THE HOUR OF LEAD
By Bruce Holbert Spokane author Bruce Holbert’s second novel is more intricate and ambitious than his first. As a result, it satisfies in different ways. Opening with a legendary snowstorm in 1918, it tackles the Western myth — a recurring theme for Holbert — by creating a mythology of its own through larger-than-life characters inspired in part by the Greco-Roman pantheon. Suspenseful and sinister, with exquisite passages on love, loss and landscape, The Hour of Lead should make a welcome gift to anyone with an affinity for literary fiction; the local tie is just a bonus. Kirkus called the book a “masterpiece” when it appeared and recently selected it for inclusion among the 100 best works of fiction from 2014. (EJI)
CAN’T WE TALK ABOUT SOMETHING MORE PLEASANT?
By Roz Chast After cartoonist Roz Chast watched her elderly parents decline physically and mentally in their cramped Brooklyn apartment, then move into assisted living and inevitably pass away (both well into their nineties), she did what anyone might do: She documented the bizarre emotional journey in a book of illustrations. Her first memoir chronicles her confusion, her frustration, her helplessness and her sadness, but it does so with sincerity, self-effacing humor and a hefty appreciation for the absurd. (EJI)
THE NARROW ROAD TO THE DEEP NORTH
By Richard Flanagan Among the many atrocities of World War II, the construction of a Thailandto-Burma railway that took the lives of about 13,000 prisoners of war and 100,000 forced laborers has become a historical footnote. Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel about the Japanese “death railway” redresses that attention deficit. Drawing its title from a travelogue by the poet Bashō and its events from the experience of Flanagan’s late father, The Narrow Road to the Deep North offers a stark portrayal of human savagery and resilience through the story of an Australian surgeon toiling to save his fellow captives from disease and death. (EJI)
RICH AND POOR
By Jim Goldberg Starting in 1977, Jim Goldberg spent eight years photographing San Franciscans who found themselves at opposing ends of America’s socioeconomic extremes. The resulting work was equal parts art, politics and ethnography. Beyond its raw and occasionally unsettling imagery, what makes Rich and Poor all the more powerful is that Goldberg didn’t deem his lens the sole arbiter of documentary truth. He allowed his subjects to caption their images, and they did so in candid and poignant ways: “I am Trying everyday to be Something, Instead of that nothing I Look like,” one participant writes in a faltering cursive. The redesigned reissue by Steidl (the original has been out of print since 1985) includes an accordion-style foldout, new photos and reflections from the artist 30 years on. (EJI)
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TENNESSEE WILLIAMS: MAD PILGRIMAGE OF THE FLESH
By John Lahr If you managed to catch The Modern’s recent staging of The Glass Menagerie, you might have wondered how much autobiography managed to seep into that self-professed “memory play.” Critic John Lahr’s absorbing biography of Williams answers that question and many others besides by delving into the life, writings and mind of the playwright himself. All the elements that have come to define great drama surrounded Williams: fraught family dynamics, artistic passion, sexual discovery, madness and fame. What he crafted out of those elements is what makes him a figure worth reading about, especially as told by Lahr. (EJI)
Worley, Idaho | 1 800 523-2464 | CDACASINO.COM DECEMBER 18, 2014 INLANDER 25