Time Off Books Time Off Reviews TIME MEMOIR MUSIC PICKS Bons mots in a Lady Gaga returns to a new language changed mainstream that’s moved on When Lauren coLLins left her provincial North Car- lady gaga surfaced as a fully formed pop star in the olina hometown, she writes, summer of 2008, fusing ironclad hooks with a theater nerd’s “no one would have guessed avant-gardist sensibility. Her meta-narrative was all about that I would become an celebrity, which is exactly what she became when a string of American living in Switzer- monster hits elevated her to icon status in a matter of months. land with a Frenchman I’d In recent history, no other artist has had such a dizzying △ met in England.” But that’s ascent to the top of mainstream music’s pyramid, a success TELEVISION exactly what happened. And she sustained with a string of killer albums. High Maintenance, when one falls for a French- But the past three years have seen Gaga, born Stefani Ger- which follows a pot △ dealer as he makes man, one must learn French. manotta, step away from churning out chart toppers. Instead ROCKER CRED deliveries to a diverse In her emotional, erudite she has made jazz music, including a well-received duets album Gaga wrote her memoir When in French, with Tony Bennett (2014’s Cheek to Cheek), and delivered a array of New York City new single with customers, makes the the New Yorker writer docu- Golden Globe–winning performance on American Horror Tame Impala leader leap from web series to ments her linguistic labors, Story. The Sept. 8 release of her new single, “Perfect Illusion,” Kevin Parker, the HBO on Sept. 16. producer Bloodpop In Patchett’s new book, an avoidable tragedy changes the fates of two families including the missteps—she announced a return to the style that made her a star overnight. and Grammy-winning accidentally tells her mother- Or does it? “Perfect Illusion” is a big song, but it’s not a modern MOVIES artist and songwriter In the heartfelt comedy in-law she gave birth to a one. It’s anchored by a roaring refrain and features an unhinged, Mark Ronson My Blind Brother FICTION amends with your hopeful human heart. coffeemaker—on the road theatrical vocal performance and a militant drumbeat. It even has (Sept. 23), a man (Nick A death in the We don’t see the novel within the to mastery. At times she a key change on the final chorus—an appealingly old-fashioned Kroll) and his coddled novel, but it’s hard to imagine better ex- expounds on the history and diva flourish. This is all out of step with the trends. Since Gaga blind brother (Adam family inspires ecution than Patchett’s. Moving effort- philosophy of language; at stepped away from the charts, a new sound has overtaken Scott) compete for the affections of the same two works of art lessly among her people and their pasts, others, it feels like catching radio: many of today’s biggest hits have a breezy, woman (Jenny Slate). she devotes attention as lovingly to a up with a clever friend you aerobic quality, often a collaboration between a singer The parTy scene ThaT opens character whose life in this story spans haven’t seen since college. you’ve probably heard of—Justin Bieber, Rihanna— BOOKS Ann Patchett’s new novel unspools two paragraphs as she does to Franny, But the most intriguing and a DJ you probably haven’t—DJ Snake, or In Carl Hiaasen’s new novel Razor Girl like a home movie. A lawyer from the the book’s linchpin. Although the death question posed is as much Zedd. The No. 1 single in the country right now, (Sept. 6), a series of L.A. district attorney’s office, Albert that devastates the clan ostensibly drives about identity as language: “Closer,” was recorded by a pair of DJs called the unfortunate events Cousins, crashes the christening the plot, none of Are you someone else when Chainsmokers along with the Internet-famous befalls a colorful cast celebration of baby Frances, second the 322 pages lacks you speak and live in a non- singer-songwriter Halsey, and it succeeds by of characters in the daughter of L.A. cop Fix Keating. Bert a prize-worthy native tongue? “I wanted to way of a shimmering effortlessness. A song like Florida Keys, from a Hawaiian-shirt-wearing brings a bottle of gin; Beverly, Fix’s revelation in speak French and to sound “Perfect Illusion,” with its sludgy production mafioso to a reality-star wife, halves oranges from the backyard Patchett’s vibrant like North Carolina,” Collins and glam-rock urgency, is as unhip as can be. accordionist. for cocktails. Their collaboration on prose—about par- writes. “I was hoping, though Yet there’s something timely about the an assembly line of freshly squeezed ents and siblings I didn’t know whether it was sentiment, if not the execution, of Gaga’s song. ▽ drinks leads to an affair that breaks and what it means possible, to have become “Perfect Illusion” is about the way a love affair PODCASTS up two families—and joins them. It’s to grow up and let a different person without can suddenly seem fraudulent; even though it’s On “Who? Weekly,” hosts Lindsey Weber chaotic in the moment, but the patina go, and what a bad having changed.” not political, the song plays like an anthem for the and Bobby Finger of time reveals a graceful choreography. idea it is to date a —sarah begLey disenchanted, and it arrives as the U.S. threatens to divide celebrities into Commonwealth’s family saga, which novelist. boil over with frustrations about systemic injustices “thems” (the ones follows the six Keating and Cousins At the christening party, one of the and the nagging sense, across party lines, that you know) and “whos” kids over five decades, spirals around guests, Father Joe Mike, ruminates on everything is a scam. The rage that ripples through (the ones that make you go “Who?”), offer- the secret tale of a child’s death and the the sudden proliferation of gins-and- “Perfect Illusion” gives voice, uncomfortably, to ing a primer on the migration of that tale, lightly disguised, juice among the revelers: “He wanted to something simmering in the zeitgeist. interconnected web of into an award-winning novel by an tell the congregation, the few who were When Gaga came up, it was also a moment semifamous D-listers. outsider who was told the story. If you not presently in the Keatings’ backyard, of transition for America—at the height of the like your fiction to be about something, how the miracle of loaves and fishes had Great Recession. But back then, her message you could say this novel is about the been enacted here today, but he couldn’t was uniting, a rallying cry so simple it felt like a morality of profiting from someone find a way to wring enough booze out of ROSS HEIDI PATCHETT: salve: Just dance. —sam lansky else’s experience. You could also say it’s the narrative.” Patchett could wring fic- about being human—speaking human tion from a stone. It’s delightful to read After several years away words, making human choices, messing what she gets from Valencia oranges. from making radio hits, Gaga is back in the game up with human fallibility and making —radhika jones LADY GAGA: GETTY IMAGES; HIGH MAINTENANCE: HBO 58 Time September 26, 2016.