New York Times Reviews

As hard as it is to get reviewed these days--declining space for book talk in print publication--it is wonderful to see reviews in The New York Times in recent days of books by three friends.

Two weeks ago, Anthony Doerr reviewed Josh Weil's The New Valley, a collection of three novellas: Hill Country Blues. Among other nice things, Doerr says, "Keep writing novellas, Josh Weil, because you write very good ones. You think on it, and we’ll watch."

Then Gaiutra Bahadur reviewed Laila Lalami's Secret Son, her new novel set in Morocco: Vulnerable in Morocco. Bahadur says, "Secret Son is a nuanced depiction of the roots of Islamic terrorism, written by someone who intimately knows one of the stratified societies where it grows."

And now we have Janet Maslin's review of Ron Currie Jr.'s Everything Matters, due out next week: The Sky is Falling Soon! (And Junior is Agitated). "Mr. Currie is a startlingly talented writer whose book will pay no heed to ordinary narrative conventions. His thoughts on cosmic doom somehow take the form of a joyride. He survives the inevitable, apt comparisons to Kurt Vonnegut and writes in a tenderly mordant voice of his own."

I have some very talented friends!