This week, I got to review Jess Walter's latest novel, So Far Gone, for the Chicago Review of Books. It's a fantastic novel -- one of my favorites of the year. And as I wrote in that review (please go check it out!), it reminds me of a greatest hits album, "incorporating career-spanning elements of all of Walter’s best fiction: Punchy, hilarious dialogue, long passages of touching interiority, and astute commentary on the absurdity of our current political moment."
It's funny, I had the parallel thought about So Far Gone in my Chicago Tribune review of the book, which I published June 7th, and which I'm confident you didn't read because the Tribune's paywall is freaking impossible to get past even if you're really trying. It makes me wonder how deliberate it was in constructing the book, or if it's just a byproduct of someone who has been at it a long time and has a lot of different clubs in the bag.
I enjoyed the book, but I had a hard time divorcing it from the moment. No spoilers, but at the end I felt like it was a book for a world in which Trump had not returned in a more virulent form. It's not the fault of the book it's this way, but I couldn't help but notice my own reaction.
Oh shoot, no I didn't see your review-- but that's awesome. Going to find it now! Truly a "great minds think alike" :) (FOR REAL, I promise I wasn't cheating off you -- I filed my review to CHIRB's Wordpress for editing on June 3!) But now that you mention it, I do wonder if it was intentional, also. I'm inclined to think that's just how his brain worked this time.
And yeah, that's a good point about the "too hopeful" ending, or our "too hopeful" interpretation as readers -- like Walter couldn't fathom it'd happen again, but we know better now.
I have not, though he's certainly been on my list. I have the new one out from the library now.
It's funny, I had the parallel thought about So Far Gone in my Chicago Tribune review of the book, which I published June 7th, and which I'm confident you didn't read because the Tribune's paywall is freaking impossible to get past even if you're really trying. It makes me wonder how deliberate it was in constructing the book, or if it's just a byproduct of someone who has been at it a long time and has a lot of different clubs in the bag.
I enjoyed the book, but I had a hard time divorcing it from the moment. No spoilers, but at the end I felt like it was a book for a world in which Trump had not returned in a more virulent form. It's not the fault of the book it's this way, but I couldn't help but notice my own reaction.
Oh shoot, no I didn't see your review-- but that's awesome. Going to find it now! Truly a "great minds think alike" :) (FOR REAL, I promise I wasn't cheating off you -- I filed my review to CHIRB's Wordpress for editing on June 3!) But now that you mention it, I do wonder if it was intentional, also. I'm inclined to think that's just how his brain worked this time.
And yeah, that's a good point about the "too hopeful" ending, or our "too hopeful" interpretation as readers -- like Walter couldn't fathom it'd happen again, but we know better now.
I have not, dude. but I'll add to the list!
😅
I loved Financial Lives but had trouble getting into others. May have to pick up this new one!