Literary Fiction Book Reviews

Crossroads Blues by Israfel Sivad is set in New York City, days before 9/11, where three friends, writer Andrew, his friend Charlie and wannabe theater director Michelle are entwined in a life in the skyline, filled with hopes, dreams and ambitions. But then the planes hit and their lives are shattered forever, when Michelle is lost to the Towers, leaving Andrew lost in grief.

The interesting thing for me with this book is that I am married to a New Yorker who lived blocks from The World Trade Center on 9/11, and has written a fictional book featuring 9/11 (We […]

The Art of Forgetting by Peter Palmieri primarily follows the story of Lloyd Copeland, a charismatic assistant professor spending his days chasing high-class med student flings when he’s not blowing students away in his rare case of successful ‘cool teacher’ lectures.

To outsiders he has everything to look forward to and nothing to regret, but beneath his veneer of success and boyish charms, his “feigned nonchalance” hides a desperate hidden struggle against something that threatens to swallow his life as it has his family generations before him: a struggle against a memory loss and dementia which runs in his family, […]

This ambitious first novel by Jesse Relkin begins with 16-year-old Max arriving in Los Angeles from his hometown of Bend, Oregon to enter an in-patient drug rehabilitation facility. For the few days before he is due to report to rehab, Max stays with his Aunt Mercedes, her children, Erin and Mikey, and their nanny, Shannon. Max is determined to make the most of his few remaining days of freedom by getting in some partying while in LA. It turns out that his aunt, a mortgage broker who may be about to lose her job, her license, and perhaps her own […]