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Review_FICTION

fighter on his last legs. Forty-something name of Lilla Kohen, the name of Sharon’s memory they all share. Clarke’s disqui-
Jack Boucher, raised by a foster mother in dead child. Georgina, an intelligent, inde- eting, droll work reflects humanity like a
the Mississippi Delta, has reached a crisis pendent young woman, is devastated by dark fun house mirror. (Mar.)
point. Subsisting on pain pills washed Sharon’s betrayal and thrust into the arms
down with Wild Turkey, he has lost large of a family she can’t recall. Harper strug- Laura & Emma
chunks of his memory, but he knows that gles with her overprotective nature and Kate Greathead. Simon & Schuster, $25
his beloved foster mom is dying in a her Catholic faith, which is at odds with (352p) ISBN 978-1-5011-5660-1
nursing home and that he is on the edge of Georgina’s Jewish upbringing. Through In Greathead’s warmhearted debut
being killed by loan shark Big Momma multiple points of view, Faulkner crafts a novel, spanning 1980 to 1995, Laura, a
Sweet if he doesn't either hand over some cast of flawed, realistic characters, and the quiet woman in her early 30s from
cash or take on one last, potentially fatal story’s intense emotion will resonate with Manhattan’s Upper East Side, attempts
fight. After a car crash on a back road, readers. (Mar.) to balance her progressive ideals with the
Jack’s destiny becomes entwined with lavish lifestyle she lives thanks to a trust
that of a troupe of outlaw carnies, among The Price of the Haircut fund. After a one-night stand with her
them the thoughtful, tattooed Annette, Brock Clarke. Algonquin, $15.95 trade paper brother’s friend leads to pregnancy, Laura
who can’t “decide if she was putting (240p) ISBN 978-1-61620-817-2 tries to forge a life for herself and her
together pieces to some fateful puzzle or if In his third short story collection, daughter, Emma, on her own terms—
she had simply fallen into this man’s mess Clarke (An Arsonist’s Guide to Writers’ while also staying near home and
because of her own need.” Vivid descrip- Homes in New England) offers 11 satirical, accepting the help of her old-money
tions never slow the pace of the plot, sometimes surreal, tales that investigate family. The supporting characters who
which moves swiftly toward an inevitable broken individuals and flawed societal come in and out of Laura’s life over the
but still surprising climax. As violent as it expectations. In the title story, emotion- years sparkle with idiosyncrasies, espe-
is poetic, Smith’s novel draws the reader ally fragile middle-class white men suf- cially Laura’s mother, Bibs, and Emma’s
in from beginning to end. (Mar.) fering from bad haircuts debate whether devoted pediatrician. The novel is told in
to patronize a racist but affordable barber. short scenes; major events can happen off
Finding Georgina In “The Misunderstandings,” a family’s the page, as with the death of a loved one,
Colleen Faulkner. Kensington, $15.95 trade dysfunctions inadvertently challenge the which is revealed by a scene set at the
paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-4967-1155-7 local restaurant community and its reception held after the funeral. Greathead
A mother finds her daughter who was patrons to rethink their assumptions and is a talented writer of detail, particularly
kidnapped 14 years earlier in the satis- beliefs. “The in her evocations of New York life—
fying latest from Faulkner (What Makes a Grand Canyon” subway sobbing, could-be celebrity sight-
Family). Harper Broussard is a New airs a woman’s ings, the joy of a favorite grocery store—
Orleans veterinarian living with her breathless and specifically of New York’s elite—board
teenage daughter, Jojo, in the ancestral grievances meetings, private preschool admissions,
home inherited by her ex-husband, Remy. against her new “the impermeable serenity of a Manhattan
There have been times over the past 14 husband after courtyard,” and the specific difference
years that Harper has believed that she’s they honey- between an address on 96th and Park and
seen Georgina, her oldest daughter who moon in a tent 96th and Lexington. This is a thoughtful
was kidnapped when she was two, and near the famous novel of trying to find oneself despite an
now she becomes certain a teenage girl national park. assigned place in the world. Agent: Amy
working in a local coffee shop is her long- In “What is the Williams, the Williams Company. (Mar.)
lost daughter. When police question the Cure for Meanness?,” a teenage son
girl’s mother, Sharon Kohen, she confesses attempts to differentiate himself from his The Kremlin Ball
to kidnapping Georgina, whom she ini- abusive father by giving his mother a Curzio Malaparte, trans. from the Italian by
tially believed was her deceased child and series of gifts that only make things Jenny McPhee. New York Review Books,
then came to love as if she were her own. worse. The narrator of “Good Night” $15.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-1-68137-
While Harper is elated that her daughter struggles to accept affection without 209-9
has been cared for all these years, she is caustic commentary. In “Our Pointy Appearing for the first time in English
disturbed that Georgina doesn’t Boots,” soldiers on leave search for relief is Malaparte’s strange, aimless, and
remember her and has been going by the from the horrors of war in a distant, fond impassioned skewering of the decadence
Our Reviewers
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Danny Adams Jessica Daitch Donna Freitas Juliet Kahn Jackie Miller Eugene Reynolds
Allen Appel Kate De Groot Daphne Grab Maia Kobabe Libby Morse Antonia Saxon
Chris Barsanti Jennifer de Guzman Krystyna Poray Goddu Pam Lambert Julie Naughton Lelia Taylor
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Monique Bos Stefan Dziemianowicz Bob Hahn Erin Lewenauer Dai Newman Stacy Woodson
Mitzi Brunsdale Lance Eaton Stephanie Howlett-West Adam Lipkin Dionne Obeso
Kristin Centorcelli Maya Fleischmann Mary M. Jones Shannon Maughan Leonard Picker
Leela Corman Jordan Foster Michael M. Jones Sheri Melnick Gwyn Plummer
58 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JANU AR Y 22, 2018