Bookshelf

THE MOTIVATION OF MEMORIES

BY NANCY HITCHCOCK

When Atticus Lish ’89 set out to write The War for Gloria he wanted to “paint the Sistine ceiling. I will confess to having an outsized ambition,” he declares.

It took Lish seven years to write the novel, which was motivated by deep-rooted memories. When he was 15, a lower at Phillips Academy, his mother was diagnosed with ALS. She battled the debilitating neurodegenerative disease for eight years.

“I remembered it all so vividly,” Lish explains. “The raw material from which I was creating The War for Gloria got written very early on. It was like I RYAN HERMENS had all the clay I needed.” He dedicated the novel to his mother, Barbara Lee Works. At the heart of this coming-of-age story is the mutual devotion of a teenage boy, Corey, and his single mother, Gloria, who develops ALS. As the illness takes hold, Corey’s responsibilities—described in tender, heart-wrenching detail—increase. He strives to manage the challenges of high school, girlfriends, and relationships with shady characters, including his estranged father.

Lish’s decision to become a writer was influenced by his own father—Gordon Lish ’52, P’77, ’89, a well-known literary editor—but he didn’t follow this path until his late thirties.

While a student at PA, Lish developed a passion for Chinese; he would spend a decade as a Chinese translator. “Ronald Spears, a great teacher, taught my first year of Chinese,” says Lish. “He gave me the right approach for learning the language, which was to go to the ‘language lab’, which I did for five hours a night, every night of the week. I was obsessed with getting the tones right.” Lish later went to China for a year with his wife, whom he met at Harvard. Teaching English in China provided him with the material for his first book, the award-winning Preparation for the Next Life.

Lish is now exploring subjects for a third book. “I just want to keep writing novels and make a mark artistically,” he states. “My idols are Homer, Euripides, Shakespeare. Tolstoy—I’d like to compete with him…what I’ll actually accomplish is anybody’s guess.”

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Credit Nation: Property Laws and Institutions in Early America (The Princeton Economic History of the Western World, 81)

BY CLAIRE PRIEST ’89 Princeton University Press The United States has a considerable credit economy; however, the laws and institutions governing credit and property are often obscure. Credit Nation examines early America and provides a new vision of American economic history and how it led to the growth of capitalism.

Color Scheme: An Irreverent History of Art and Pop Culture in Color Palettes

BY EDITH W. YOUNG ’11 Princeton Architectural Press Designer Young showcases color in a fresh, thought-provoking manner by creating 40 color palettes ranging in themes from art history (20 reds from caps in Renaissance portraits) to pop culture (16 of Prince’s concert outfits and 40 shades of NBA star Dennis Rodman’s hair dye).

Why Monet Matters: Meanings Among the Lily Pads

BY JIM RUBIN ’61 Penn State University Press French Impressionist Claude Monet is one of the world’s most beloved artists. Rubin explores the reasons behind this success, including the properties and significance of paintings such as Water Lilies and why they continue to inspire.

More Than You Can Handle

BY MIGUEL SANCHO ’88 Avery, Penguin Random House When Miguel Sancho and Felicia Morton discover that their 2-month-old son has a rare lethal disease, their lives become terrifying. The author portrays the emotional six-year journey of seeking a cure, facing additional life challenges, and eventually discovering a treatment that leads to a triumphant ending.

Bones of Hilo

BY ERIC “RIC” REDMAN ’66 Crooked Lane Books In this gripping mystery novel, a young Hawaiian detective must delve deeply into island history and lore to solve a grisly murder. Facing danger at every turn, the detective attempts to trace the origins of an ancient Hawaiian spear found driven through the heart of a resort developer.