Critic Bethanne Patrick recommends 10 promising titles, fiction and nonfiction, to consider for your June reading list.
With books tied to historic anniversaries and about two driven women, June offers powerful perspectives on what and how we remember. The novelists address social rejection, ghosts of ancestors, and grief on the beach; non-fiction writers with overturned jurisprudence, misplaced aspirations and laying claim to the legacy of a brilliant comic.
FICTION
The future was color: a novel
By Patrick Nathan
Counterpoint: 224 pages, $26
(June 4)
Nathan employs the timeless “stranger comes to town” plot, when a gay Hungarian Jew named George Curtis is invited to an elegant Malibu home to enjoy the heyday of 1950s Hollywood. However, George's backstory in Manhattan and his future in Paris complement that bacchanal and show how dark the shadow of McCarthyism and its “lavender fear” loomed over queer society, as other paranoias of the time did over others. people, reminding readers that things have not changed. enough.
Godwin
By Joseph O'Neill
Pantheon: 288 pages, $28
(June 4)
From “Netherland” to “The Dog” and now “Godwin,” O'Neill has shown a strong interest in team sports (cricket, soccer) and colonialism (in Dubai and Africa in general). As protagonist Mark Wolfe, recently disgraced at his job in Pittsburgh, attempts to help his half-brother track down an African soccer star (the titular Godwin), the biting humor and sharp observations of late capitalism shed light on the theme of how and where. and when we support each other.
Tiananmen Square: a novel
By Lai Wen
Spiegel & Grau: 528 pages, $22
(June 4)
June 4 marks the 35th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. The pseudonymous Lai Wen's fictional account of his upbringing under Communism and the friendships he forged as a student offers an important window into what drove the Chinese student protests that ended in violence. Despite knowing the outcome, readers will be fascinated by the author's thoughtful and moving narrative of coming to political consciousness in a time of danger.
Sandwich: a novel
By Catherine Newman
Harper: 240 pages, $27
(June 18)
With thriller-like pacing, poetry-like observations, and memoir-like real-life conflicts, Newman's novel about a family week on Cape Cod should find a place in your beach bag, even if your own vacation Summer is in Bali. Menopausal Rocky, her husband, her two oldest children (along with her partner), and her elderly parents enjoy time-honored traditions, but they also have to figure out how to negotiate the changing weather for all of them.
The Devil's All Right: A Novel
By John Vercher
Celadon Books: 272 pages, $29
(June 18)
Vercher's second novel offers a surprising perspective, even darker than “American fiction,” on what it means to be a person of color operating within our nation's book publishing industry. As the unnamed narrator grapples with raising a teenage son, he receives an unexpected inheritance from his white mother's family that triggers tragic visions and allows him to finally untangle his feelings about his own identity.
NON-FICTION
Miss May does not exist: the life and work of Elaine May, the hidden genius of Hollywood
By Carrie Courogen
SMP: 400 pages, $30
(June 4)
Elaine May, 92, exists, and Carrie Courogen's biography of May shows her long, vibrant career, and how many of her contemporaries ignored her particular talent for writing comedy. Despite her stellar and groundbreaking work with Mike Nichols, May did not experience a career breakout until age 50, when she became known as a script repairer. Today, her commitment to creative control sounds like an important note for women in media.
The Fall of Roe: The Rise of a New America
By Elizabeth Dias and Lisa Lerer
Flatiron Books: 448 pages, $33
(June 4)
The subtitle of this new book by New York Times reporters Dias (religion) and Lerer (politics) underscores how the conservative religious faction's secretive and far-reaching strategy of putting anti-abortion activists in the spotlight changed rights. of Americans in June 2022. The authors warn that if Democrats do not change their own strategy, we could see an entirely different nation emerge because of a single issue.
Monster of Ambition: A Memoir
By Jennifer Romolini
Atrium: 304 pages, $29
(June 4)
Host of the “Everything Is Fine” podcast and author of “Weird in a World That's Not,” Romolini focuses here on her own difficult upbringing and (at least at first) her dysfunctional relationship with achievement and its signs, from the office of corner up to a substantial salary. . Even after earning all that, she didn't feel fulfilled. This very personal narrative documents how the author separated herself from her inner fears to find a more authentic path.
When the Sea Came to Life: An Oral History of D-Day
By Garrett M. Graff
Avid Reader Press: 608 pages, $33
(June 4)
June 4 also marks the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy, and Graff's collection of the stories of 700 participants offers a compelling window into the kind of military maneuvers that few living Americans can remember. The surprise landing of more than 150,000 Allied troops on French beaches led to the eventual defeat of the Axis powers. Reading survivors' experiences in their own words is a solemn practice.
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
By Griffin Dunne
Penguin Press: 400 pages, $30
(June 11)
Griffin Dunne has spent his entire life surrounded by brilliant writers: his father, Dominick Dunne; her uncle and his aunt, John Gregory Dunne and his wife Joan Didion; and his brother, Alex Dunne. Griffin Dunne is also a noted actor, director and producer. Perhaps the literary talent displayed in his harrowing memoir should come as no surprise. Still, his deeply felt account of the murder of his sister Dominique in 1982, which opens the book, is surprising for its honesty, sobriety, and elegant structure.
