Rico's Reviews

A lot less known and heralded than she should be, Eisenberg is one of the finest short story writers working today. Her writing combines the command of character and setting of Alice Munro with the sharp humor and social skewering of George Saunders. Her stories are slyly observant, often edgy, usually funny, and always surprising in their turns and revelations. And they never fail to pack an emotional punch. Because it’s been more than a decade since her last collection of new work—Eisenberg is what is known as a “patient” writer—I, like the rest of her fans, will be lining up for this one. - Rico

When a once wealthy Upper West Side widow and her emotionally childish adult son have, after years of spendthrift foolishness, finally burned through all their money, they head for Paris. They bring Small Frank, their cat, because the widow believes he is animated by the soul of her dead husband—an infamously immoral lawyer. The characters here are awful—narcissistic, cruel, warped by money and privilege—but their story is hilarious and strangely compelling. As always, DeWitt’s writing is crisp and dead-pan witty. He creates a world that is, shall we say, different from the one you and I live in, but still believable—in a totally crazy way. I happily tore through this in a couple days, smiling the whole time. - Rico

Stegner’s masterpiece features two plots, one modern-day and the other from the 1800s, as it tells the story of a historian trying to write the biography of his long-dead grandmother. Featuring gorgeous prose and characters as real and tangible as granite, the book is an iconic novel of the west and a deeply moving narrative of one family and our national collective past. - Rico

This quiet, unassuming novel has a strange power that grows with every page. Putatively telling the story of a meek academic beset by seemingly small setbacks, it captures, in heartbreaking detail, the story of a human life—flawed, poignant and ultimately tragic. Once out of print, it’s now more popular than ever, and will likely be around for a very long time to come. - Rico

Randy Morgenson spent 28 seasons as a backcountry ranger, helping countless hikers—some lost, some hungry, some hurt—find their way back to civilization. When he himself disappeared, fellow rangers began a desperate search to find him. Well-researched and written with the urgency of a murder mystery, this is one of the best books about the outdoors you’ll ever read. - Rico

The reasons for the 2008 housing crisis and ensuing Great Recession are numerous and complicated but McLean and Nocera do an outstanding job of starting at the beginning and telling the story, through all its various strands, in such a way as to make it compelling and comprehensible. I’ve read a handful of books on the financial crisis and this is the best of the bunch. - Rico

This is one of the strangest—and best-written—memoirs I’ve ever read. It tells the story of Michael’s aunt Harriet who, along with her husband Irving, is a very successful screenwriter. (She and Irving wrote Norma Rae, among other big movies.) Because Harriet has no children of her own, and because she senses “great potential” in Michael, she zeroes in on him when he’s still a very young child and essentially steals him (emotionally speaking) from his own family. Great awkwardness and emotional confusion follows. - Rico

A music journalist and lifelong classic rock fanatic, Hyden takes a sentimental, occasionally quirky trip through the genre he loves, revisiting the bands that have meant the most to him and to millions of other fans. As he says, he learned more about adult relationships from Fleetwood Mac’s album Rumours than he did from his own father. Now himself a husband and father, he ponders the state of classic rock as it enters its twilight years. Will it last after all its stars have passed on? If so, what will it mean to be a fan? - Rico

Kushner’s new novel opens with the main character Romy Hall on the way to prison to serve a life sentence for murder. As much the story of Hall’s life in prison, it’s the story of her past—her childhood on the streets of San Francisco, her experiences as an exotic dancer, and the circumstances surrounding her crime. Kushner writes effortlessly, with compassion for people struggling to survive in modern California’s darkest corners. - Rico

Trevor has long been one of my favorite short story writers. Like Thomas Hardy or Alice Munro, two writers he was often compared to, he could convey an entire life—its triumphs and sorrows—in a few deft sentences. When he died in 2016, the world lost one of its great artists. The stories collected here are the last he ever wrote. Each one makes clear the open-hearted, almost painful, compassion he felt for his characters. If you’ve yet to discover Trevor for yourself, this is a great place to start. - Rico