Heller McAlpin

Farm Team Saga 'Class A' Hits It Out Of The Park

Heller McAlpin — Thu, 09 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000

Is there room for another book about America's favorite pastime? Lucas Mann's Class A earns a position in a lineup that already includes Bang the Drum Slowly, The Natural, The Boys of Summer, Moneyball and The Art of Fielding because, remarkably, it offers a fresh, unexpected angle on this well-trodden game.

Chances are you'll be hearing lots of cheers proclaiming Mann's genre-bending book a Grand slam!

A 'Bargain Basement Molly Bloom' Looks Back On Eight Decades

Heller McAlpin — Wed, 01 May 2013 11:03:00 +0000
Back in the early 1950s, as a lonely, pregnant young wife already ruing her rash elopement, Edna O'Brien sobbed through the ending of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and wondered, "Why could life not be lived at that same pitch?

Owls, Yes, But Also Kookaburras And Dentists In Sedaris' Latest

Heller McAlpin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 14:09:00 +0000
Plenty of personal essayists, including really good ones like Nora Ephron, Anna Quindlen and E.B. White, burn out or switch to fiction after a few books. Even Michel de Montaigne, the 16th century French writer often acknowledged as the father of the genre that combines intelligent reflection with anecdotes and autobiography, produced only one volume — albeit a massive one.

Minks, Perfume And Beastly Beauty In 'Shocked'

Heller McAlpin — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 11:03:00 +0000
Beauty can be a beast. That's one message from Shocked, Patricia Volk's smart, fascinating book about her complex relationship with her beautiful, elegantly attired, hypercritical mother.
Volk's delightful first memoir, Stuffed, which focused on her eccentric family of New York restaurateurs, was published just a year after the death, in 2000, of her 80-year-old father, Cecil Sussman Volk, longtime proprietor of Morgen's West Restaurant but also a sculptor, inventor and motorcycle enthusiast.

Learning 'Life' Lessons With McCorkle's Seniors

Heller McAlpin — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 11:03:00 +0000
Amid a literary landscape increasingly rife with metafictional and postmodern high jinks, Jill McCorkle's sixth novel, Life After Life, is as resolutely down to earth and unpretentious as the hot-dog franchise owned by one of her characters. For her first novel in 17 years, McCorkle has dared to write a heartwarmer that takes place largely in a retirement home and stresses the importance of good old-fashioned kindness.
(Oddly, McCorkle and Kate Atkinson both have novels called Life After Life coming out this spring, which is bound to cause some confusion.