The Tribune | Weekend |11
Friday, October 1, 2021
books
This week’s new page-turners • Chronicles from the Land of the Happiest People on Earth: A Novel By Wole Soyinka The first Black winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature gives us a tour de force, his first novel in nearly half a century: a savagely satiric, gleefully irreverent, rollicking fictional meditation on how power and greed can corrupt the soul of a nation. In an imaginary Nigeria, a cunning entrepreneur is selling body parts stolen from Dr Menka’s hospital for use in ritualistic practices. Dr. Menka shares the grisly news with his oldest college friend, bon viveur, star engineer, and Yoruba royal, Duyole Pitan-Payne. The life of every party, Duyole is about to assume a prestigious post at the United Nations in New York, but it now seems that someone is determined that he not make it there. And neither Dr Menka nor Duyole knows why, or how close the enemy is, or how powerful. • Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters By Steven Pinker Today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding--and also appears to be losing its mind. How can a species that developed vaccines for COVID-19 in less than a year produce so much fake news, medical quackery, and
conspiracy theorising? Pinker rejects the cynical cliché that humans are simply irrational - cavemen out of time saddled with biases, fallacies, and illusions. After all, we discovered the laws of nature, lengthened and enriched our lives, and set out the benchmarks for rationality itself. We actually think in ways that are sensible in the lowtech contexts in which we spend most of our lives, but fail to take advantage of the powerful tools of reasoning we’ve discovered over the millennia: logic, critical thinking, probability, correlation and causation, and optimal ways to update beliefs and commit to choices individually and with others. These tools are not a standard part of our education, and have never been presented clearly and entertainingly in a single book - until now. • The Ex Hex By Erin Sterling Nine years ago, Vivienne Jones nursed her broken heart like any young witch would: vodka, weepy music, bubble baths… and a curse on the horrible boyfriend. Sure, Vivi knows she shouldn’t use her magic this way, but with only an “orchard hayride” scented candle on hand, she isn’t worried it will cause him anything more than a bad hair day or two. That is until Rhys Penhallow, descendent of the town’s ancestors, breaker of hearts, and annoyingly just as gorgeous as he always was, returns to Graves Glen, Georgia. What should be a quick trip to recharge the town’s ley lines and make an appearance at the annual fall festival turns disastrously wrong. With one calamity after another striking Rhys, Vivi realises her silly little Ex Hex may not have been so harmless after all. Suddenly, Graves Glen is under attack from murderous wind-up toys, a pissed off ghost, and a talking cat with some interesting things to say. Vivi and Rhys have to ignore their off the charts chemistry to work together to save the town and find a way to break the break-up curse before it’s too late.
Oprah Winfrey chooses Richard Powers’ ‘Bewilderment’ for book club’ NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey’s new book club pick is Richard Powers’ “Bewilderment,” his first novel since the Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Overstory” and already on the fiction longlist for the National Book Awards. “My next selection is from one of our country’s greatest living writers, Richard Powers, who writes some of the most beautiful sentences I’ve ever read,” Winfrey said in a statement Tuesday. The 64-year-old Powers, whose other books include “Orfeo” and “The Echo Maker,” winner of the National Book Award in 2006, said in a statement that he was “honoured and moved to be named an ‘Oprah Book Club’ selection.” ”‘Bewildered’ doesn’t begin to describe it,” he added. “This is among the most rewarding recognitions I’ve received over my 40-year career.” Winfrey’s interview with Powers will air October 22 on Apple TV Plus. Powers is known for complex narratives that often center on science, technology and the environment. “Bewilderment,” published last week, tells of a widowed astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches who for life throughout the cosmos while singlehandedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain The announcement on Tuesday comes just over a month since Winfrey’s previous book club choice: Honorée Fanonne Jeffers’ debut novel “The Love Songs of WEB Du Bois.”
