Lit Hub has rounded up the best-reviewed books of the week, and the digest comes from Book Marks, Lit Hub’s home for book reviews. The list features Emma Cline’s Switzy, Francis Fukuyama’s In the Realm of the Last Man, and R.F. Kuang’s Taipei Story.
Cline’s Switzy and the Mind That Decays
A mind that designs its own ruin is the engine of Cline’s novel, and it drags the reviewer along with it. The review commends her command over dramatic pressure, noting that she raises it steadily without ever exposing the means behind it.
The first person to do so was “What’s hypnotic about this novel is the illusion that we’re watching a mind decaying even as it engineers its own expiration.”, who wrote down his thoughts on the subject in a way that set the terms for all later discussion.
Cline, according to the review, reaches toward the persistent longing that resides within everyone, a desire that endures until the very end.
Switzy gathers 5 Rave, 3 Positive, and 1 Mixed reviews.
Kuang’s Taipei Story and Liu’s Passing of the Dragon
The novel Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang receives four separate critical ratings: 4 Rave, 3 Positive, 1 Mixed, and 1 Pan. A reviewer notes that the author’s earlier works tended to read like market research into what a particular kind of fantasy fiction fan desires. This book, however, carries the stamp of true personal expression.
Ken Liu’s The Passing of the Dragon and Other Stories collects 3 Rave and 1 Positive review. Stuart Kelly writes that Liu’s stories are not just about the future: they are the future.
“If Kuang’s early books often come across as the product of market research on what a certain type of reader wants in their fantasy fiction, Taipei Story has the authenticity of genuine self-expression.”
The collection ties with The Pirate Queen by Ariel Lawhon, which gets 3 Rave and 1 Positive review. Patricia Smith describes it as immersive, saying readers come to know Grace as the formidable historic leader, the ambitious girl, the passionate woman, and the fierce mother.
Fukuyama and the Liberal Moment
The memoir collects 5 Positive and 1 Mixed reviews, and Ivan Krastev notes that the most striking sections detail Fukuyama’s split with his neoconservative circle over the war in Iraq.
“The memoir is not the apologia of a prophet whose prophecy failed. It is the record of a moment when liberalism learnt to live in the present tense.”
Jon Else’s Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs and Alan Taylor’s Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion both earn 3 Rave reviews. Else’s book traces the entire history of atomic bombs through absorbing, sharp-eyed prose. Taylor’s reads like a nonfiction version of William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!.
Christopher Bollen describes Jordan Tannahill’s The Living Realm as slim yet astonishing, noting that readers expecting raunchy titillation will instead encounter something far more elegiac and meditative. The book draws 2 Rave and 1 Pan reviews.
Nonfiction Picks
Brian Dillon’s Ambivalence gathers 3 Rave, 4 Positive, and 1 Mixed reviews. John Self praises the elegance of Dillon’s prose but warns that the writers he loves are a minority pursuit.
“So strong is his passion for his way of finding himself in the world, so dedicated is he to be true to his idols, that we long for him to make it.”
The book Love Machines: How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Our Relationships, authored by James Muldoon, has drawn 5 Positive reviews. One critic describes it as existentially chilling.
What to Make of the List
The collection includes reviews of fiction, memoir, and nonfiction across a variety of genres. They were drawn from The Financial Times, The Scotsman, The New York Times Book Review, and Foreword Reviews.
The featured books include:
- Three novels: Switzy by Emma Cline, Taipei Story by R.F. Kuang, and The Passing of the Dragon by Ken Liu
- Two memoirs: Francis Fukuyama’s In the Realm of the Last Man and Jon Else’s Frenchman Flat: The Rise and Fall of Atomic Bombs
- Three works of nonfiction: Alan Taylor’s Tower Hill: A Plantation on the Edge of Rebellion, Jordan Tannahill’s The Living Realm, and Brian Dillon’s Ambivalence
This brief summary provides a fast overview of what critics are currently responding to.