but forgotten. A friend of Ernest Hemingway and a Pulitzer Prize winner for his 1955 Civil War novel “Andersonville,” Kantor was the celebrated author of more than 30 novels, dozens of short stories, articles and even some wildly popular epic poems… Kantor’s story is fascinating — a biographical gold mine and an object lesson in the ultimate fading away of the best-selling, prize-winning success many writers dream about. But it is just one of three books folded into this valuable memoir. | |  |
| Susan Cheever
Washington Post Opinions Contributing Writer • Read the full review » |
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| “The Trespasser” by Tana French | | It has become increasingly clear that American-born, Dublin-based Tana French is the most interesting, most important crime novelist to emerge in the past 10 years. Now, with the publication of her sixth novel, “The Trespasser,” it’s time to recognize that French’s work renders absurd the lingering distinction between genre and literary fiction — the notion that although crime novels might be better plotted and more readable, only literary fiction, supposedly blessed with superior writing, characterizations and intellectual firepower, deserves the respect of serious readers. | | Read the review » |
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| “Grand Hotel Abyss,” by Stuart Jeffries | | For the most part, we read a work of nonfiction for two intertwined reasons — to learn about a particular subject and to enjoy the intellectual company of the book’s author. I started “Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School ” because I’d long wanted to know more about the careers and thought of social theorists Theodor Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Herbert Marcuse and their loosely affiliated fellow thinker, the literary critic Walter Benjamin. I steeled myself for a hard slog — these were, after all, German theorists — but almost immediately discovered that British journalist Stuart Jeffries could summarize complex arguments so clearly that even a bear of little brain could grasp them. | | Read the review » |
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| “Hero of the Empire” by Candice Millard | | For her third book, “Hero of the Empire,” Candice Millard focuses on Winston Churchill, one of the most written-about men in modern history, and the event that catapulted him into international prominence — his daring escape from a prison camp during the Boer War. This is well-trodden territory, and, unlike in her earlier works, Millard offers few new facts or insights about Churchill and his South African adventure. | | Read the review » |
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| “The Year of Voting Dangerously” by Maureen Dowd | | True, in “The Year of Voting Dangerously,” Maureen Dowd’s relentless wit is everywhere in evidence and undulled by the almost quarter-century since she began skewering the Clintons to the delight of nearly everyone. Along with some of her previously published columns spanning the past few decades and administrations, the book contains new material she labels “interludes” — palate cleansers to break up the steady stream of haute hilarity. | | Read the review » |
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