Book reviews: Fiction 1998

Allison, Dorothy
Cavedweller
Redemption, Ga., Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 3/15/98

Amis, Martin
Night Train
On the wrong track, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 2/8/98

Appachan, Anjana
Listening Now
Women with men: An old-fashioned novel of India, telling truths as new as ever, Reviewed by Edith Milton, 5/3/98

Appelfield, Aharon
Th Iron Tracks
Vengeance was his, Reviewed by Bill Marx, 2/15/98

Ashford, Jeffery
The Price of Failure
The Brits who do not induce -- nor disturb -- his slumbers, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 1/25/98

Baker, Kevin
Dreamland
East side, west side, the fantasy of New York , Reviewed by Shaun O'Connell, 2/28/99

Ballard, J. G.
Cocaine Nights
On the leisured coast, only crime can arouse, Reviewed by Andrew Frisardi, 6/14/98

Banks, Russell
Cloudsplitter
Reaching for the art of fiction while holding on to history, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/29/98
The mountain man, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 2/22/98

Barron, Stephanie
Mrs. Pargeter's Plot
The Brits who do not induce -- nor disturb -- his slumbers, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 1/25/98

Bass, Rick
Where the Sea Used to Be
Geology and trancendence in Montana, Reviewed by George Scialabba, 6/28/98

Bausch, Richard
In the Night Season
Behind the crime mystery, the mysteries of marriage, Reviewed by Andy Solomon, 5/31/98

Bedford, Martyn
The Houdini girl
On the trail of Rosa- A novel of passion and prestidigitation and the obsessive search for a lost lover, Reviewed by Kurt Jensen, 2/7/99

Begley, Louis
Mistler's Exit
Another kind of death in Venice, and recollections of a life, Reviewed by Gabriel Brownstein, 8/30/98

Blount Jr, Roy
Be sweet: a conditional love story
Some boys grow on you, and some grow up to be writers, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 7/26/98

Bohjalian, Chris
The Law Of Similar
The Healing art- Chris Bohjalian sets another novel in the gray area where `do no harm' becomes a legal question, Reviewed by Jessica Treadway, 1/24/99

Boyle, T. Coraghessan
Riven Rock
Of madness and a different kind of love triangle, Reviewed by Paul Kafka, 1/18/98

Brett, Simon
Mrs. Pargeter's Plot
The Brits who do not induce -- nor disturb -- his slumbers, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 1/25/98

Carey, Peter
Jack Maggs
A rich, Dickensian tale of of love and self-discovery, Reviewed by Jay Parini, 2/1/98

Chekhov, Anton
The Portable Chekhov
With stories of everyday, ficiton turns gossip to sacrament, Reviewed by John Dufresne1/11/98

The Undiscovered Chekhov: Thirty-Eight New Stories
The early work of a Russian master, Reviewed by Katherine Tiernan O'Connor 1/11/98

Cousin, Lucy
Noah's Ark
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98

Crowley, Elaine
A Dublin Girl: Growing up in the 1930s
From the land whose chief exports are youth and literature, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/15/98

Davis, Kathryn
Hell
Devil of the house, Reviewed by Kathryn Harrison, 2/1/98

Donoghue, Emma
Kissing the Witch
Tale that speak to person and time, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 1/4/98

Dooling, Richard
Brain Storm
Debugging the software of life, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 5/3/98

Dorfman, Ariel
Heading South, Looking North
Memoir of an all-American: South to North America, fiery youth to maturity: reflections of a Chilean exile in the United States, Reviewed by Barbara Belejack, 5/10/98

Dreiser, Theodore
Sister Carrie
The 'moral tale' is often the furthest from the truth of life, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 2/15/98

Dubus, Andre
Dancing After Hours
The wheels of fate: Muscular and emotional essays by Andre Dubus, about perserverance and the value of a challenge, Reviewed by Donna Seaman, 6/21/98

Duncan, Glen
Hope
Even in a debut, where there's steam, there's fire, Reviewed by Jonathan Wilson, 6/28/98

Edrich, Louise
The Antelope Wife
The silent center, Reviewed by Abbey Frucht, 3/29/98

Evanovich, Janet
Four to Score
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks 7/26/98

Faulks, Sebastian
Charlotte Gray
Human betrayal as the ground of war , Reviewed by Kathleen Hill, 2/07/99

Ferre, Rosario
Eccentric Neighborhoods
Two families, 200 years, one small island, Reviewed by Margerite Feitlowitz, 2/22/98

Fischetto, Laura
Inside Noah's Ark
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98

French, Albert
I Can't Wait on God
They got ramblin' on their minds, Reviewed by Nada Elia, 8/9/98

Fry, Stephen
Making History
Reaching for the art of fiction while holding on to history, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/29/98

Garland, Alex
The Tesseract
A trinity of stories -- and a shadowy fourth , Reviewed by Paul Kafka, 2/7/99

Gates, David
Preston Falls
He would prefer not to, Reviewed by Rosellen Brown, 2/1/98

Geisert, Aurthur
The Ark
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98

Gibbons, Kaye
On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon
Old times there are not forgotten, Reviewed by Jessica Treadway, 5/31/98

Gilstrap, John
At All Costs
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 7/26/98

Glassgold, Peter
The Angel Max
Of language, ideas, Europe, and America, Reviewed by Paul Kafka, 5/10/98

Godwin, Gail
Evensong
Fire and ice-The ministerial couple in Gail Godwin's novel have a well-ordered rural life -until the world intrudes, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 2/28/99

Goldshalk, C. S.
Kalimantaan
A heart of darkness on the isle of borneo, Reviewed by Kai Maristed, 4/19/98

Goodman, Allegra
The Promised Land
In a first novel rich with feeling, Allegra Goodman is at home in the insular world of Orthodox Jews, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 8/9/98

Gordimer, Nadine
The House Gun
Crime and punishment, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 1/18/98

Gordon, Mary
Spending
Day of art and roses Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 3/1/98

Greenberg, Joanne
Where the Road Goes
Bulletins to and from a sentimental journey, Reviewed by Chris Bohjalian, 3/8/98

Hamilton, Jane
The Short History of a Prince
Parting the Walters, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 4/5/98

Handke, Peter
My Year in the No-Man's-Bay
Walden on the seine, Reviewed by Bill Marx, 8/16/98

Harness, Cheryl
Ghosts of the White House
Of presidents and their house, Reviewed by Liz Rosenberg, 2/15/98

Harod-Eagles, Cynthia
Killing Time
The Brits who do not induce -- nor disturb -- his slumbers, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 1/25/98

Haverty, Anne
One Day as a Tiger
The holy ground can be the place of one's undoing, Reviewed by Anna Mundow, 1/25/98

Hawkes, G.W.
Semaphore
Sojourns in friendship, solitude, silence, Reviewed by Alyson Hagy, 8/16/98

Hawkes, G.W.
Surveyor
Sojourns in friendship, solitude, silence, Reviewed by Alyson Hagy, 8/16/98

Healy, Dermot
The Bend for Home
From the land whose chief exports are youth and literature, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/15/98

Hellenga, Robert
The Fall of a Sparrow
Blast from the past, Reviewed by Jack Sullivan, 7/26/98

Hesse, Karen
Out of the Dust
Out of the dust, into the tower, Reviewed by Liz Rosenberg, 3/15/98

Hienstand, Emily
Angela the Upside-Down Girl and Other Domestic Travels
Making much of little, Reviewed by Jeanne Schinto, 7/5/98

Oscar Hijuelos.
Empress of the Splendid Season
A woman in full-Oscar Hijuelos gives his heroine on the `upper lower class' all the dignity of an empress , Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 2/7/99

Hornby, Nick
About a Boy
Some boys grow on you, and some grow up to be writers, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 7/26/98

Hospital, Jeanette Turner
Oyster
Aiming for seriousness, Oyster gets lost, Reviewed by Jodi Daynard, 3/22/98

Howard, Maureen
A Lover's Almanac
The art of living, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 1/4/98

Irving, John
A Widow for One Year
Absent without leave: The story that fills a void becomes a truth of its own, Reviewed by Kurt Jensen, 5/17/98

James, Will
Lone Cowboy
What to do when you learn your literary gods have clay feet?, Reviewed by C. K. Williams, 6/14/98

Johnson, Charles
Dreamer: A Novel
Recalling King's dream in the days of doubt, Reviewed by Andy Solomon, 4/5/98

Jones, Gayl
The Healing
On the road to healing, Reviewed by Marcie Hershman, 2/15/98

Jones,Gayl
Mosquito
A talker, a tale-teller, a sojourner, Reviewed by James A. Miller, 1/17/99

Jose, F. Sionil
Dusk
Down and out in the Philippines, Reviewed by Bruce Allen, 6/7/98

Klima, Ivan
The Ultimate Intimacy
Liberation and Theology, Reviewed by Askold Melnyczuk, 1/18/98

Kraft, Max Petrovich
The Angel Max
Of language, ideas, Europe, and America, Reviewed by Paul Kafka, 5/10/98

Lamb, Wally
I Know This Much Is True
Wally Lamb tries again to get at what's true, Reviewed by Miranda Schwartz, 6/28/98

Le Carre's, John
Single & single
Father knows worst--John Le Carre's swashbuckling novel of financial skulduggery, international crime, and the snares of family, Reviewed by , 1/10/99

Lessing, Doris
Mara and Dann: An Adventure
Back to the Future- A dystopian novel by Doris Lessing, set in africa during the next ice age, Reviewed by Andrew Biswell, 1/10/99

Lewis, J. Patrick
The Boat of Many Rooms
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98

Lim,Catherine
The Teardrop Story Woman
Her trail of tears- In old malaya, a woman's doleful story of disfigurement, beauty, misfortune, Reviewed by Claire Hopley, 12/20/98

Lipman, Elinor
The Inn at Lake Devine
Summertime by the shores of bigotry, Reviewed by Jodi Daynard, 6/7/98

Llosa, Mario Vargas
The Notebooks of Don Rigoberto
A dream of sons and lovers: Mario Vargas Llosa revisits the theme of a youth, an older woman, and the multiple illusions of sex, Reviewed by Linda Wolfe, 6/14/98

Lovesey, Peter
Upon a Dark Night
Stirring tales of mystery and history, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 3/29/98

Lukacs, John
A Thread of Years
Reaching for the art of fiction while holding on to history, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers3/29/98

Makine, Andre
Dreams of My Russian Summers
Rolling on the river, Reviewed by Nicholas Nesson, 7/12/98

Malcolm,Janet
The Crime of Sheila Mcgough
he Ma'am gave the facts-Janet Malcolm's inquiry into a lawyer's downfall seeks the plain truth in a numbing ocean of details , Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 2/21/99

Maristed, Kai
Belong to Me
Collection offers horse stories of a different color. Reviewed by Jo-Ann Mapson, 8/9/98

Matalon, Ronit
The One Facing Us
A new twist on the 'roots' myth, Reviewed by Mark Greif, 7/19/98

Mathieu, Joan
Zulu: An Irish Journey
From the land whose chief exports are youth and literature, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/15/98

McCann, Colum
This Side of Brightness
The light in the darkness, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 3/22/98

McCarthy, Cormac
Cities of the Plain
The unsheltering sky: Cormac McCarthy completes his trilogy of man's fate in the borderlands, Gail Caldwell, 5/10/98

McCorkle, Jill
Final Vinyl Days
Life in the slow lane: Jill McCorkle's small-town folk strive to find ways to hold their lives together, Reviewed by Johanna Berkman, 6/14/98

McDermott, Alice
Charming Billy
The perfect gesture, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 1/25/98

McEwan, Ian
Enduring Love
Are the catastrophes of life tragic, or only horrible, Reviewed by Nicholas Nesson, 02/25/98

McKissack,Patricia and Fredrick
Let My People Go
An artful coincidence of story and tradition, Reviewed by By Liz Rosenberg, 01/17/99

McMurtry, Larry
Duane's Depressed
A trilogy's end in Thalia, Texas, Reviewed by Ann Patchett, 01/10/99

Menaker, Daniel
The Treatment
The attacking cure: In Daniel Menaker's novel of life and therapy, the doctor has ways of making the patient talk, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 5/31/98

Miller, Sue
While I was Gone
On thin ice-Into the quiet life of Sue Miller's protagonist comes that old yearning, for a free, easy and risky path , Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 1/31/99

Millhauser, Steven
The Knife Thrower and Other Stories
The edge of ordinary: In Steven Millhauser's short fiction, we are at home in a world of oddness, Reviewed by Margot Livesey, 5/17/98

Mitchard, Jacquelyn
The Most Wanted
Prisoner of love: Jacquelyn Mitchard's country ballad about romance that breaks the rules, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 5/24/98

Moore, Brian
The Magician's Wife
Power of Magic, Magic of Power, Reviewed by Valerie Miner,1/25/98

Morrison, Toni
Paradise
West of Eden, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 1/11/98

Munro, Alice
Open Secrets
With stories of everyday, fiction turns gossip to sacrament, Reviewed by John Dufresne, 1/11/98

Murakami, Haruki
South of the border, west of the sun:By Haruki Murakami
Love songs of a japanese yuppie everyman, Reviewed by Ariel Swartley 1/31/99

Naylor, Gloria
The Men of Brewster Place
On the other side of the street, Reviewed by Jill McCorkle, 4/26/98

Norman, Howard
The Girl Who Dreamed Only Geese and Other Tales of the Far North
Tales that speak to person and time, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 1/4/98

Norman, Howard
The Museum Guard
In Howard Norman's novel, the world of paintings is a real as any, Reviewed by Eileen Pollack, 8/16/98

O'Conner, Edwin
Godine, David
Benjy: A Ferocious Fair Tale
Some boys grow on you, and some grow up to be writers, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 7/26/98

O'Faolain, Nuala
Are You Somebody: The Accidental Memoir of a Dublin Woman
From the land whose chief exports are youth and literature, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 3/15/98

O'Nan, Stewart
A World Away
An unblinking look at a family's war, Reviewed by Katherine A. Powers, 6/28/98

Oates, Joyce Carol
My Heart Laid Bare
A brilliant confidence artist, Reviewed by Robert Taylor, 6/28/98

Parini, Jay
House of Days
Traveling into the past, and into the boundless, Reviewed by William Pritchard, 6/21/98

Pear, Iain
An Instance of the Fingerpost
Stirring tales of mystery and history, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 3/29.98

Price, Richard
Freedomland
Black and white montage: Richard Price's cinematic story of a mother, a crime and our racial split screen, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 6/21/98

Powers, Richard
Gain
On the soapbox: Richard Powers's novel of industry, illness, and the problem of culpability, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 6/7/98

Quindlen, Anna
Black and Blue
Escape from violence, and the trap of type, Reviewed by Roland Merullo, 2/15/98

Ricci, Nino
Where She Has Gone
End of innocente, Reviewed by Roland Merullo, 7/5/98

Ridgway, Keith
The Long Falling
All in the Family, Reviewed by David Mehegan, 8/2/98

Rios, Julian
Loves That Bind
A Challenging Tour of the Sexual and the Textual, Reviewed by Juan M. Godoy, 4/26/98

Robinson, Roxana
This Is My Daughter
Family drama with a painterly eye, Reviewed by Helen Epstein, 6/28/98

Rodriguez, J. Luis
America is Her Name
In a barrio or a wilderness, tales of hope and celebration, Reviewed by Liz Rosenberg, 8/16/98

Roth, Henry
Mercy of a Rude Stream
Free at last: Henry Roth's quartet of sin and silence ends with a shock and the end of an age, Reviewed by David Mehegan, 4/19/98

Sayers, Dorothy
Walsh, Jill Paton
Thrones, Dominations
Echos from mystery's golden age, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 3/1/98

Shames, Laurence
Mangrove Squeeze
Stirring tale of mystery and history, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 3/29/98

Shreve, Anita
The Pilot's Wife
The crash of a plane, and of a wife's tissue of illusions, Reviewed by Lucinda Ballantyne, 5/10/98

Simpson, Dorothy
Once Too Often
The Brits who do not induce -- nor disturb -- his slumbers, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 1/25/98

Simpson, Thomas William
The Caretaker
Stirring tales of mystery and history, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 3/29/98

Singer, Isaac Bashevis
Shadows on the Hudson
Singer in the shadows, Reviewed by Estelle Gilson, 1/11/98

Sis, Peter
Tibet: through the red box
Inside a box of memories , Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 2/7/99

Smiley, Jane
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton
Jane Smiley's new frontier, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 3/29/98

Spier, Peter
Noah's Ark
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98

Stabenow, Dana
Killing Grounds
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 7/26/98

Stone, Robert
Damascus Gate
City of gods: Robert Stone's novel of faith, intrigue, and fanaticism in Jerusalem, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 5/3/98

Stein, Garth
Raven Stole the Moon
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 7/26/98

Straley, John
The Angels Will Not Care
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 7/26/98

Tolstoy, Leo
Anna Karenina
With stories of everyday, fiction turns gossip to sacrament, Reviewed by John Dufresne, 1/11/98

Tremain, Rose
The Way I Found Her
A boy and his fictions trying to figure real life, Reviewed by Andrew Biswell, 7/26/98

Trevor, William
Death in Summer
In William Trevor's short novel, a widower lowers his drawbridge, admitting danger, fear, and love, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 8/30/98

Tyler, Anne
A Patchwork Planet
Tale of a man's quiet struggle for goodness, Reviewed by Gail Caldwell, 4/12/98

van de Wetering, Janwillem
Robert van Gulik: His Life His Work
Freshest catch from Alaska tastes of thrills and mystery, Reviewed by Robin W. Winks, 7/26/98

Vakil, Ardashir
Beach Boy
Eating up and growing up in bombay, Reviewed by Paul Kafka, 8/2/98

Vidal, Gore
The Smithsonian Institution
In camp with history, Reviewed by Sven Birkerts, 3/8/98

Walsh, Michael
`As Time Goes By
From film to book page, from book page to tape, Reviewed by Rochelle O'Gorman, 1/10/99

West, Paul
Life with Swan
A Marriage written in the stars, Reviewed by Andria Spencer, 2/14/99

Wiggins, Marianne
Almost Heaven
Amid celestial fireworks, a hunt for identity, Reviewed by Jack Sullivan, 12/20/98

Wolk, Lauren
Those who favor fire
Trying to find home, love, and safety in a hell on earth, Reviewed by Jodi Daynard, 2/21/99

A. B. Yehoshua
A Journey to the End of the Millennium:A Novel of the Middle Ages
His Y1K problem- At millennium's end, a rabbi confronts a dual desire and the necessity for law, Reviewed by Lucinda Ballantyne, 1/17/99

Zelinsky, Paul O.
Rapunzel
Out of the dust, into the tower, Reviewed by Liz Rosenberg, 3/15/98

Zwerger, Lizbeth
Noah's Ark
They that go down to the sea in the ark, Reviewed by Peter F. Neumeyer, 5/3/98