16 ine ine N BIANCA BAGNARELLI BIANCA ONTINUED ON PAGE ON ONTINUED C celebrates physicist A he catastrophic threat of of threat catastrophic he T ACK ATTACK ATTACK ACK UILDING BLOCKS UILDING ooks to get you started you get to ooks HE ESSENTIAL OCTAVIA BUTLER OCTAVIA ESSENTIAL HE yberweapons he elementary particles elementary he t H B T c b At 22, she graduates from college and moves from 22, she graduates At tween, with haunting similarities. For Jaouad, with haunting similarities. For tween, with an itch.” “it began she has a pink clamshell bathtub where to Paris, She boyfriend. and a kindhearted, square-jawed and and speak French the double bass play can to be a foreign herself she is readying Arabic; life is a potent bud, but just Her correspondent. Memoir ofa ETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS TWO ETWEEN y Suleika Jaouad ife Interrupted B A L B $28. House. Random 368 pp. “Between Two Kingdoms,” by Suleika Jaouad, by Suleika Kingdoms,” Two “Between old man with a maxi pad taped over his mouth over old man with a maxi pad taped and terrified, confused and were and nose. We the rules or the toll of our understand did not yet insisted on the language of We new world. the beginning, In we “put on hold.” lives “pause,” the pandemic as a suspended time be- treated could hold our hoping we realities, two tween for things to resume. and wait breath to another kind of in-be- as a guide has arrived aper signs were taped onto cafe taped aper signs were p

We worried each day that death would reach that death would each day worried We N MARCH 2020, MARCH N down its hand and pluck up a loved one. I saw an one. I saw up a loved its hand and pluck down windows: “We are committed to flattening the to flattening committed are “We windows: Overnight, weeks!” in two see you curve, toi- away squirreled emptied as humans shelves Our cal- nuts for a long winter. like let paper rolls wiped clean, indefinitely blank. were endars I The New Not Normal FEBRUARY 21, 2021 By Chanel Miller *2LB1* 2 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 Book Review FEBRUARY 21, 2021 THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Now in Paperback

Fiction & Poetry 17 KAMALA’S WAY An American Life 7 Historical Fiction By Dan Morain Reviewed by Alida Becker Reviewed by Lisa McGirr

8 WE RUN THE TIDES 17 BUGSY SIEGEL By Vendela Vida The Dark Side of the American Dream Reviewed by Molly Fischer By Michael Shnayerson Reviewed by Jenna Weissman Joselit 14 ZORRIE By Laird Hunt Reviewed by Alyson Hagy Children’s Books

14 THE DELIVERY 18 ANCESTOR APPROVED By Peter Mendelsund Intertribal Stories for Kids Reviewed by Andy Newman Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith

THE SEA-RINGED WORLD 22 The Shortlist Sacred Stories of the Americas Poetry By María García Esperón Reviewed by Emilia Phillips Illustrated by Amanda Mijangos Reviewed by Aditi Sriram Nonfiction Features 1 BETWEEN TWO KINGDOMS A Memoir of a Life Interrupted 6 By the Book By Suleika Jaouad Joe Ide Reviewed by Chanel Miller

12 The Essential Octavia Butler 9 THE BLACK CHURCH By Stephen Kearse This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Reviewed by Jon Meacham 23 Revisited A History of the Comedian Memoir The Nobel Prize–winning By Jason Zinoman 10 DOOMED ROMANCE Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual economist’s accessible briefing Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America By Christine Leigh Heyrman Etc. on today’s major policy issues. Reviewed by Caroline Fraser 4 New & Noteworthy “In an era when facts are too often disdained and discarded, 11 THIS IS HOW THEY TELL ME THE WORLD 5 Letters ENDS Paul Krugman wields them like a rapier.” 19 Best-Seller Lists The Cyberweapons Arms Race —DAVID AXELROD By Nicole Perlroth 19 Editors’ Choice Reviewed by Jonathan Tepperman 20 Inside the List “He avoids the herd mentality of most journalism. 20 15 FUNDAMENTALS Paperback Row Applying history, math, and humanity, Ten Keys to Reality he transforms our By Frank Wilczek Reviewed by Nell Freudenberger understanding of great issues.” —DAVID CAY JOHNSTON

TO SUBSCRIBE to the Book Review by mail, visit nytimes.com/getbookreview or call 1-800-631-2580

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 3 / Visual A Special Edition On Sale Now New & Noteworthy

TODAY’S SPECIAL: 20 LEADING CHEFS CHOOSE 100 EMERGING CHEFS, by Phaidon editors. (Phaidon, $59.95.) Celebrated food industry Uncover veterans from Daniela Soto-Innes to Yotam Ottolenghi herald the greatest up-and-coming Your Path culinary talent from around the world. TOM SACHS: HANDMADE PAINTINGS, by David Rimanelli with Naomi Fry. (Rizzoli, $65.) The to Success New York artist’s first career retrospective traces his long engagement with American consumerism and popular iconography, as re- flected in his paintings of everything from the flag to “Family Guy.”

CITY HALL, by Arthur Drooker. (Schiffer, $60.) In 88 photographs and stories of city halls around the country, from San Francisco to Philadelphia, in styles ranging from Art Deco to Beaux-Arts and beyond, Drooker connects architectural and municipal history with civic pride.

EBONY: COVERING BLACK AMERICA, by Lavaille Lavette. (Rizzoli, $57.50.) Lavette, a children’s book author and expert in educational mar- keting, here pays tribute to the magazine that was founded in 1945 as an outlet and podium for Black America.

THE TAROT OF LEONORA CARRINGTON, by Susan Aberth and Tere Arcq. (Fulgur Press, $50.) Carrington was a renowned Surrealist painter and novelist; this deck of tarot designs reveals a different side of her otherworldly art.

WHAT WE’RE READING

The British writer Iris Murdoch’s fourth novel , THE BELL, is set in a lay religious community just outside the walls of an Anglican convent. The misfit central characters eye the abbey warily at times, and at other times reverently, as all pre- pare for the arrival of a huge new bronze bell to replace one lost centuries ago under mysterious With stories on building the ideal skill set, profiles in leadership and circumstances. Published in 1958, the book has some weighty themes — religion, community, power, sexuality, regret, good and evil — but stirring examples of those who broke the mold, this special edition will don’t mistake it for a drag. “To say that ‘The Bell’ is a novel of ideas is help you be a motivator, build results and succeed. to misdescribe it,” A. S. Byatt writes in the introduction to the Pen- guin Classics edition. “It is better to say that ‘The Bell’ is a novel about people who have ideas.” I picked it up recently on the recom- The New York Times Leadership special edition is now available mendation of a dear old friend, and found myself immediately press- from your favorite retailer, magazine.store, or Amazon.com ing it on other kindred spirits. In a dark season, sharing the existence of a story as propulsive and transportive as this one is practically a moral duty. And did I mention its impeccably satisfying ending? ©2020 Meredith Corporation. All rights reserved. —RUTH GRAHAM, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT COVERING RELIGION, FAITH AND VALUES

4 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 Letters

parole (LWOP) statutes as an alternative to the death penalty. NEW FROM THE EDITORS OF Before my retirement from the THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE U.S. attorney’s office in Los An- geles, I was the lead prosecutor in death penalty cases, including one of the first such cases in Los Angeles in more than 25 years, and a case in which we sought the deaths of members of the Aryan Brotherhood prison gang. The death penalty was not imposed on any of those defend- ants. Some of the defendants offered to agree to a sentence of LWOP if the government with- drew the notice of seeking the death penalty. At trial, after being found guilty of a capital BROOKE BARKER crime, some of the defendants argued to the penalty jury that a Off the Shelves library buildings are closed, you sentence of LWOP was punish- can still borrow books from your ment enough, and that such a TO THE EDITOR: library. sentence eliminated the future The blurb for Brooke Barker’s SUE BENNETT dangerousness of any murderer. terrific Sketchbook of neighbor- WALDPORT, ORE. It is my own belief that the hood “little free libraries” (Jan. increased availability and use of 10) says that “you can still bor- When Empires Collide LWOP sentences closely corre- row books for free even when sponds to the decreased use of public libraries are closed.” While TO THE EDITOR: the death penalty in America. the sketch is a wonderful adver- In his absorbing review of John In the federal system, a vote of tisement for little free libraries — Ghazvinian’s “America and Iran: 11-1 in favor of death results in a which I, as a librarian, fully A History, 1720 to the Present” life sentence, and the federal support — I do want to correct (Jan. 24), Abbas Milani writes that government, unlike prosecutors the statement “when public “Iran was a coveted prize in the in some states, is not free to seek libraries are closed.” 19th-century Big Game between a mistrial and try the penalty Many public libraries did close. Russia and England.” It’s a small phase again before a different However, it was only the build- terminological point, but the jury. ings that closed; library staff proper phrase is the “Great STEPHEN G. WOLFE around the world have worked Game,” which refers to the compe- PASADENA, CALIF. hard to find new ways to provide tition for control of Central Asia library materials for their pa- starting from the late 19th century, Woman at Work trons, schools and communities and was popularized by Rudyard while implementing new health Kipling. Of course the more telling TO THE EDITOR: mandates to keep everyone safe. fact is that these clashing imperi- Michael Sims’s essay on Charles Many libraries have found alist powers could look upon their Darwin’s view of women (Feb. 7) ingenious ways to keep their bloody rivalry as a form of games- is the best thing on Harriet Mar- communities reading. Our li- manship. tineau to appear in a century. brary in Waldport, Ore., used the BENJAMIN GEORGE FRIEDMAN Kudos to Sims for recognizing drive-through window of an old NEW YORK one of the powerful women of the bank building through last spring 19th century. She played a major and summer, where patrons were Life Without Parole role in the abolition campaign When reality is surreal, able to pull up and pick up their that finally determined the out- only fiction can make sense of it. items (including summer read- TO THE EDITOR: come of the Civil War. ing giveaways with books and Although I found Anand Girid- LYN PAUL RELPH Take & Make kits). We continue haradas’s review of Maurice TUCSON, ARIZ. 29 new stories from Margaret Atwood, Colm Tóibín, to provide services back at the Chammah’s “Let the Lord Sort Karen Russell, Tommy Orange, Leïla Slimani, Waldport Public Library through Them: The Rise and Fall of the CORRECTION David Mitchell, Rachel Kushner, Edwidge Danticat, porch pickup and monthly online Death Penalty” (Feb. 7) insight- Charles Yu, and many more programs. ful and fascinating, it seems to A picture caption with an essay Just as we are doing, libraries me that the reviewer, and per- on Feb. 7 about Charles Darwin, everywhere are working hard to haps the author (I have not read using information from Getty continue serving communities the book), may have missed Images, misstated the date of a through online programming, what could be the single greatest photograph of Darwin. It was ALSOAVAILABLEASANEBOOKANDANAUDIOBOOK downloadable checkouts and factor accounting for the declin- taken around 1881, not “circa appropriate ways to safely pick ing use of the death penalty in 1854.” up books with little to no contact. the United States: the effect on So while many of the public jurors’ minds of life without [email protected]

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 5 By the Book

Margaret; and do you not feel your blood congeal with horror, like that which even now curdles mine?” Edgar Allan Poe is often cited as the originator of both hor- ror and science fiction. Mary Shelley beat him to the punch by 20 years.

Do you count any books as comfort reads, or guilty pleasures? Before John le Carré’s death, I was among the many who wanted him to stop reading German poetry and wandering Independent publishers and the Swiss Alps and write another book, authors of not-so-independent with or without George Smiley. I’ve read means receive special and reread his books many times. The discounted advertising rates stories are now familiar, but they’re so every Sunday in The New York densely written and intricately drawn, so Times Book Review. sweeping and rich with incident and ideas, there’s always something new to ponder and appreciate. For more information, please contact Mark Hiler Which books got you hooked on crime at (212) 556-8452. fiction? Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes. Reach an influential audience The world’s first consulting detective had for less. no expertise in martial arts or computer hacking, he wasn’t wealthy or athletic and he didn’t slaughter his enemies NDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2008 wholesale with automatic weapons. Sher- lock vanquished his enemies and pursued his destiny with just his intelligence. He could face his world and not be afraid. That was a powerful idea for a small kid in a big neighborhood. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the Sherlock stories repre- Joe Ide sented hope and optimism. They said there was a way, even for a kid like me, to The mystery writer, whose new novel is ‘Smoke,’ recently read ‘Frank- face his own world and not be afraid. enstein’ for the first time: ‘Edgar Allan Poe is often cited as the origina- Do you distinguish between “commer- tor of both horror and science fiction. Mary Shelley beat him.’ cial” and “literary” fiction? Where’s that line, for you? You’re organizing a literary dinner party. daughter of intellectual radicals, wrote The writing. Colson Whitehead’s “The Which three writers, dead or alive, do “Frankenstein” when she was 18 years Underground Railroad” and Delia Ow- you invite? old. Shelley’s orphan was far from the ens’s “Where the Crawdads Sing” were both very commercial and very literary. Gore Vidal, Truman Capote and Ernest oft-seen lumbering brute. Her impossibly intelligent creation valued philosophy, I’ve read many a literary novel that were Hemingway. Vidal hated Capote and neither. Hemingway. Hemingway hated Capote social justice and natural beauty, and was influenced by Goethe’s “The Sorrows of and Vidal. Capote probably hated Hem- What kind of reader were you as a child? Young Werther” and “Paradise Lost,” ingway and Vidal. I like lively conversa- Which childhood books and authors stick John Milton’s epic, 10,000-line poem tion. with you most? which has intimidated anyone who ever What’s the most interesting thing you attended a university. Shelley blamed I didn’t become an avid reader until I was learned from a book recently? humans for birthing evil. She imagined a in college. There were children’s books in creature spawned by scientific abomina- our house but little else except second- That my back problems are emotional. tion, yet innately innocent; cruelty, abuse hand National Geographics and Reader’s Digests. My favorites were A. A. Milne’s Are there any classic novels that you only and abandonment transforming a child- Winnie-the-Pooh stories and poems. My recently read for the first time? like purity into rage and retribution. Her orphan reminded me of myself as a mom read them to me until she said a Subscribe to the Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein.” The me- New York Times Crossword. young man; my sorrow for the world and high school student shouldn’t be sitting dia versions of “Frankenstein” were so on her lap. nytimes.com/solvenow unresolved doubts with no expectation of thoroughly ingrained in me, I had dis- everlasting comfort. Shelley never had missed the book as dated and banal. A much use for religion, in life and her What book are you planning to read couple of writer friends told me I was books. Her notion that a human endeavor next? completely wrongheaded. Sadly, not an could create life mocked the whole idea of “These Women,” by Ivy Pochoda. “Won- unusual occurrence. In 1816, the celebrat- a sole creator. Her narrator, Walton, der Valley” knocked me out. 0 ed poet, London’s Lord Byron, challenged describes in his last letter the experience his houseguests to write a ghost story. Shelley intended for her audience: “You Mary Wollstonecraft (later, Shelley), the An expanded version of this interview is have read this strange and terrific story, available at nytimes.com/books.

6 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY JILLIAN TAMAKI HISTORICAL FICTION / BY ALIDA BECKER NEW Time Machine from Katherine Schulten and THE NEW YORK TIMES

“WHATEVER YOU DO, whatever you translation, has been tentatively voices, as do servants and hangers- Learning Network call your form of government, you titled “Dying Is Easier Than on at the family home. And an end up with a sultan at the top.” Loving.” interlude on a tiny island, where the When LOVE IN THE DAYS OF REBEL- kidnapped Xiumi awaits her fate, “The essays in Student Voice loudly proclaim LION (Europa, 496 pp., paper, $19) GE FEI ALSO describes the collapse accompanied by a Buddhist nun, is what young writers are capable of: insightful was first published in Turkey in of a dynasty, but his Jiangnan properly foreboding. Wherever she 2001, Ahmet Altan, the author who Trilogy only burnished his status finds herself, Xiumi will make an opinions, thoughtful argument, compelling gave those words to one of his in the People’s Republic, helping effort to chart her own course, but evidence, and—most importantly—lively writing.” characters, was a free man and to make him one of the most it seems inevitable that at times she Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the former respected writers in 21st-century will feel “like a fallen leaf caught in — Elyse Eidman-Aadahl, Executive Director, mayor of Istanbul, was just begin- China. Canaan Morse’s transla- a river, trapped in the current and ning his rise to national promi- tion of the opening volume, PEACH dragged through the water before National Writing Project nence. But Brendan Freely and BLOSSOM PARADISE (New York Re- she could even make a sound.” Yelda Turedi’s translation of Altan’s view Books, 392 pp., paper, $17.95), novel arrives under different cir- showcases its deft mix of history, THE TITLE CHARACTER in OLAV cumstances, with President Erdo- myth and invention, depicting a AUDUNSSON: VOWS (University of gan in power and Altan behind Minnesota, 336 pp., paper, $17.95) bars, accused of crimes against the expresses similar feelings at the state for his activities as a journal- outset of this novel of medieval ist. Reading the newly released Norway, the first in a four-volume second volume of Altan’s Ottoman saga that appeared almost a Quartet suggests that the death of century ago — and, along with the his country’s old empire may shed better-known Kristin Lavransdat- light on the new ones that followed. ter trilogy, won the Nobel Prize As in its predecessor, “Like a for its author, Sigrid Undset. Tiina Sword Wound,” Altan’s lush swirl Nunnally’s new translation cap- of intrigue is filtered through the tures the dark imperatives of a consciousness of a modern-day land where clan loyalties and citizen of Istanbul, holed up in his ancient codes of honor have be- grandfather’s decaying mansion, come ensnarled in the struggle channeling the stories of his between rising powers: the ancestors and those who sur- church and the royal court. Inev- rounded them. The action unfolds itably, orphaned Olav and Ingunn, in the barracks of army officers the bride promised to him by his SIMONE MARTIN-NEWBERRY and their troops, in the shadows foster father, will find themselves of a monastery of Sufi dervishes caught up in the conflict. and in the chambers of the sul- young woman’s emergence from What resources do this pair of tan’s palace, where he indulges her sheltered childhood to con- teenagers have except guile, his fear of the dark and his front the realities of a land on the courage and luck? Unfortunately, hunger for gossip and rumor. brink of violent change. they’re also classic adolescents — The sultan’s physician and son It’s the end of the 19th century, impetuous, stubborn, self-ab- are among the main players, as are and Xiumi, the daughter of a sorbed. Until Olav comes of age, an army officer and a sheikh who wealthy landowner, is living at the they’re at the mercy of Ingunn’s never leaves his quarters but ex- family mansion in the village of family. Flight to the security of a Now collected for the first time in one volume, erts his influence well beyond its Puji. This is a household of wom- community of Dominican monks walls. Yet the women are the ones en; her father has wandered off, offers only a temporary respite. Student Voice: 100 Argument Essays by who command their — and our — apparently disappearing into thin And when a murder takes place Teens on Issues That Ma! er spotlights the attention. The physician’s es- air. Is he an eccentric madman? on this holy ground, exile for Olav tranged Egyptian wife matches her Or is he just one of the many is the only recourse. perspectives of 13-to-18-year-olds on race, lockdown beauty against that of her wayward characters who’ve been led astray As the years pass, Olav joins the drills, immigration, Covid-19, social media, and more. daughter-in-law. The Polish-born by their visions of a perfect soci- retinue of a powerful earl fighting widow of an elderly pasha amuses ety? One such is her mother’s in Denmark and Ingunn is left to herself with casual affairs, then lover, who leaves behind a diary bide her time at a remote estate , a succumbs to the charms of a soldier disclosing revolutionary activi- disgrace to her relations and, in- Also available as a 2-book set with Raising ties. Another is a bandit lord creasingly, to herself. The vows she lover. A new mother seethes with Student Voice , a guide with classroom-ready hatred for her husband while a whose dream of creating a perfect and Olav have made to each other teenager finds herself drawn to an refuge in a lakeside village will go appear to be fraying. Ingunn may activities, writing prompts, and a sample essay older man. All must make their way up in flames. Might yet another become tired of waiting and Olav in a city where “being victorious be Xiumi herself? may become too diverted by his life annotated by Times judges. was as dangerous as being de- Xiumi’s attempts to right the as a warrior. “For a man who in- feated.” Small wonder that the third wrongs that have been done to her sists on doing what he wants to do,” volume of the series, next up for — and to others — take place in a a wise prelate has warned him, vividly evoked array of settings. “there will soon come a day when ALIDA BECKER is a former editor at The inhabitants of Puji village offer he sees he has done what he never the Book Review. an energetic chorus of background intended to do.” 0

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 7 Girl Group The Book A coming-of-age novel set in 1980s San Francisco. Review Podcast By MOLLY FISCHER

We speak IS THERE A better way to come of age than in the first-person plural? Teenage stories to the books take well to a “we.” Think of Jeffrey Eu- genides’s “The Virgin Suicides,” narrated that speak in an amorphous chorus of male adoles- cence, all those neighborhood boys speak- to you. ing in a single voice of shared desire. The teenage “we” bespeaks an anxiety to be- long, a craving for group identity that marks others as outsiders — but also a will- ingness to issue sweeping judgments and proclamations (“Everyone is going,

WE RUN THE TIDES By Vendela Vida 254 pp. Ecco. $26.99.

Mom!”). Maybe no one belongs with so much certainty ever again. “We” is where the heroine begins in “We Run the Tides,” the sixth novel from the Be- liever co-founder Vendela Vida, and the book follows her as she emerges from this Vendela Vida first-person-plural embrace. An eighth grader at a San Francisco girls school in 1984, she bears the unlikely name of Eula- but that Maria Fabiola goes on to propa- bee. “My dad liked a painting of a woman gate (the man was touching himself, he Vida captures that unstable Hosted by Pamela Paul. named Eulabee Dix,” she explains in one of threatened to return for them later) gener- period teetering between the text’s magpie assortment of cultural al- ates a flurry of attention, and leaves Eula- childhood and young adulthood. “The Book Review” lusions, this one to an early-20th-century bee an outcast when she declines to take up podcast leads the American painter of portrait miniatures. the party line. Then, in the days that follow, conversation on Vida’s Eulabee lives in Sea Cliff, a neighbor- Maria Fabiola briefly vanishes. “We had a suggested with a deft touch by Vida. Eula- noteworthy books hood with views of the Golden Gate Bridge. difference of opinion about what happened bee’s own attention moves with lifelike va- She and her friends walk to school in that morning,” Eulabee tells the police who gary, dilating on anxieties and anticipation. and the authors who pleated skirts and middy sailor blouses. show up at their school. “I’ve never used Preparing for a concert — listening to write them. They make plans to dress up as the Go-Go’s the phrase ‘difference of opinion’ before records, wrangling permission to attend, The praise, the for Halloween. They call dibs on the boys in and I like how it sounds,” she thinks. buying a not-quite-affordable outfit — is an a Connecticut school yearbook; they go to Not by choice, but not without a game endless, engrossing project. The concert it- disagreements, the the beach in parkas and scramble over sense of daring, Eulabee strikes out on her self passes in a page and a half. Eulabee protests, the prizes. rocks between the waves. own, even after her friend returns. “We finds her way in and out of scrapes that Join us for the latest “When I say ‘we,’ I sometimes mean the Run the Tides” tracks her efforts to navi- manage to be neither traumatic nor neces- in criticism and four of us Sea Cliff girls who are in eighth gate her own life without a protective band sarily edifying. She traverses drama large grade at the Spragg School for Girls,” Eula- of peers. Vida captures the unstable sensa- and small with wit. “I don’t care about litter discussion, featuring bee explains. “But when I say ‘we,’ I always tion of early adolescent reality, that period because I am immortal,” she thinks, aban- Times editors and the mean Maria Fabiola and me.” Maria Fabio- teetering between childhood and young doning a Band-Aid on the ground after biggest authors in the la is the inevitable Hot Friend, a role that is adulthood in which outlandish lies can chatting with a boy she likes. literary world today. not strictly about looks (though Maria Fa- seem weirdly plausible and basic facts to- Vida’s San Francisco is ramshackle and biola is beautiful, and precocious) so much tally alien. Eulabee’s loving, unintrusive eccentric, home to heiresses but also tide as charisma and danger. Eulabee says of parents are an antiques dealer and a nurse pools of counterculture backwash. As the herself and Maria Fabiola: “Separately we who bought their house as a fixer-upper, city becomes a metonym for tech wealth, are good girls. We behave. Together, some and their 13-year-old daughter’s awareness its past — like a bygone youth — can seem a strange alchemy occurs and we are trou- of the city’s hierarchies is just dawning. territory lost to time. Vida (who grew up in ble.” She’s startled to read a news report de- the city, and lives there now) hits this note a One day, a man in a white car stops three scribing Maria Fabiola as an “heiress.” bit hard and a bit hastily in the book’s final of the girls on their way to school, and asks Meanwhile, she learns that boys call her section, which leaps forward 35 years. Still, the time. The encounter takes place at an “Maria Fabulous.” (“Maria Fabulist” the affectionate specificity of the portrait unsettled moment: just as high school has comes to mind as another possibility.) she offers is one of the book’s real pleas- appeared on the horizon, and in the wake of Vida’s first novel, “And Now You Can Go” ures. “The streets of Sea Cliff are no longer a friend’s father’s death by suicide. Eulabee (2003), also turned on an alarming encoun- ours,” Eulabee narrates in adulthood, near checks her Swatch and says it’s just after 8. ter with a stranger — the possibility of vio- the book’s end, returning to that nostalgic “Did you see that?” Maria Fabiola asks, lence, the repercussions rippling across “we.” “Our parents’ generation laments the once they’re out of earshot. other relationships. The threat in that book new money that’s changed the neighbor- Download now at: A version of events that nobody else saw was real and starkly rendered, if abortive; hood, and we and the rest of the world roll nytimes.com/TBRpodcast here it is a degree more remote. The true our collective eyes.” The real estate may MOLLY FISCHER is a features writer at New dangers in Eulabee’s world are offstage, on now be far out of reach, but memory holds York magazine and The Cut. the margins of Maria Fabiola’s story, but its own claim. 0

8 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 PHOTOGRAPH BY LILI PEPER Glimpses of Heaven Henry Louis Gates Jr. recounts the central role of religion in the Black struggle for freedom.

struggle for freedom. had the power. We have the power. Don’t Malcolm had greater sympathy with the By JON MEACHAM Gates himself is working within a bibli- you ever forget.” Moss’s homiletic riff is Southern movement), but the urgency cal tradition. Remembrance lies at the rooted in the Sermon on the Mount, where Malcolm embodied bears attention — then IN THE BEGINNING there were the “praise heart of both the Hebrew Bible and the Jesus, too, used antithesis to urge listeners and now. “Malcolm is as much a part of the houses” — rudimentary sanctuaries con- New Testament. In Deuteronomy, Moses to build a new and better world. Black religious experience as anybody structed in places like Silver Bluff, S.C., Sa- says, “Remember the days of old; consider The summons to close the gap between else,” Calvin Butts, the pastor of the Abys- vannah, Ga., and Petersburg, Va. Products the years of many generations.” At the Last profession and practice, between love and sinian Baptist Church, told Gates. “He was of the Great Awakening of the 18th century, Supper, Jesus said, simply, “Do this in re- hate, between freedom and slavery, lies at a Muslim, but so what? He was a man em- the growing churches were built by — and membrance of me” — a command, the An- the heart of the troubled American journey. powered by God.” for — enslaved people. “As the machinery glican monk Dom Gregory Dix once wrote, Framing the challenge to white Americans In the era of Black Lives Matter and of of slavery churned on with no end in sight,” that’s arguably the most obeyed exhorta- with fearlessness and clarity, Frederick continuing white-supremacist violence, Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes in “The Black tion in history. To remember is orienting Douglass said: “You profess to believe the Black church faces a question that, as Church,” his engaging companion volume and illuminating, and we should always ‘that, of one blood, God made all nations of Augustine wrote, is ever ancient, ever to a new PBS series, “enslaved Black peo- bear in mind that faith is an essential ele- men to dwell on the face of all the earth’ and new: What now? “Something has been let ple found their first glimpse of heaven on ment of the nation’s story, for good and for hath commanded all men, everywhere, to loose, and so religious folk must create a earth in the praise house.” ill. “It is ... clear that the study of Negro love one another; yet you notoriously hate counternarrative to that,” Michael Curry, The lifting of souls, though, was not lim- religion is not only a vital part of the history (and glory in your hatred) all men whose the presiding bishop of the Episcopal ited to the spirit but also helped shape soci- of the Negro in America,” W. E. B. Du Bois skins are not colored like your own.” As Church, tells Gates. “And I think the teach- ety. “In slavery, you couldn’t go down the wrote in “The Souls of Black Folk” (1903), Gates puts it, religious appeals, then, “gave ings of Jesus are just as clear that Christian road and visit anyone,” the scholar Mary “but no uninteresting part of American his- them the moral authority to turn the mirror folk and Christian leaders cannot abide or Rivers Legree tells Gates. “Gathering tory.” of religion back on their masters and to in- countenance anybody’s supremacy over Relying heavily on the voices of myriad dict the nation for its original sin of allow- anybody else, white or anything, and can- THE BLACK CHURCH scholars and clergy members (often com- ing their enslavement to build up that ‘city not remain silent. Silence is consent.” This Is Our Story, This Is Our Song bined in the same person, like Kelly Brown upon a hill.’” In a memorial tribute to the Rev. Andrew By Henry Louis Gates Jr. Douglas or Jonathan L. Walton), Gates The critique of Christianity’s role cannot Bryan, who had been born into slavery and Illustrated. 304 pp. Penguin Press. $30. traces the story back even before James- be ignored. To Malcolm X, for instance, reli- became the minister of the First Colored town. “The foundation of the African- gion had to be oriented toward action, not Church of Savannah — a church that had American spiritual journey,” he writes, encourage passivity or justify a patient begun life as a praise house — an admirer “was formed out of fragments of faith that wait for justice. “When you have a philoso- quoted the Book of Daniel: “And they that here, they not only prayed, but after the our ancestors brought with them to this phy or gospel,” Malcolm said, “I don’t care be wise shall shine as the brightness of the services were over, they could talk to each continent starting 500 years ago” — not whether it’s the religious gospel or political firmament; and they that turn many to other about who might have had a baby up 400. He chronicles the Spanish New World gospel, an economic gospel or social righteousness as the stars, forever and the road, who might have died, who was and describes the strands of belief and gospel. If it’s not going to do something for ever.” In Gates’s telling, the Black church, sold.” The church father Tertullian insisted practice — from Roman Catholicism to Af- you and me right here right now, to hell too, shines bright even as the nation itself that the blood of the martyrs was the seed rican religions to Islam — that created the with that gospel.” King and Lewis would ar- moves uncertainly through the gloaming, of the Roman Catholic Church. To Gates, basis for the Black church. gue that nonviolence was about transfor- seeking justice on earth — as it is in heav- the Black church is the soil in which Black The stories of deliverance from the phar- mation on earth (and by the end of his life en. 0 culture and political action flowered. aoh and from sin held out that rarest of It is a commonplace but not uncontro- things for the enslaved: hope. “We have to versial argument. A tragic irony of the give the church its due as a source of our American experience is that faith has been ancestors’ unfathomable resiliency and deployed to suppress as well as to liberate; perhaps the first formalized site for the col- to exclude as well as to include; to control lective fashioning and development of so as well as to free. To tell the story of the many African-American aesthetic forms,” Black church is something of a risk even to Gates argues. “Although Black people a scholar as secure as Gates, for voices in the arena of racial justice have long dimin- Gates writes as a historian, ished religion as overly safe and accommo- dationist. Roughly put, the Bible is fine, but chronicling progress while noting “Black power” is what’s needed; sermons its incompleteness. have their place, but they are no substitute for revolution. Martin Luther King Jr. was dismissed as “Da Lawd” by younger activ- made spaces for secular expression, only ists, and as the 1960s wore on, John Lewis the church afforded room for all of it to be was sometimes seen as a Sunday-school practiced at the same time.” pacifist whose commitment to Christian At its best, biblical religion is about re- nonviolence was too old-fashioned. versal and transformation — the most res- Yet Gates writes here as a historian, and onant of messages for Black people in a the historian can chronicle progress, as- white-supremacist America. “Never con- sess its origins and commemorate its fuse position with power,” the Rev. Otis course while noting its incompleteness. Moss III, a Chicago pastor born in 1970, “Violent insurrection would have been a says in Gates’s epigraph. “Pharaoh had a form of racial suicide; insurrection meant position, but Moses had the power. Herod death,” Gates writes. So Black Americans had a position, but John had the power. The used what was at hand (faith and reli- cross had a position, but Jesus had the giously based appeals and action) in the power. Lincoln had a position, but Doug- lass had the power. Woodrow Wilson had a JON MEACHAM is the author, most recently, of position, but Ida B. Wells had the power. “His Truth Is Marching On: John Lewis and George Wallace had a position, but Rosa the Power of Hope.” He is at work on a book Parks had the power. Lyndon Baines John- about Abraham Lincoln. son had a position, but Martin Luther King “The Sanctuary,” by Edwin Forbes, 1876.

IMAGE FROM CLEMENTS LIBRARY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 9 Enraptured A sensationalized love triangle offers a window onto 19th-century evangelical ambition and hypocrisy.

By CAROLINE FRASER

THE HISTORIAN Christine Leigh Heyr- man’s “Doomed Romance: Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nine- teenth-Century America” may seem at first like a charming confection, a droll tale of an early-19th-century New England love triangle involving moony aspirational mis- sionaries who get all wrapped up in what we would now call their “feels.” It is that. But in Heyrman’s telling, it becomes far more, as she remorselessly dissects the

DOOMED ROMANCE Broken Hearts, Lost Souls, and Sexual Tumult in Nineteenth-Century America By Christine Leigh Heyrman Illustrated. 282 pp. Alfred A. Knopf. $28.95. Bradford Academy, in Bradford, Mass., many of whose graduates became Christian missionaries. fragile male selfhood at the heart of evan- missionaries, some of whom perished affections violently rekindled, he decided testable.” But back home, Martha buckled, gelical Protestantism and its “vexed rela- abroad, becoming martyrs, attracted fer- that “she loved me ardently.” She and Ten- married Tenney and was silenced forth- tionship with ideals of manhood.” Since the vent admiration and significant donations, ney became engaged that December. with, one of countless devout women needs of that self are ever devouring the so any hint of scandal attaching to them Then, as now, double standards were the whose “romance with evangelicalism ... American body religious and politic, an ex- was to be avoided. The board’s officious rule. At the time, Heyrman tells us, one in filled them with dreams but then doomed ploration of its origins deserves attention. members — as well as their consultants, five New England brides arrived at the al- their full realization.” “Doomed Romance” reads like a bodice- including a president of Dartmouth Col- tar pregnant, yet trifling with a man’s af- Mining missionary records, Heyrman ripper, less “Bridgerton” than Lady Gaga’s lege — would devote themselves to med- fections was considered the height of fe- unearths some astonishing revelations. “Bad Romance.” Fewer push-up bras, dling in Martha’s tangled affairs. Heyrman male dishonor, especially if it involved sex- Even as church leaders were turning the plenty of smoldering letters. Heyrman, argues that their prying presaged a crack- ual impropriety. “The Coquette,” a popular screws on women, they were tolerant (giv- who admits to “a taste for low gossip,” was down on female autonomy, betraying a 1797 novel by Hannah Webster Foster (one en what would come later) of same-sex re- transfixed by her discovery of a cache of core anxiety that makes this account so de- of America’s first woman novelists), de- lationships. She quotes male partners in salacious documents, preserved as part of liciously relevant: the fear that women, plored those who doled out “caresses.” the mission at Beirut, Pliny Fisk and Levi an extralegal investigation into a young prodigious consumers of sermons, reviv- Women were, however, allowed to change Parsons, who had pledged to “give our- woman who, in 1826, dropped one fiancé als and missionary narratives, might be- their minds about whom to marry; indeed, selves to each other,” “our hearts knit to- for another. She was Martha Parker, a come so powerful within the movement it was one of their few powers. So when gether as the heart of one man.” A pair of comely middle-class lass “possessed of that they would threaten male hegemony. Martha accepted Tenney but was then be- Virginia Methodists went further, with one many charms.” No portrait survives, but Martha’s ambivalence regarding her guiled by Gridley and his promise of mis- “covenant brother” telling the other that she seems to have inspired more than the beaus arose from an unsettled family life. sionary glory, she was within her rights. he dreamed of “kissing you with the kisses usual ardor. She is “no Everywoman,” Born in 1804, growing up in Dunbarton, She broke off her engagement by claiming of my Mouth.” She finds revenge too: The Heyrman instructs us, yet representative N.H., she was one of eight siblings who lost that she had failed to reconcile Emily to it, Tenneys’ eldest daughter, Mary Eliza, of white Northern ladies serving as teach- their father when they were young. With a self-serving explanation that paved the grew up to join the ranks of foreign mis- ers and missionaries, enjoying a softer life two elder sisters, she attended the “deeply way for the tempest to come. By April, she sionaries with her aunt Ann’s help, fulfill- than the lower classes who labored on religious” Bradford Academy, in Essex and Gridley were engaged. ing her mother’s ambition. She became a farms or in mills. County, Mass.; the eldest, Ann Parker, Blindsided, Tenney rounded on her, popular writer, and Heyrman catches her, Pursuing her were several self-righ- soon married and went to the Palestine branding her “a base girl, a deceiver, a liar,” in her fiction, dissing the very prototype of teously pious and overenthusiastic suit- mission in Beirut. Teaching at another and letters began flying, questioning her her “unprepossessing” father. ors: Thomas Tenney, studying to be a min- such school, Martha was besotted with the Christian character. Behind it all lay the un- “Doomed Romance” uncovers a boiling ister; Elisha Jenney, a Dartmouth student idea of “forsaking all” for Christ. The cur- spoken threat of Ye Olde revenge porn: pub- anthill of evangelical hypocrisy, seething who takes disappointment poorly; and, fi- riculum she chose, involving “geography lic disclosure of intimacies they may have with the same divisions that plague it today, nally, the stalwart and wonderfully named with the use of maps and globes,” speaks to shared (lost to history, alas). A “self-right- including the debate over whether women Elnathan Gridley, a Yale graduate prepar- an ambition for female education on par eous bully,” Tenney, Heyrman writes, “had a should be allowed to preach, which rages on ing to minister to the heathen of Palestine. with those of men. religious duty to keep a woman so spiritually in the Southern Baptist Convention even as Part of a “culture of entitlement,” Tenney All went well for her until, at 21, over- unfit from serving, of all places, in the Holy hundreds of its leaders have been accused of and Jenney were connected to Dartmouth whelmed by a crush of courting during the Land,” and was aided by the treacherous tes- sexual misconduct. In the crowded annals of and all three to the evangelical community. summer of 1825, she made a series of ro- timony of Jenney, another of Martha’s re- such scandal, the Baptists are hardly alone: Had Martha bruised the egos of lesser be- mantic missteps. Fatefully, she dallied jected suitors. Bennet Tyler, then president Justin Bieber’s hip former pastor, Carl Lentz, ings, her behavior might have passed with- with Tenney, her second cousin, known to of Dartmouth, eagerly took Tenney’s part, of the megachurch Hillsong, was recently out notice. But these were men of God. her since childhood, an earnest young man triggering an investigation in which the fired for lying and extramarital boffing. Looming over all is a darker entity, the redolent of the “odor of sanctity” who had board grilled poor Martha like a trout. Some Since the Puritans, American zealots have American Board of Commissioners for first courted another of her older sisters, declared that she would be committing excelled, as Heyrman puts it, in “character Foreign Missions, then the “largest corpo- Emily. His proposal rejected by Emily, he “adultery” if she married Gridley. assassination with anonymous letters and ration in the early Republic,” committed to turned to Martha, proposing again and Under pressure, she broke off her sec- gossip, threats and blackmail, the promise of overseeing the conduct of evangelists. Its causing sisterly astonishment over his ond engagement, and Gridley resentfully punishment in this life and the next.” Ele- fickle affections. Martha turned him down took himself abroad alone, soon to die of a gantly written and hilariously astute, this CAROLINE FRASER is the author, most recently, twice but that summer changed her mind, nameless disease in Turkey. Martha’s sis- gloriously indelicate history suggests that of “Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of dangling before him the prospect of win- ter and brother-in-law, in Beirut, exploded women’s infatuation with evangelicalism Laura Ingalls Wilder.” ning his “highest earthly happiness.” His with defensive rage, declaring Tenney “de- has been a bad romance indeed. 0

10 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 PHOTOGRAPH FROM ALAMY The Greatest Danger Cyberattacks against the United States are only likely to get worse.

By JONATHAN TEPPERMAN less-connected enemies. Cyberattacks are the start to scare us out of our compla- a tech company finds such a flaw in its soft- also relatively cheap, while cyberdefense cency — and (on my part, at least) it suc- ware or hardware, it has zero days to fix it is expensive and painstaking. And then ceeds. As a narrator, Perlroth comes at the or suffer the consequences.) SOMETIME LAST YEAR, a shadowy group of there’s the problem of attribution: Given reader hard, like an angry Cassandra who If enabling this market was Washing- hackers — now thought to be Russians how hard it often is to spot digital incur- has spent the last seven years of her life ton’s original sin, its second catastrophic working for that country’s foreign intelli- sions in the first place (remember, the So- (which is both the length of her career at blunder, according to Perlroth, was gence service — broke into digital systems lar Winds hack went undetected for The Times and more or less the time she Stuxnet: the computer worm the United run by Solar Winds, an American tech months), and the tendency of countries to spent working on the book) unmasking the States allegedly used to destroy a fifth of firm, and inserted malware into the code. rely on private hackers only loosely con- signs of our impending doom — only to be the centrifuges at Iran’s Natanz nuclear When the company then sent out its next nected to the government to do their dirty ignored again and again. enrichment plant in 2009-10. While the regular software update, it inadvertently work, figuring out whom to retaliate As for who’s most to blame for our cur- worm, a stunning technological break- spread the virus to its clients — more than against can be very difficult. Unlike nucle- rent state of cyberinsecurity — in which all through, may have forestalled an Israeli at- 18,000 of them, including huge corpora- ar missiles, hacks rarely come stamped of us are targets and the tech we, our gov- tack on Iran, set back Tehran’s weapons tions, the Pentagon, the State Department, with a clear return address. ernment and our infrastructure providers program and driven the mullahs to the bar- Homeland Security, the Treasury and In “This Is How They Tell Me the World rely on is now penetrated at will by foreign gaining table, it also shattered a basic other government agencies. The hack Ends,” Nicole Perlroth provides another actors — Perlroth has little doubt. Sure, the norm: It was the first time one govern- went undetected for months, until the vic- ment had digitally infiltrated the networks tims started discovering that enormous of another and used its access not for spy- amounts of their data — some of it very ing — which everyone does — but to wreak sensitive — had been stolen. physical havoc. Once that gentlemen’s rule Solar Winds may have been the biggest was broken, Perlroth argues, it became cyberattack on the United States in years, open season for America’s enemies to try if not ever. But it was hardly a singular to do the same to it; and now it’s only a mat- event. In the last half decade or so, Ameri- ter of time, she concludes, till we face a dig- ital Pearl Harbor. THIS IS HOW THEY TELL ME This is all compelling stuff, and Perlroth THE WORLD ENDS makes a strong, data-driven case for ac- The Cyberweapons Arms Race tion. Writing the story from Silicon Valley, By Nicole Perlroth as she does, gives her lots of advantages as 528 pp. Bloomsbury. $30. an author: It means she has good access to the programmers, the hackers, the cyber- arms merchants, the security experts and can corporations have suffered billions of the tech firms that play central roles in the dollars of losses in similar incursions. Be- story and that are profiled in great (some- tween 2019 and 2020, more than 600 towns, times a little too great) detail. She also cities and counties were hit by ran- boasts a very good command of the techni- somware attacks, shutting down hospitals, cal details, which she’s able to explain with police departments and more. America’s admirable clarity. I wish, though, that she’d adversaries — Russia, China, Iran and spent more time on the other coast, in North Korea — have by now thoroughly in- Washington, D.C., which often feels like a filtrated the computer systems that run black box located very far from her ac- some of the United States’ most important count. That distance forces readers to infrastructure, including not just power guess at or make assumptions about the grids and dams but also nuclear plants. choices the government makes — and that All of which raises the question: Why Perlroth denounces — in the course of her does this keep happening? After all, the narrative. United States isn’t just the most formida- YOSHI SODEOKA The book’s relative lack of access to poli- ble and intimidating military power in the cymakers and -making also proves an ob- world; it’s also the most sophisticated cy- explanation for the ever-expanding cy- hackers who actually create all those nasty stacle at the book’s end, where Perlroth of- ber power. The country’s conventional ar- berassaults on the United States: the way little tools and then sell them to whatever fers a few short pages on how to deal with senal has proved remarkably effective at that Washington, in its careless rush to government will pay the most — no ques- the very scary problems she’s highlighted scaring off any would-be attackers; these dominate the field, has created and hyper- tions asked — bear primary responsibility. in the preceding 400 pages. Many of her days, no nation on the planet would dream charged a wildly lucrative, entirely unreg- And sure, the foreign states who use these suggestions are sensible, but also feel like of going toe-to-toe with the United States ulated gray market for insanely dangerous tools against us or their own people are long shots — especially when she calls on military. So why doesn’t the same logic digital weapons that private hackers de- guilty too. But none of this would have hap- the tech world to abandon its first-to-mar- work in the cyber realm, where Washing- velop and then sell to the highest bidder. ket obsession and slow down its product ton could just as easily inflict biblical Which only sometimes is the United development so it can focus more on secu- vengeance on anyone who messed with it? States. Deterring cyberattacks turns out rity. Knowing more about the rationale and There are two basic answers. The first is Perlroth, a cybersecurity reporter at to be much harder than decision-making processes behind the that deterring cyberattacks turns out to be The New York Times, has written an intri- deterring conventional attacks. choices Washington has made so far — the much, much harder than deterring con- cately detailed, deeply sourced and re- reasons behind what it’s done and hasn’t ventional ones, for a long list of reasons. ported history of the origins and growth of done — would help us understand what Among them: Despite all its offensive that market and the global cyberweapons pened, Perlroth argues, if Washington had- kinds of solutions are practical and plausi- power, the United States, as one of the most arms race it has sparked. As she describes n’t decided years ago to neglect cyberde- ble going forward. wired nations on earth, is also more vul- her book, “it is the story of our vast digital fense and focus instead on paying pro- Still, Perlroth has done a valuable serv- nerable to such attacks than many of its vulnerability, of how and why it exists, of grammers around the world to find and ice in highlighting the need for big changes the governments that have exploited and weaponize vulnerabilities in existing soft- in how America approaches its cyber- JONATHAN TEPPERMAN is Foreign Policy’s editor enabled it and the rising stakes for us all.” ware — gaps known as “zero days” in the security — which, these days, means its se- at large and former editor in chief. He is the This is no bloodless, just-the-facts chron- industry — that grant those that wield curity, period. Let’s hope that the people author of “The Fix: How Countries Use Crises icle. Written in the hot, propulsive prose of them “digital superpowers.” (The term charged with doing something about it to Solve the World’s Worst Problems.” a spy thriller, Perlroth’s book sets out from “zero days” comes from the fact that when read this book and are persuaded. 0

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 11 The Essentials / Octavia Butler / By Stephen Kearse She created vivid new worlds to reveal truths about our own. Here’s where to start with her books.

I DON’T READ MUCH ctavia Butler walked a singular path. Weathering rejections, dead-end jobs and her own persistent SPECULATIVE FICTION AND Odoubts, she committed her life to turning specula- tive fiction into a home for Black expression. DON’T PLAN TO START. Her unsettling worlds, rendered in prose trimmed of senti- ment and ornament, overflow with desperation and tragedy. She deeply distrusted utopias, saviors, power brokers and escapism. Accordingly, her works can be heavy and bleak, KINDRED will change your mind. full of warnings and catastrophic failures to heed them. Butler takes time travel, one of Yet Butler was neither a pessimist nor a didact. Her recur- speculative fiction’s oldest and ring character archetype is the survivor, a figure of endur- most overdone premises, and in- ance, resourcefulness and compromise. To read her works fuses it with lasting depth and power. Where stories about Amer- and follow her wearied protagonists through badlands is to ican slavery are often gratuitous, experience the treachery of change, its capacity to snatch reducing its horror to explicit vi- away gains and proffer flashes of relief. There are few ref- olence and brutality, “Kindred” is controlled and precise. uges in her 14 books, but there are always insights, always Butler stages slavery as a site of futures. pain and violation as well as com- munity and resilience. Dana, the protagonist, slips back and forth Published in 1979, against her will between her life in Rising from a poverty-stricken child- 264 pp. 1976 Los Angeles and a Maryland hood to international prominence, Oc- plantation before the Civil War. tavia Butler was the first science fic- In Butler’s hands, the slaves and slave owners Dana meets tion author to be granted a MacArthur — and befriends, nurtures, protects and betrays — become fellowship, and the first Black wom- individuals rather than historical abstractions. The book is a marvel of imagination, empathy and detail, speculative fic- an to win Hugo and Nebula awards. tion at its best. She died in 2006. LET’S GO ON AN I WANT A SAMPLER OF EPIC ADVENTURE. HER IMMACULATE PROSE. Golden age sci-fi conceits like alien encounters and superpowered beings abound in Butler’s work, especially the Patternist series, which spans five books (one, “Survivor,” remains out of print at her behest). But the Butler didn’t write many constant presence of drama shows she read penny romances as well as short stories, and many of comics and pulp novels. Many of the tensest, them mirror the themes of most hair-raising moments in her books occur her novels. But the short in conversations between romantic partners. form served her economic Spanning continents and centuries, WILD writing style well. The sto- SEED details a tense courtship between two ries collected in BLOOD- African immortals, one a psychic parasite who CHILD move quickly, often can switch bodies, and the other a shapeshift- laying out their premises er. They traverse present-day Nigeria, the At- and conflicts in a single lantic Ocean and then colonial and antebellum exchange or sequence. North America, seducing and conning each Even better, each piece is other the whole way like competing spies. followed by an afterword, The book draws upon the extensive research offering insights into But- on chattel slavery that Butler conducted for Published in 1995, ler’s inspirations and writ- “Kindred,” expanding on the institution’s hor- 145 pp. ing process. She doesn’t rors — and forms of resistance — beyond the waste a word. plantation. Published in 1980, 248 pp.

STEPHEN KEARSE is a contributing writer at The Nation. He has contributed to Pitchfork, The Baffler and The Atlantic, among other publications.

12 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 PHOTOGRAPH OF OCTAVIA BUTLER BY JOSHUA TRUJILLO/SEATTLEPI.COM, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS I WANT NUCLEAR ALIEN SEX? NO THANKS! I’M FAMILIAR WITH ANNIHILATION VAMPIRE SEX? SIGN ME UP. BUTLER’S WORK BUT WANT AND ALIEN SEX. TO KNOW MORE.

I appreciate your honesty. Lilith’s Brood, a trilogy first Butler’s vampires are an published as Xenogenesis, details the long and seedy se- unusual bunch. They are Butler’s private papers are duction of humanity by the Oankali, sluglike aliens that nocturnal and they drink collected at the Hunting- delight in genetic trade with other species. The story is blood, yes, but they also ton Library in San Marino, set hundreds of years after the Cold War turns hot and worship a goddess, own Calif. Drawing from the obliterates the superpowers and most of humanity. The vineyards and farms, and Huntington’s archives, OC- Oankali arrive after the war, form intimate harems with TAVIA E. BUTLER, by Ger- abduct and resuscitate war-rav- humans. Butler’s vampires ry Canavan, covers But- aged humans and plan to send are more cultured than FLEDG- ler’s career, life and works, us back to Earth — at the cost of monstrous, and LING teasing out the many merging our biochemistry with , an action-packed overtones and themes in theirs. whodunit that builds into her books. Canavan is an DAWN is the core of the series, Published in 2005, a riveting legal battle, excellent critic and formi- setting the stage for the Oanka- 352 pp. teems with ideas about the dable researcher, and this li’s protracted and perverse col- creatures as well as the Published in 2016, book, written in accessi- onization. Many critics read the mechanics of relationships. In charged, erotic prose, 248 pp. ble, quick-moving prose, Oankali as benevolent saviors Butler weaves a mystery that’s as titillating as it is is rich with perspectives and ideas. The best sections and Butler certainly does not disturbing. “Fledgling” is a work of fantasy, but it ex- detail the stories Butler didn’t publish or complete, make them outright villains, but plores many of the ideas of consent and desire that using those fragments to dive deeper into the texts the first book renders clearly Butler broaches in Lilith’s Brood. Even when she that she finished. Like all good criticism, the book is their manipulation. Chemical wasn’t writing about aliens, she was. both authoritative and invitational. Read it and you’ll essentialists, the Oankali see re- Published in 1987, marvel at the arguments and feel invited to develop ality in narrow terms that ignore 264 pp. your own. verbal consent and are always patronizing. Despite the conde- I FEEL RIGHT AT scension of her captors, Lilith, a resilient Black woman, comes to accept a future with them, a fraught choice that I WANT PSYCHIC DUELS Butler characterizes with haunting nuance. The book, re- HOME IN DYSTOPIAS. searched in Peru, also features her most scenic writing. AND FRATRICIDE.

“Parable of the Sower,” the first in a two-book series, I WANT A DEEP CUT. is a slog. Lauren Oyamina, PATTERNMASTER takes place in the same milieu as the teenage protagonist, “Wild Seed,” but is set far into the future, when the de- offers few insights into scendants of the immortals have overtaken the world the nightmarish setting of through a psychic network known as the pattern. UNEXPECTED STORIES an America burning itself Their ascension pitches features two stories that down, and the story is too much of society into slav- shaped by her stilted, dry ery, and Butler follows went unpublished in But- voice. PARABLE OF THE two superpowered broth- ler’s lifetime. One, “Child- TALENTS is the master- ers as they vie to become finder,” was supposed to piece. The sequel retains the Patternmaster, the be Butler’s big break. She the brutal atmosphere virtually omnipotent pup- sold it at a writing work- of its predecessor — se- peteer of the pattern. shop for an anthology vere economic inequality, Published in 1993, This is Butler’s first that was never released, climate disaster, lawless 299 pp. book, and it lacks the a false start that haunted mayhem — without sacri- range and gravitas of her her early in her career as ficing momentum or texture. later works. People with- rejection slips accumu- By refining Lauren’s voice, Butler found others out psychic powers, or lated. The other story, “A scarred by the American apocalypse, from a rising mutes, are pawns at best Published in 2014, Necessary Being,” takes fascist who wants to “make America great again” to and furniture at worst. 104 pp. place in the world of “Sur- new-age slave traders to children who are forcibly Published in 1976, And the mutant Clayarks, vivor,” Butler’s out-of-print separated from their families — and are happy about 186 pp. a third party seeking to third book, and was one of it. The Parable series is known for its discomfiting usurp the pattern, are her many rejected stories. prescience. But “Talents” shows that the series’ true narrative fodder. But Butler’s clash of titans is brisk- Both stories demonstrate strength is its attention to the lives destroyed by fas- ly plotted and starkly rendered. Though her books how early she discovered cism. There’s less spectacle and inferno than “Sower,” would turn pensive and philosophical, she could pulp her voice as a writer. but far more sweat and anguish. with the best of them.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 13 This Land Cash and Carry A fictional portrait of a stalwart life, and of America itself. This novel follows a delivery worker through a busy cityscape.

he took a moment to rub the bills between By ANDY NEWMAN his fingers, enjoying their raggy supple- ness.” And he tastes moments of freedom: A YOUNG MAN fleeing political upheaval ar- “The sun came out. Having rolled up his rives in a prosperous city with nothing but sleeves at a traffic light, the delivery boy the clothes on his back and a debt to be re- felt the hairs on his forearm ruffle.” paid for his passage. What does he do to At the book’s hingepoint, the delivery survive? boy, mustering his painstakingly accumu- Because it is the present, he works as a lated linguistic, social and financial capital, “delivery boy” for a Postmates-like serv- speaks his heart to N., with catastrophic re- ice, one of the legions of worker ants on sults. Still, he is entrusted with delivering a electric bikes who make possible civilized very important package to a distant loca- urban life as we have lately come to know tion. As he heads out of the city on a boule- it. And because “The Delivery” is a novel vard that turns terrifyingly into a multi- (an often exquisite one) by Peter Mendel- lane highway, Mendelsund’s contained lan- sund, the book-cover designer and author guage takes flight. The delivery boy, “unar- of the metaliterary meditation “What We mored, on his puny bike, the stage much See When We Read,” the struggles of the too large for his pitiable conveyance,” the-dark numbers on clock faces. There unnamed delivery boy turn on questions of dodges “clanging metal giants” and a By ALYSON HAGY she makes the best girlfriends of her life, language: its hard-won acquisition, its in- “muffler that one of the trucks had long all of them licking their radium-dipped adequacies and its power to transport. ZORRIE UNDERWOOD, the titular character paintbrushes shift after shift, a carcino- At the outset, the courier’s world con- of Laird Hunt’s lovely new novel, is a wom- genic practice that will result in tragedy. sists of little more than numbers — num- an alone. Orphaned at an early age and But as much as she adores Janie and Ma- bered packages on warehouse shelves, forced to live with an aunt who has “drunk rie, beloved companions who nickname destination addresses, stars from too deeply from the cup of bitterness,” Zor- her “Ghost Girl” in honor of her ethereal rie cultivates an awareness of the natural reserve, Zorrie can’t stay away from Indi- THE DELIVERY world that anchors her grief-ridden life. By ana. She returns to Clinton County, where By Peter Mendelsund some measures that life might be consid- she forges a bond both true and fragile 287 pp. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. $27. ered insignificant. Zorrie spends all but a with Harold Underwood. Before long, an- few weeks of her 70-plus years in Clinton other man also clasps her heart. The County, Ind., a farming community where aching ebb and flow of love will mark the customers or lack thereof, tips. All else is the women are “as scratched-up as the rest of her days. mystery: “Customer 2 had smiled, and men.” In Hunt’s hands, however, this ren- Hunt is not shy about his elegant ambi- said something to him he hadn’t entirely dering of a woman lauded as “a giver of tions with this small novel. The epigraph is understood. She looked the delivery boy gifts and a gallant defender” becomes a from Flaubert’s “A Simple Heart.” The briefly in his eyes, before closing the door.” chapter titles are from Virginia Woolf’s In lapidary chapters often just a few sen- ZORRIE “The Waves.” This is not fiction as literary tences long, Mendelsund conveys the By Laird Hunt uproar. This is a refined realism of the sort worker’s nearly wordless attempts to si- 161 pp. Bloomsbury Publishing. $26. Flaubert himself championed, storytelling multaneously learn a language, a culture, that accrues detail by lean detail. “His face an industry, a cityscape and its dangerous was flushed,” Hunt writes of Harold. streets, and, perhaps most puzzling, the virtuosic portrait of midcentury America “Faint ovals of sweat darkened his white laws of social interaction. We learn about ago sloughed off onto the roadside like a itself — physically stalwart, unerringly shirt at the shoulders as if someone who his circumscribed life at the warehouse, prehistoric shoulder bone,” until “the rail- generous, hopeful that tragedy can be mit- liked him a great deal had rested her palms where he lives with the other delivery boys ings fell away, and he realized that he was igated through faith in land and neighbor there.” Hunt’s prose is galvanized by pow- — never delivery men, no matter what age on a ramp — no, a runway.” alike. erful questions. Who were those forebears — in a bunkroom off the packaging floor, all Unfortunately, the novel picks up an an- For Zorrie, since “being alone wasn’t who tilled the land for decades, seemingly laboring vainly to work off the cost of their noying passenger: the narrator, who goes necessarily what she aspired to,” what without complaint? How did they fashion beds, meals, bikes and phones, as well as from unobtrusive chronicler to unruly matters is connection. As a girl, she excels happiness, or manage soaring passions, in the fare for their harrowing trip to what guest at his own dinner party, sidetracking at cartwheels and arm-wrestling, yet her their conformist communities? He re-ex- they had hoped was freedom. (There are the reader with tales of his own unsettled only true friend is a teacher who fuels her amines the pastoral with ardent precision. delivery boys of even lower caste who interest in nature. When the teacher is re- While some may recall Willa Cather’s ferry packages only from one warehouse assigned, Zorrie is bereft. Yet as deep as monumental Ántonia as they fall under to another; their tipless world is “like a Simultaneously learning a her feelings are, she isn’t inclined to in- Zorrie’s spell, I was also haunted by closed vasculature.”) language, a culture, an industry dulge them. She strives instead to lean into William Maxwell’s “So Long, See You To- The delivery boy has an ally, if a fickle and dangerous streets. her pain via hard work until grief “at long morrow” and Brad Watson’s exquisite one, in N., the dour, laconic dispatch girl hard last breaks a way for the voice.” “Miss Jane.” “He who can say how he from an “adjacent” homeland. When the What gives Zorrie voice? Her home- burns,” Hunt writes, quoting Petrarch, mood strikes, she slips him more lucrative adolescence and popping his head through land. Indiana is “the dirt she had bloomed “burns little.” Zorrie Underwood burns deliveries and feeds him tiny morsels of the fourth wall to undercut his increasingly up out of, it was who she was, what she felt, hot, and deep. She can’t always put words language, “only one sound at a time,” that parenthesis-saddled account of the deliv- how she thought, what she knew.” She to her tumultuous feelings. And, like Hunt, make him feel “as if N. had somehow ery boy’s adventures. The book — each leaves the state only twice. Both excur- she distrusts mere nostalgia. Instead, she pumped extra blood into him.” He learns section of which opens with an epigram sions come with consequences. After the fashions an idiosyncratic resilience for the rhythm of the streets: “I know when from Wittgenstein’s “Philosophical Inves- death of her aunt, an impoverished Zorrie herself even as love abandons her again that car is going to pull out, he thought. / ‘ tigations” — eventually bogs down in travels to Illinois seeking work. It’s the De- and again. What Hunt ultimately gives us . . . now.’ / (And it did.)” He savors and philological digression. pression. She sleeps in barns and accepts is a pure and shining book, an America shares tiny triumphs: “Before kicking off, Despite the overreach, Mendelsund handouts for meals. She’s finally hired by where community becomes a “symphony shines a piercing light on a bottom-rung Radium Dial Company to paint glow-in- of souls,” a sustenance greater than ro- ANDY NEWMAN is a Metro reporter for The existence. As delivery takes on a meaning mance or material wealth for those wise Times. In 2019 he wrote about what it’s like to closer to grace, you root hard for the deliv- ALYSON HAGY’S most recent novel is “Scribe.” enough to join in. 0 be a deliveryman in New York. erer. 0

14 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 ILLUSTRATIONS BY JORDAN MOSS Electrons, Photons, Gluons, Quarks A Nobel-winning physicist looks with wonder and excitement at the forces that shape our physical world.

By NELL FREUDENBERGER

WHETHER OR NOT you’re accustomed to reading physics for pleasure, the Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek’s “Fundamentals” might be the perfect book for the winter of this plague year. Early on, Wilczek quotes the 17th-century French physicist and phi- losopher Blaise Pascal’s lament, “The uni- verse grasps me and swallows me up like a speck.” For Pascal, that thought produced intense spiritual anxiety, but for the con- temporary reader it might actually pro- vide a certain comfort: Whatever obscene amount of damage we’ve managed to do here on Earth is insignificant when seen on an astronomical scale. Wilczek has a more

FUNDAMENTALS Ten Keys to Reality By Frank Wilczek 272 pp. Penguin Press. $26. optimistic take, though, based on quantify- ing the space inside us: The number of at- oms in a single human body is roughly 1028 — 1 followed by 28 zeros, “a million times the number of stars in the entire visible universe.” He sees potential in our inner vastness, too. Another way to write that number is 10 Frank Wilczek in front of a chalkboard at his office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. octillion, and “Fundamentals” is filled with facts like these — the kind of ques- tion adults think they can answer until their children ask. How long until the act with one another inside the nucleus of even solid bodies. Indeed, though it’s con- tually be a remnant of theoretical parti- Earth is swallowed by the sun? How does an atom, clarifying the workings of the venient to call them ‘elementary parti- cles called axions in the very early uni- GPS work? How many thoughts can a strong force, also called quantum chromo- cles,’ they aren’t really particles. . . . Our verse, an invisible cousin of the cosmic person have in a lifetime? (Based on an dynamics. The theory explained a seem- modern fundamental ingredients have no microwave background radiation, also a average speech rate of two words per sec- ing paradox in the behavior of these ele- intrinsic size or shape.” relic of the Big Bang; or the idea that with ond, Wilczek estimates approximately a mentary particles — that they attract one In trying to paraphrase this enchanting a biological engineering technique called billion.) another more forcefully at a distance than idea for my husband, I realized that I did- “modulated self-reproduction” it might be Although Wilczek’s voice here is en- in proximity — a discovery that earned n’t actually know how something with no possible to “terraform” a new planet. In a dearingly humble, it’s clear that his mind him and Gross, along with David Politzer, size or shape could have mass. I thought book this far-reaching, it’s understand- was never like that of most kids piping up the 2004 Nobel Prize. Wilczek might not enlighten me, and then able that Wilczek spends only a few pages from the back seat. He recalls that one of Wilczek writes with breathtaking econ- a chapter later he did, articulating the on climate change, focusing mostly on the his “earliest childhood memories is of a omy and clarity, and his pleasure in his concept this way: “Quarks have very enormous potential of solar energy. The small notebook I kept when I was first subject is palpable. He lays out the ele- small masses, and gluons have zero mass. optimism inherent in chapter titles like learning about relativity, on the one hand, mentary particles of matter — electrons, But inside protons they are moving “There’s Plenty of Time” and “There’s and algebra, on the other.” Wilczek grew photons, gluons and quarks — and their around very fast, and thus they carry en- Plenty of Space” can seem Panglossian up in New York City and attended public strikingly short list of properties: mass, ergy. All that energy adds up. When the next to the reality of what we’re facing on school in Queens, graduating from high charge and spin. He then defines four accumulated energy is packaged into an Earth in the next few decades. school in two years. As a teenager trailing principles that characterize the four basic object that is at rest overall, such as the I think Wilczek might answer that criti- his mother in the grocery store, he was forces in nature: electromagnetism, grav- proton as a whole, then that object has the cism by talking about complementarity, an taken with the brand name of a laundry ity, the strong force and the weak force. mass m=E/c2.” That inverted version of idea that he’s elevated to an intellectual detergent called Axion, and promised Most people vaguely remember electro- Einstein’s famous formula incidentally is credo: “the concept that one single thing, himself that if he ever discovered an ele- magnetic fields from high school physics, one of the things Wilczek remembers when considered from different perspec- mentary particle, he’d give it that name. but Wilczek makes very clear the way writing down in his childhood notebook. tives, can seem to have very different or Incredibly, in 1978, Wilczek did identify a that those “space-filling” fields are contig- What a reader gets in “Fundamentals” is even contradictory properties.” He explains hypothetical particle — one that co- uous with the smallest building blocks of the native language of physics — mathe- that in physics, when a model becomes too incidentally solved a problem related to matter: “We now understand particles as matics — precisely translated by someone complicated, an alternative model can help axial currents — and was able to fulfill manifestations of a deeper, fuller reality. who has spent a lifetime (about a billion answer important questions. that fantasy. Particles are avatars of fields.” It’s a beau- thoughts!) on these forces that shape our “Fundamentals” offers readers just that Wilczek was still a graduate student at tiful description that would be especially physical world. sort of radical shift: the way that energy, Princeton when he and David Gross de- evocative for today’s game-fluent high Beyond the facts, “Fundamentals” is seen from another angle, is a particle; the veloped the theory of asymptotic freedom, school students. full of the kind of heady ideas that keep way that space-time could be a form of an explanation for the way quarks inter- Sometimes, to see if you understand a laypeople reading about contemporary matter; the way that stepping outside a concept in physics, it helps to try to ex- physics: the possibility that the mysteri- catastrophe to look at it on a cosmic scale NELL FREUDENBERGER is the author, most re- plain it to someone else. Wilczek points ous “dark matter” that makes up 25 per- might actually be the first step toward a cently, of “Lost and Wanted.” out that the elementary particles “aren’t cent of the mass of our universe might ac- solution. 0

PHOTOGRAPH BY JAMES LEYNSE/CORBIS, VIA GETTY IMAGES THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 15 The New Not Normal

Jaouad insists we hold our applause and deeply comforting element to these con- bear witness to the true cost of surviving. versations. Grief is allowed to come out We rarely hear how survivors are ex- and sniff around; it’s treated like a gentle hausted, sick of it and ready to give up. In companion, never shooed away. our 20s, we are not asking to be inspira- There are times the pacing plateaus, tional mountaintop sages; we want the where length dilutes urgency, but I was im- freedom to be reckless, to experience un- mersed for the whole ride and would follow complicated growth. Jaouad anywhere. Her sensory snapshots Jaouad serves us scenes of her weary remain in my mind long after reading: red-eyed father, fights with her partner so “caterpillar-thick lines of cocaine,” mouth vicious they scare the dog, and exposes the sores like “milky full moons.” Losing hair is aching silence left by those who fail to like “pulling weeds from damp soil”; ill- show up. She works through the shame ness is “some wet, starless savagery un- and disorientation of sexual health; no one folding beneath my skin.” Not only can informed her that infertility and Jaouad tolerate the unbearable feelings, menopause were side effects of her treat- she can reshape them into poetry. ment. As she loses one young, brilliant As re-entry to unquarantined life be- friend after another to cancer, others rush comes visible on the horizon, as the vac- Jaouad in the hospital before her chemotherapy trial, left, and home with her dog, Oscar Wilde. to cushion their deaths — but Jaouad casts cines are distributed into more arms, the away neat endings, capturing their raging gears of life will slowly begin churning. We will to live. Even when she is “done” with may be tempted to move on quickly, to fall CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1 treatment, she makes it clear that her heal- into old routines. I am nervous that when ing has barely begun. everything is in motion, I will not be able to as it starts to bloom she begins scratching keep up. It is impossible to unlearn how her skin until she bleeds crimson. She is AT THE TAIL END of trauma, most people vulnerable we are to disruption, how gripped by constant fatigue. As her physi- would prefer to hand the sufferer a bucket swiftly and soundlessly life can deliver us cal symptoms worsen, she is dismissed by of silver paint and a brush, and say go into unwanted realities. doctors again and again, until her eyes are ahead, paint the lining. Jaouad tosses the Jaouad would encourage us not to mute “bleached blank with pain.” supplies and hops into a Subaru. On the what we’ve been through, but to take in- Finally, Jaouad receives a harrowing diag- road, she opts for slowness, finding the ventory of all we’ve lost, how we’ve nosis: acute myeloid leukemia. She sounds courage to marinate in unanswered ques- changed. To look at where trust has been out her diagnosis, observing, “It sounded tions and be alone with her thoughts. She broken, re-evaluate relationships that like an exotic flower, beautiful and poison- drives a jagged constellation, 15,000 miles have frayed. She writes, “There is no atlas ous.” When she learns that, in addition to across the nation, visiting strangers who charting that lonely, moonless stretch of chemo, she’ll need a bone-marrow trans- wrote to her. In each interaction, we meet highway between where you start and who plant, she writes, “Up until this point, the ex- someone who has encountered a lightless you become.” tent of my knowledge about bone marrow place — losing a child to suicide, living with Her writing restores the moon, lights the came from French cuisine — boeuf à la Jaouad maps her itinerary. chronic illness, a death sentence. There is a way as we learn to endure the unknown. 0 moelle, the fancy dish occasionally served with a side of toasted baguette.” She is hit by the cold, brutal newness of the world of ill- In lockdown, we are still learning how to ness, where handshaking is now forbidden, stay sane in isolation. We stiffen, forgetting masks and gloves required of everyone who to stretch, mentally slipping, losing sleep, comes near. But she maintains that this will our time spent growing green onions in be temporary: “Initially, I’d clung to the hope glass jars, thumbs scrolling to numb anxi- of a short sojourn, one in which I wouldn’t ety. To cope, Jaouad does not seek an es- have to unpack my bags.” cape from her agony; she seeks conver- It is common instinct to insist that we sion — to make use of it, turn it into some- can remain in place, intact, even as the thing meaningful. In the quiet she learns to world as we know it dissolves. It is harder hear herself. She begins to write, and as to accept that we’re hurtling toward the un- her body is ravaged, her voice strength- known, changing in unsettling and perma- ens. She starts a blog, which becomes a nent ways. New York Times column called “Life, In- Jaouad is forced into isolation, subject to terrupted.” an onslaught of torturous procedures and Jaouad writes: “What would you write bodily invasion. “Being poked and pal- about if you knew you might die soon? pated and locked in a room for days on end Bent over my laptop in bed, I traveled to without a release date was maddening,” where the silence was in my life.” she writes. “The windows didn’t open.” Silence becomes a sought-out destina- For three and a half years, survival will tion. No longer turning away from change, remain her sole focus. She is saturated in she becomes attentive to its every fluctua- fluorescent light, stabbed with needles, tion. Letters begin to pour in from her read- sponged, painted with bruises and scars. ers — strangers who may not have the Death sits quietly as her roommate, as she same stories, but who identify with stews hour after hour, month by month, in Jaouad’s ability to pair honesty with suffer- that maddening concoction of terror and ing. It might be easier to succumb and let boredom. other forces take over, yet she descends into pain with her eyes wide open. CHANEL MILLER is the author of “Know My Often survivors are praised as superhu- Name.” man, vessels of strength and optimism. Suleika Jaouad and Oscar Wilde, on the road.

16 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 PHOTOGRAPHS, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: SHAYLA HARRIS/THE NEW YORK TIMES; ANNE FRANCEY; DANIEL SCHECHNER; VIA SULEIKA JAOUAD The History Maker How Kamala Harris rose in the swampy world of California politics.

crime measures. As the Alameda County hard,” are tempered by Morain’s view that By LISA McGIRR deputy district attorney, Harris spent Harris’s ambition and national sights led years as a courtroom prosecutor before her to “be both innovative and cautious,” THE DAUGHTER OF a Jamaica-born father she was recruited to a supervisory position sometimes acting as a trailblazer and and India-born mother who met in the turbu- with the San Francisco district attorney’s other times holding her fire: “She took lent world of ’60s Bay Area political activ- office and then the city attorney’s office. strong stands or she stood mute on the im- ism, Kamala Harris has a social justice lin- She was elected San Francisco district at- portant criminal justice issues of her day.” eage that runs deep. In her 2020 Democratic torney in 2003, and attorney general of Cal- Though balancing both sides, he seems to National Convention acceptance speech as ifornia in 2010, a position she held until she agree with the critics he cites who viewed Joe Biden’s running mate, she proudly re- was elected senator in 2016. her as “overly cautious.” Harris’s long tenure as a prosecutor in Morain paints Harris as a pragmatic, KAMALA’S WAY California, a harsh, punitive state, has ambitious politician who “took positions An American Life drawn criticism. In her run for San Fran- when she needed to and when those stands By Dan Morain cisco district attorney in 2003, Harris might help her politically,” but who was called for improving conviction rates and also “adept at not taking stands when do- 272 pp. Simon & Schuster. $28. Kamala Harris, October 2003. prosecuting serious drug cases to clean up ing so was not politically necessary.” De- the streets. (The San Francisco Chronicle spite his inclusion of stories that show Har- called having “a stroller’s eye view of people ris’s rise to political stardom. Morain endorsed her candidacy under the head- ris’s warmth outside the limelight, his biog- getting into what the great John Lewis called paints Bay Area Democratic politics as a line “Harris, for Law and Order.”) But once raphy is not fawning. Nor is it very person- ‘good trouble.’” Her maternal grandfather swampy world where schmoozing with po- elected, she took positions that cost her po- al. Morain was not able to interview Harris served as a prominent senior government tential billionaire funders and sitting on lice support and came out strongly in favor or her family, but says he relied on “dozens official in the tumultuous politics of postcolo- the right boards were essential to climbing of criminal justice reform. Her 2009 book, of sources” with “firsthand knowledge.” nial India. the rungs. He details Harris’s liaison with “Smart on Crime,” called for education, This book is unlikely to satisfy readers en- Dan Morain, for decades a reporter for the self-described “Ayatollah of the Assem- drug treatment and rehabilitation. As at- amored of the nation’s barrier-breaking vice The Los Angeles Times, recounts stories bly” and former San Francisco mayor, torney general, she instituted first-in-the- president, who may find Morain’s judgments like these in “Kamala’s Way,” and his insid- Willie Brown. Harris dated Brown in 1994 nation programs to bolster police account- at times unduly critical, and his use of er’s view provides a revealing portrait of and 1995, splitting with him after his elec- ability. Undoubtedly, the most consistent phrases like “brusque and antagonistic the people and events surrounding Har- tion as mayor. He was 30 years her senior. through-line in her career is her unfailing style” and “brash confidence” as distinctly But the numerous stories about Brown feel championship of victims of sexual abuse, gendered. At the same time, “Kamala’s Way” LISA MCGIRR teaches American history at misplaced, distracting from what should child trafficking and domestic violence. could appeal to aficionados of California poli- Harvard. Her most recent book is “The War have been a tighter focus on Harris herself. These actions, and Morain’s admiration tics who want a better understanding of the on Alcohol: Prohibition and the Rise of the Harris’s career took off during the 1990s for Harris’s “skill and charisma, her intelli- high-powered political world where Harris’s American State.” in an era of bipartisan calls for tough-on- gence and grit, and her willingness to fight national star rose. 0 The Supreme Gangster An elegant hit man’s ruthless rise and rapid fall.

gas. The man made for good copy and, of large numbers of male factory workers person to his hotel, where he insisted that, to By JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELIT based on Michael Shnayerson’s fast-paced with time on their hands and money to add a frisson of exoticism, real flamingos and absorbing biography in the Jewish spend — likely to ensure a constant flow of wander the grounds. He reluctantly gave up THE HOLLYWOOD GOSSIP columnist Lives series, he still does. paying customers. Not so wisely, he over- on that idea, and expense, when the crea- Florabel Muir had him pegged as a “story- This latest account , written in a rat-a-tat spent by millions of dollars, giving tures succumbed to the extreme book gangster.” With his matinee-idol style where money jingles and the Ameri- them reason to suspect him of desert heat and died prematurely. looks, expensive haberdashery and affable, can dream is in reach of “anyone with guts, skimming off the top and ren- Readers awaiting a new plot honeyed manner, he was also likened to a good taste and a gun,” follows the entrepre- dering him a liability. twist, a late-in-the-day revela- neurial ne’er-do-well as he made his way Shnayerson, a contributing tion or, for that matter, a de- BUGSY SIEGEL from the dreary tenements of New York editor at Vanity Fair, makes bunking of underworld my- The Dark Side of the American Dream City to the elegant redoubts of Los Angeles good use of the gossipy pub- thology, will not find it in these By Michael Shnayerson and then Las Vegas. After a potted history lished memoirs of the many pages, which hew tightly to 248 pp. Yale University Press. $26. of Siegel’s adolescence on the s Lower East people, from paramours to at- conventional wisdom. But they Side, where, thanks to his quicksilver tem- torneys, who consorted with will come away with an enhanced per, the teenage tough acquired his nick- Siegel, as well as of heavily re- understanding of, and even “sportsman,” a playboy and an actor man- name, the book picks up steam, recounting dacted F.B.I. files, their pages Bugsy Siegel sympathy for, the man who, ac- qué. I’m referring, of course, to Benjamin Siegel’s subsequent exploits during the in- smudged with black ink. With a cording to at least one of his as- “Bugsy” Siegel, the underworld figure terwar years as a bootlegger, bookmaker keen eye for the amusing, and humanizing, sociates, was the “supreme gangster in the who, calling himself an “investment bro- and occasional hit man. It culminates in his detail, he enlivens the traditional rise-and- U.S., the top man ... the big boss.” When, in ker,” abetted the postwar transformation of grand postwar plans for the “Fabulous Fla- fall narrative. the book’s concluding moments, Shnayerson a once sleepy Nevada town into that mingo,” a swanky casino-cum-hotel in the With one eye on the scale and another on reports that Siegel, age 41, was shot to death “American Gomorrah” known as Las Ve- Nevada desert. Designed to give Monte his public image, Siegel exercised like mad one June evening in 1947 while sitting quietly Carlo a run for its money, this ambitious and monitored his daily diet, lest he gain a in the living room of his Beverly Hills home, JENNA WEISSMAN JOSELIT is the Charles E. Smith venture proved to be his undoing. pound or two. He also made sure to expand and that his funeral was both sparsely at- professor of Judaic studies and professor of Presciently, Siegel persuaded his under- his vocabulary by dipping nightly into the tended and speedy — “It was all over in five history at George Washington University. “Our world confreres to finance the Flamingo, Reader’s Digest column “It Pays to In- minutes,” The Los Angeles Examiner re- Gang: Jewish Crime and the New York Jewish pointing to a confluence of local factors — crease Your Word Power.” ported — some of us may even feel a twinge Community” was her first book. legalized gambling, air travel, the presence Siegel’s image-making extended from his or two of sadness. 0

PHOTOGRAPHS, FROM TOP: MIKE KEPKA/SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE, VIA GETTY IMAGES; ASSOCIATED PRESS THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 17 Children’s Books / Native Peoples Kindred Spirits Sacred stories provide comfort by bringing people together.

By ADITI SRIRAM The first-person stories are the strong- gods over humans. Characters — in vari- est. As these protagonists are figuring out ous forms — fall in love, seek revenge and new friendships, foster parents and rela- attain salvation. Humans turn into ani- IF THE PAST 11 months have seemed illog- tives whom they’ve only just met or ha- mals; gods inhabit vegetation. ical and unstoppable, consider these ques- ven’t seen in years, readers get to experi- Some learn their lesson, others don’t. tions. What if the hummingbird darting ence what they’re experiencing. Many of the stories end abruptly, brutally, from flower to flower is actually a noble- But descriptions of the performances sadly. Love is often cut short or left unre- man eternally searching for his beloved and tribal attire are consistently inade- quited. maiden? Or the sun and the moon are an quate, and difficult to visualize. Illustra- But the simplicity of the language, angry married couple destined to chase tions would have enhanced each story, and thanks in part to the collection’s translator, each other across the sky? These age-old shown readers more of the powwow. David Bowles, is disarming. We feel com- myths unsettle everyday logic to reveal In contrast, “The Sea-Ringed World,” by pelled to turn the page and begin again, larger truths. Unpredictability is but a lit- the Mexican poet María García Esperón hoping that the earth can start afresh or erary device that helps explain an increas- (“A Tortoise Named Harriet”), contains that two characters can live happily ever ingly bizarre world. hypnotizing art, by Amanda Mijangos. after. Sometimes they do, but this unpre- Mythology is not only the relic of ancient Consistent with her cover design, Mijan- dictability — inherent to mythology — has civilizations, but also the engine of contem- gos’s illustrations are predominantly blue, a humbling effect. porary cultures. Its stories provide com- with some white and black, and evoke the fort by bringing people together to make elements: sometimes benevolent, some- sense of strangeness through shared fore- times enraged. Native American mythology sight. The stories in this collection are differ- stretches across North, Central Native American mythology, which entiated by tribe. Esperón entreats her and South America. stretches across North, Central and South readers to “respect and admire the lore America, transmutes from one tribe to the that has endured unto this moment and to next. Fifteen thousand years old, it weep for all that has been irrevocably lost.” Her tone is somber but also sacred; it The collection’s structure prompts a ANCESTOR APPROVED When commissioning pieces for the an- signals that she is writing for slightly older similar reaction. Along with a story about Intertribal Stories for Kids thology, its editor, Cynthia Leitich Smith, the sun and the moon in love, readers will Edited by Cynthia Leitich Smith asked the authors — a mix of new and vet- encounter one about the sun throwing ash 320 pp. Heartdrum/HarperCollins. $16.99. eran Native writers — to all set their in the moon’s face, and another about the (Ages 8 to 12) stories at “the Dance for Mother Earth sun and the moon as half-siblings born of Powwow.” The lenses through which they rival fathers. THE SEA-RINGED WORLD view the event, however, run the gamut, “The Sea-Ringed World” is provocative Sacred Stories of the Americas from a shy teenager nervous about his first as well. In “K’awil and the Prince,” from the By María García Esperón dance to a grandmother in possession of a Mopan (Maya) tradition, K’awil (God of winning raffle ticket. Lightning and Magic) and the prince are Illustrated by Amanda Mijangos Newcomers learn what a powwow is all homosexual lovers. In “Aakulujjuusi and Translated by David Bowles about, and what a boost it can be, while in- Uumarnituq,” from the Inuit tradition, the 240 pp. Em Querido/Levine Querido. $21.99. siders take up the drumbeat that reverber- first two humans to emerge “from mounds (Ages 8 and up) ates throughout the venue. Herself a citi- of earth on Igloolik Island” are men. They zen of the Muscogee Creek Nation and a fall in love. One becomes pregnant and is abounds with divine characters, celestial best-selling author of Native American transformed into a woman to give birth. battles and natural manifestations of hu- children’s and young adult literature, Without being fussed over, sexuality and man behavior. Smith has curated the anthology with an gender are presented as fluid. Its legends probe identity, origin and eye to attracting both kinds of readers. In this way Esperón keeps readers won- one’s connection to Mother Earth — con- This kaleidoscopic perspective accentu- dering, wobbling. Her deliberate arrange- cepts that Native American communities ates the intrigue of the powwow, for which ment of this lore, a mixture of confusing in the United States and Canada gather to- the characters spend months preparing. plots and unexpected endings, tells read- gether to celebrate. By the time they (and we) pull up to the ers to be patient about extracting meaning. “Ancestor Approved” is a Native Ameri- venue, all are ready to be amazed and One of the later stories, “Universe,” a can-themed short story anthology with transported. Consider the contributor Jo- Nahuan legend, lays out how the universe one such gathering, a powwow, at its cen- seph Bruchac’s “Bad Dog,” in which a is structured and who controls it. A few ter. A powwow is a festive, bustling, multi- young boy chats with an unusual old man, others trace the origins of recognizable generational affair at which children and who we later realize was his long-dead children, and for adults as well. Esperón places such as Lima (the capital of Peru) adults perform traditional dances in their great-grandfather. Or Dawn Quigley’s wants her readers — again, gathered to- and Mexico. These tales would have been tribe’s regalia, sell handmade wares and “Joey Reads the Sky,” in which Joey is re- gether in solidarity — in the right mind- helpful blueprints up front, but Esperón of- enjoy Native foods such as fry bread. As vealed to have superpowers that save his space to receive stories that are at once de- fers them at seemingly random intervals, expected in a book for young readers, the family from a tornado. votional and defiant, hopeful and horrific. as puzzle pieces that will form a coherent school-age protagonists of the stories Smith and her authors are mindful of These tales have been sourced from 18 picture only after the entire book has been make friends, honor their heritage and their readers’ ages, and situate some of the Indigenous cultures, spanning two conti- read. learn how to respect others. powwow’s miracles in more everyday nents, from Argentina to Alaska. Readers Puzzle-making and bonfire storytelling plots. In Brian Young’s stories, school ene- hop from the wisdom of one tribe to the feel like luxuries in a society moving at ADITI SRIRAM teaches writing at Ashoka Uni- mies become good friends. In “Flying To- wisdom of the next, mostly across swaths pandemic-spreading speed. Thank good- versity. She is the author of “Beyond the gether,” by Kim Rogers, a mother deployed of Central and South America. ness for mythology, in which time is irrele- Boulevards: A Short Biography of to the Middle East returns early — a mir- There is no pervading moral about the vant and endings are unseeable; it is more Pondicherry.” acle as far as her daughter is concerned. triumph of good over evil, life over death, relatable than ever before. 0

18 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 For the complete best-seller lists, visit Best Sellers nytimes.com/books/best-sellers

COMBINED PRINT AND E-BOOK BEST SELLERS SALES PERIOD OF JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6

THIS LAST WEEKS THIS LAST WEEKS WEEK WEEK Fiction ON LIST WEEK WEEK Nonfiction ON LIST 1 THE FOUR WINDS, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s) As dust storms roll during the Great 1 1 THINK AGAIN, by Adam Grant. (Viking) An examination of the cognitive skills of rethinking 1 Depression, Elsa must choose between saving the family and farm or heading West. and unlearning that could be used to adapt to a rapidly changing world.

2 2 THE DUKE AND I, by Julia Quinn. (Avon) Daphne Bridgerton’s reputation soars when she 6 2 FOUR HUNDRED SOULS, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and Keisha N. Blain. (One World) A 1 colludes with the Duke of Hastings. The basis of the Netflix series “Bridgerton.” compendium featuring 90 writers covering 400 years of African-American history.

3 THE SURVIVORS, by Jane Harper. (Flatiron) Kieran Elliott takes his young family to his 1 3 UNMASKED, by Andy Ngo. (Center Street) The former editor for the online magazine 1 coastal hometown, where a body is found on the beach. Quillette gives his perspective on the activist movement antifa.

4 SERPENTINE, by Jonathan Kellerman. (Random House) The 36th book in the Alex 1 4 1 JUST AS I AM, by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford. (HarperCollins) The late iconic 2 Delaware series. Sturgis calls on Delaware to help solve a decades-old cold case. actress describes how she worked to change perceptions of Black women through her career choices. 5 10 FIREFLY LANE, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s Griffin) A friendship between two women 3 in the Pacific Northwest endures for more than three decades. 5 2 A PROMISED LAND, by Barack Obama. (Crown) In the first volume of his presidential 12 memoirs, Barack Obama offers personal reflections on his formative years and pivotal moments through his first term. 6 4 THE VANISHING HALF, by Brit Bennett. (Riverhead) The lives of twin sisters who run away 36 from a Southern Black community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine. 6 3 CASTE, by Isabel Wilkerson. (Random House) The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist 27 examines aspects of caste systems across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today. 7 1 THE RUSSIAN, by James Patterson and James O. Born. (Little, Brown) The 13th book in 2 the Michael Bennett series. 7 4 GREENLIGHTS, by Matthew McConaughey. (Crown) The Academy Award-winning actor 16 shares snippets from the diaries he kept over the last 35 years. 8 3 THE VISCOUNT WHO LOVED ME, by Julia Quinn. (Avon) The second book in the 6 Bridgerton series. Kate Sheffield gets in the way of Anthony Bridgerton’s intent to marry. 8 5 UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public speaker describes her journey 48 of listening to her inner voice. 9 THE SANATORIUM, by Sarah Pearse. (Pamela Dorman) Elin Warner must find her 1 estranged brother’s fiancée, who goes missing as a storm approaches a hotel that was once a sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. 9 9 THE BODY KEEPS THE SCORE, by Bessel van der Kolk. (Penguin) How trauma affects the 24 body and mind, and innovative treatments for recovery. 10 5 THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, by Matt Haig. (Viking) Nora Seed finds a library beyond the 10 edge of the universe that contains books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could 10 WHEN HARRY MET MINNIE, by Martha Teichner. (Celadon) The CBS Sunday Morning 1 have lived. correspondent develops a bond with the ailing owner of a dog she agrees to adopt. 22 The New York Times best sellers are compiled and archived by the best-sellers-lists desk of the New York Times news department, and are separate from the editorial, culture, advertising and business sides of The New York Times Company. Rankings reflect unit sales reported on a confidential basis by vendors offering a wide range of general interest titles published in the United States. ONLINE: For complete lists and a full explanation of our methodology, visit www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers.

Editors’ Choice / Staff Picks From the Book Review

THE COPENHAGEN TRILOGY: Childhood, Youth, SEND FOR ME, by Lauren Fox. (Knopf, $26.95.) In- THE SWALLOWED MAN, by Edward Carey. (Riverhead, Dependency, by Tove Ditlevsen. Translated by Tiina spired by a trove of letters written by her great- $26.) Amid a glut of “Pinocchio” spinoffs, the nov- Nunnally and Michael Favala Goldman. (Farrar, Straus & grandmother in 1930s Germany and incorporated elist and playwright Carey has had the inspired idea Giroux, $30.) First published in Denmark in the into the text, Fox’s latest novel spans four genera- to focus on Geppetto, the lonely old woodcutter who 1960s and ’70s, Ditlevsen’s unstinting memoirs tions and two continents, offering a nuanced explo- carves a boy from an enchanted block of pine, detail in luminous prose her hardscrabble upbring- ration of the burden of inherited trauma on a single giving him form and life — about as close as men ing, career path and merciless addictions: a power- family riven by the Holocaust. get to immaculate conception, even in fantasy. ful account of the struggle to reconcile art and life. MADE IN CHINA: A Prisoner, an SOS Letter, and the LET ME TELL YOU WHAT I MEAN, by Joan Didion. BLOOD GROVE, by Walter Mosley. (Mulholland, $27.) In Hidden Cost of America’s Cheap Goods, by Amelia (Knopf, $23.) The 12 previously published essays the 15th outing for his iconic private detective, Easy Pang. (Algonquin, $27.95.) Pang talked to activists collected here (mostly) for the first time were Rawlins, Mosley once again chronicles a part of and laborers, combed social media and followed written between the late 1960s and the year 2000. America rendered invisible — and overpowered — trucks from prisons to factories for this powerful Revisiting Didion’s work now provides a familiar joy, by whiteness. The book is set in 1969, with Rawlins exposé of Chinese forced labor, in which inmates as well as a reminder of her prescience. on the verge of 50, still struggling with professional must produce goods under inhumane conditions. KINK: Stories, edited by R. O. Kwon and Garth Green- and romantic and familial conflicts in a Los Angeles SYBILLE BEDFORD: A Life, by Selina Hastings. (Knopf, well. (Simon & Schuster, paper, $17.) Not quite erot- about to be beset by the berserk. $32.50.) Hastings, the author of several previous ica, this fiction anthology is more about the transfor- EXIT, by Belinda Bauer. (Atlantic Monthly Press, $26.) literary biographies, elegantly relates the eventful mative nature of kink as a practice. Featuring works In this thriller, suffused with intelligence and wit, life of a first-rate 20th-century writer who wished from a diverse selection of writers, the collection things go horrifically wrong for a 75-year-old “Exi- she had produced more books “and spent less time explores issues of power, agency and identity. teer,” who sits with critically ill patients as they die. being in love.” Bedford’s works of fiction and nonfic- The plot is breakneck, but what lingers most is the tion are dense, exotic and rich. One can only hope The full reviews of these and other recent books hero’s capacity for empathy at any cost. this biography will bring new readers to them. are online: nytimes.com/books

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 19 Inside the List PRINT | HARDCOVER BEST SELLERS SALES PERIOD OF JANUARY 31-FEBRUARY 6 ELISABETH EGAN

...... THIS LAST WEEKS THIS LAST WEEKS WEEK WEEK Fiction ON LIST WEEK WEEK Nonfiction ON LIST

A Book in the Oven If you are a 1 1 1 THE FOUR WINDS, by Kristin Hannah. (St. Martin’s) As dust 1 FOUR HUNDRED SOULS, edited by Ibram X. Kendi and new parent with a few hours of child storms roll during the Great Depression, Elsa must choose Keisha N. Blain. (One World) A compendium featuring care on your hands, you may be inclined between saving the family and farm or heading West. 90 writers covering 400 years of African-American to sneak in a nap, take a walk or call a history. friend to talk about the baby you are so 2 THE SURVIVORS, by Jane Harper. (Flatiron) Kieran Elliott 1 eager to escape. takes his young family to his coastal hometown, where a 2 THINK AGAIN, by Adam Grant. (Viking) An examination of 1 Ashley Audrain body is found on the beach. the cognitive skills of rethinking and unlearning that could be chose a different path: used to adapt to a rapidly changing world. writing. Starting when 3 2 THE VANISHING HALF, by Brit Bennett. (Riverhead) The 36 her son was 6 months lives of twin sisters who run away from a Southern Black 3 1 JUST AS I AM, by Cicely Tyson with Michelle Burford. 2 old, she used every community at age 16 diverge as one returns and the other (HarperCollins) The late iconic actress describes how she free moment to write takes on a different racial identity but their fates intertwine. worked to change perceptions of Black women through her “The Push,” a thought- career choices. Audrain ful suspense novel 4 1 THE RUSSIAN, by James Patterson and James O. Born. 2 hopes readers about the dark side of (Little, Brown) The 13th book in the Michael Bennett series. 4 2 A PROMISED LAND, by Barack Obama. (Crown) In the first 12 will ‘ask dif- motherhood that just volume of his presidential memoirs, Barack Obama offers personal reflections on his formative years and pivotal ferent ques- spent three weeks on THE SANATORIUM, by Sarah Pearse. (Pamela Dorman) 1 5 moments through his first term. tions of wom- the hardcover fiction Elin Warner must find her estranged brother’s fiancée, who en they love.’ list. In a phone inter- goes missing as a storm approaches a hotel that was once a view, Audrain recalled sanatorium in the Swiss Alps. 5 UNMASKED, by Andy Ngo. (Center Street) The former editor 1 hunkering down in a for the online magazine Quillette gives his perspective on the activist movement antifa. Toronto coffee shop, where she easily 6 3 THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY, by Matt Haig. (Viking) Nora Seed 10 slipped into the mind-set of a woman finds a library beyond the edge of the universe that contains who believes her daughter is a bad seed. books with multiple possibilities of the lives one could have 6 3 GREENLIGHTS, by Matthew McConaughey. (Crown) The 16 “What happens in the book is fiction, lived. Academy Award-winning actor shares snippets from the but I did draw from my own experience diaries he kept over the last 35 years. of certain emotions and the day-to-day 7 4 THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE, by V. E. Schwab. (Tor/ 15 life of motherhood,” she said. Audrain Forge) A Faustian bargain comes with a curse that affects 7 4 CASTE, by Isabel Wilkerson. (Random House) The Pulitzer 27 had always enjoyed writing, but never the adventure Addie LaRue has across centuries. Prize-winning journalist examines aspects of caste systems found peace in the process until she was across civilizations and reveals a rigid hierarchy in America today. adjusting to life as a parent: “It wasn’t 8 SEND FOR ME, by Lauren Fox. (Knopf) A woman in 1 hard for me to spend time in these diffi- Wisconsin discovers a trove of her grandmother’s letters 5 48 cult scenes because they became a cre- that detail her experiences in Germany leading up to World 8 UNTAMED, by Glennon Doyle. (Dial) The activist and public speaker describes her journey of listening to her inner voice. ative outlet. I felt the most like myself War II. when I was writing. And then it was 8 104 very easy for me to close my laptop, 9 5 WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING, by Delia Owens. (Putnam) In 127 9 BECOMING, by Michelle Obama. (Crown) The former first leave the coffee shop and go home to my a quiet town on the North Carolina coast in 1969, a woman lady describes how she balanced work, family and her who survived alone in the marsh becomes a murder suspect. husband’s political ascent. family.” Long before she had children of her 1 11 41 own, Audrain was fascinated by mother- 10 GIRL A, by Abigail Dean. (Viking) When their mother dies in 10 HOW TO BE AN ANTIRACIST, by Ibram X. Kendi. (One World) hood, but “mostly from the perspective prison, Lex Gracie and her siblings confront their shared past A primer for creating a more just and equitable society and shifting alliances. through identifying and opposing racism. of wondering why women did it.” She never played with dolls, hated babysit- An asterisk (*) indicates that a book’s sales are barely distinguishable from those of the book above. A dagger (†) indicates that some bookstores report receiving bulk orders. ting and “wasn’t a kid person in general.” This former publicity director of Penguin Books Canada, who is the mother of two, explained, “I think I had children be- Paperback Row / BY JENNIFER KRAUSS cause I didn’t want to regret not having them. Of course now I love being a mother, but I love it with the caveat that DAYS OF DISTRACTION, by Alexandra SPIRIT RUN: A 6,000 Mile Mara- RACE AGAINST TIME: A Reporter you can love your children while still Chang. (Ecco, 320 pp., $16.99.) Our thon Through North America’s Reopens the Unsolved Murder Stolen Land, by Noé Álvarez. (Cata- Cases of the Civil Rights Era, by having days when you wish you didn’t reviewer, Elisabeth Egan, called pult, 240 pp., $16.95.) The son of Jerry Mitchell. (Simon & Schuster, have the responsibilities that come along this “honest” fictional take on “what it’s like to feel invisible” Mexican refugees (his father is 448 pp., $17.) Mitchell’s account of with them. Nobody talks about this, and when you work remotely for a tech descended from the Purépecha investigative reporting he began in I think it’s the in-between space where publication and your boyfriend people), Álvarez “comes face to the 1980s that eventually led to most of us live, especially now.” doesn’t understand “the loneliness face with the many strands of his long-overdue murder convictions Audrain takes inspiration from a of being Chinese-American in a sea inheritance,” in the words of our for perpetrators of notorious 1960s range of authors, including Leila Slimani, of white faces” a “thunderingly reviewer, Danielle Jackson, when hate crimes, including the killing of Celeste Ng and Alice Munro. She appre- wise” debut novel from “a writer to he joins a six-month-long Peace Medgar Evers and the bombing of ciates stories about the “quiet lives of watch.” and Dignity Journeys run to re- the 16th Street Baptist Church in unite Indigenous nations. Birmingham, Ala., is “brave, brac- women” and books, like Ng’s, that are ing and instructive,” according to “less about what happened and more BECOMING, by Michelle Obama. HIDDEN VALLEY ROAD: Inside the our reviewer, Randall Kennedy. about why it has happened.” In “The (Crown, 464 pp., $18.99.) “Those focused on sound bites will be Mind of an American Family, by Push,” she said, her goal was to “explore missing the larger meaning of a Robert Kolker. (Anchor, 400 pp., DEAR EDWARD, by Ann Napolitano. the expectation society puts on women serious work of candid reflection by $17.) “Six sons with schizophrenia (Dial, 384 pp., $18.) Our reviewer, to have a certain experience of mother- a singular figure of early-21st- — the curse of the Galvin family is Angie Kim, described this “haunt- hood, for it to look and feel one way. I century America,” Isabel Wilkerson the stuff of Greek tragedy,” Sam ing,” “understated” novel, loosely wanted to hold a mirror up and make noted in her review of the former Dolnick wrote in his review of this based on the headline-grabbing people realize how important it is to ask first lady’s “refined and forthright, “fascinating and upsetting” look at true story of a “Miracle Boy” who different questions of women they love, gracefully written and at times “a family swallowed whole” by a was the lone survivor of a plane disease no one understood. It was crash that killed 103 people, as “a to have new conversations with the laugh-out-loud funny” memoir. The paperback edition includes a new one of the Book Review’s 10 Best masterful study in suspense, grief mothers in their lives.” 0 introduction by the author. Books of 2020. and survival.”

20 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 MONTHLY BEST SELLERS SALES PERIOD OF JANUARY 3-30

THIS MONTHS THIS MONTHS MONTH Graphic Books and Manga ON LIST MONTH Mass Market ON LIST

CAT KID COMIC CLUB, by Dav Pilkey. (Scholastic) 2 THE DUKE AND I, by Julia Quinn. (Avon) The first 2 1 Stories within a story come to life as Li’l Petey, 1 book in the Bridgerton series. Daphne Bridgerton’s Flippy and Molly show baby frogs how to create reputation soars when she colludes with the comics. Duke of Hastings. The basis of the Netflix series “Bridgerton.” MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 26, by Kohei Horikoshi. 1 2 (VIZ Media) Eraser Head and Present Mic prepare SHADOWS IN DEATH, by J. D. Robb. (St. Martin’s) 1 give the gift for a villain attack by visiting Tartarus prison where 2 The 51st book of the In Death series. A hitman with training under Endeavor is underway. possible connections to Eve Dallas’s husband is seen near the scene of a crime. BABY-SITTERS LITTLE SISTER: KAREN’S WORST 1 of love 3 D AY, by Ann M. Martin. Illustrated by Katy Farina. THE INN, by James Patterson with Candice Fox. 1 (Scholastic) Bad luck seems to get the best of 3 (Grand Central) A former Boston police detective Karen, who can’t find her favorite jeans or get her who is now an innkeeper must shield a seaside cat to play with her. town from a crew of criminals.

NEW KID, by Jerry Craft. (HarperCollins) Jordan 15 AN IRISH WISH, by Nora Roberts. (Silhouette) Two 1 4 Banks, an artistically inclined seventh grader from 4 romance stories: “Irish Rose” and “Irish Rebel.” Washington Heights, has a tough time navigating an upscale private school where diversity is low. THE LOST AND FOUND BOOKSHOP, by Susan 1 5 Wiggs. (Avon) Natalie Harper takes over the care of GUTS, by Raina Telgemeier. (Scholastic) Raina 17 her mother’s bookshop and her ailing grandfather. 5 finds her tummy trouble might be more than it first appears to be when she goes back to school. A MINUTE TO MIDNIGHT, by David Baldacci. (Grand 1 6 Central) When Atlee Pine returns to her hometown CLASS ACT, by Jerry Craft. (Quill Tree) Drew 4 to investigate her sister’s kidnapping from 30 years 6 Ellis finds he must work 10 times as hard as his ago, she winds up tracking a potential serial killer. privileged classmates. MORAL COMPASS, by Danielle Steel. (Dell) 2 JUJUTSU KAISEN, VOL. 1, by Gege Akutami. (VIZ 1 7 Shortly after Saint Ambrose Prep goes co-ed, a 7 Media) The athletic Yuji Itadori chooses to spend student is attacked and the community falls apart. his time with members of the Occult Research Club, who unseal a cursed object. FINALLY YOU, by Debbie Macomber. (MIRA) Two 1 8 romance stories: “No Competition” and “All Things THEY CALLED US ENEMY, by George Takei, Justin 4 Considered.” 8 Eisinger and Steven Scott. Illustrated by Harmony Becker. (Top Shelf Productions) A memoir of Takei’s PREACHER’S CARNAGE, by William W. Johnstone 1 experiences while imprisoned in a Japanese- 9 and J. A. Johnstone. (Pinnacle) Preacher is hired American internment camp during World War II. by a St. Louis businessman to seek justice for an ambushed wagon train on the Sante Fe trail. DEMON SLAYER: KIMETSU NO YAIBA, VOL. 1, by 6 9 Koyoharu Gotouge. (VIZ Media) A young charcoal BITTER PILL, by Fern Michaels. (Zebra/ 1 seller must avenge his family by destroying the 10 Kensington) The 32nd book in the Sisterhood demon that slaughtered them. series. Doctors in different parts of the world push questionable natural remedies. ATTACK ON TITAN, VOL. 1, by Hajime Isayama. 2 10 (Kodansha) A group of survivors must go into UNSOLVED, by James Patterson and David Ellis. 2 hiding to escape giant humanoids. 11 (Grand Central) A string of seemingly accidental and unrelated deaths confound F.B.I. agent Emmy 11 SMILE, by Raina Telgemeier. (Scholastic) Raina 15 Dockery. experiences braces, boy troubles and other plagues Here are 175 true stories of love, each of the sixth grade. THE VISCOUNT WHO LOVED ME, by Julia Quinn. 1 12 (Avon) The second book in the Bridgerton told in 100 words or less. Romantic and MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 1, by Kohei Horikoshi. 13 series. Kate Sheffield gets in the way of Anthony 12 (VIZ Media) Will Izuku Midoriya’s chance encounter Bridgerton’s intent to marry. platonic, sibling and parental, requited with a superhero change his fate? Most likely! and unrequited, lost and found: The 13 BLOOD IN THE DUST, by William W. Johnstone and 1 BABY-SITTERS LITTLE SISTER: KAREN’S ROLLER 7 J. A. Johnstone. (Pinnacle) The second book in the stories are tiny, but the loves they contain 13 SKATES, by Ann M. Martin. Illustrated by Katy Hunter Buchanon Black Hills Western series. A Farina. (Scholastic) After taking a tumble, Karen former tracker goes back into action when a saloon are anything but. Honest, funny, tender, sets out to get her friends and someone famous to girl gets kidnapped. sign her cast. wise, and always surprising, these 14 THE WARSAW PROTOCOL, by Steve Berry. (St. 1 ordinary moments burn so bright that 14 MY HERO ACADEMIA, VOL. 2, by Kohei Horikoshi. 6 Martin’s) The 15th book in the Cotton Malone (VIZ Media) Midoriya can barely control the All series. The balance of power in Europe is imperiled. they reveal humanity, and our own selves, Might’s abilities he inherited. SISTERS BY CHOICE, by Susan Mallery. (MIRA) 1 in their light. DRAMA, by Raina Telgemeier. (Scholastic) Callie 14 15 The fourth book in the Blackberry Island series. 15 becomes the stage manager for her middle school’s Three women seek to make changes in their lives production of “Moon Over Mississippi.” that they find difficult. From the editors of the Modern Love column in The New York Times. Sales are defined as completed transactions between vendors and individual end users during the period on or after the official publication date of a title. Graphic book rankings include all print and digital formats. Adult, children’s, young adult, fiction and nonfiction graphic books are eligible for inclusion on the graphic books and manga list. ONLINE: For complete lists and a full explanation of our methodology, visit www.nytimes.com/books/best-sellers.

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THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 21 The Shortlist / Poetry / By Emilia Phillips

DEARLY HOW TO FLY (IN TEN THOUSAND EASY LESSONS) AMERICAN MELANCHOLY New Poems Poetry Poems By Margaret Atwood By Barbara Kingsolver By Joyce Carol Oates 124 pp. Ecco. $27.99. 111 pp. Harper/HarperCollins. $24.99. 112 pp. Ecco. $26.99.

“These are the late poems,” Atwood declares Kingsolver’s second poetry collection feels A third of the way into Oates’s latest poetry at the outset of her 16th poetry collection, padded with minutiae, like a daybook that collection, readers are confronted with a ribbing readers about the ways the literary occasionally arrives at moments of conse- poem whose title bleeds into the first line: community treats the works of poets of a quential epiphany (at best) and nugatory certain age. But she promptly divests the platitude (at worst). Even the book’s title This Is Not a Poem phrase of any clinging ceremoniousness feels soggy, as if it’s on the same menu as in which the poet discovers with a pun: “Most poems are late / of “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” At times, the delicate white-parched bones course,” she writes, “like a letter sent by a sailor / that figurative language feels incongruous, as in “The tour- arrives after he’s drowned.” Poems, Atwood argues, of a small creature ists’ bikinis touch down like witless butterflies / trying to on a Great Lake shore aren’t the rhetoric of the immediate; they emerge slowly suck nectar from the blazing sand” and “At the end of out of human understanding’s glacial melt. the long bowling alley lane / of a transatlantic flight, we From there, Oates catalogs all the things this poem is Much of the book is concerned with ecology and with crash and topple / like pins in the back of a Roman taxi.” not: no “sere grasses hiss- / ing like consonants / in a time: most interestingly, with how the present moment, The poet often bungles the representation of nonwhite foreign language,” no “metonymic moon / time-traveling “our too-brief history,” will look in the future. “Oh chil- people, usually because her approach is overwrought in for wisdom,” lampoons of bad poetry. Instead, Oates dren, will you grow up in a world without ice? / Without its attempt to mean well. Take, for instance, “How to writes, her poems are “a slew / of words in search / of a mice, without lichens?” Atwood asks in one poem. But Love Your Neighbor,” in which the speaker insists that container.” Repetition appears to be one of Oates’s favor- her preoccupation with our planet’s ponderous apoca- one must love all of one’s neighbors including “a wom- ite containers, as one sees in “Doctor Help Me”: lypse also highlights the paradox of human invention: an / wrapping her hijab” and “Not just the morning Because they would hate me forever. We make things to preserve our memories, ideas and shoppers” (read: who are presumed to be white) and cultures, and we also make things to destroy them. “Did Because they would never forgive me for shaming them. “the man who walks his chortling dog” (white) and “the Because they would kill me. I do that?” asks the speaker of “A Drone Scans the couples / with strawberry children” (white and, yes, Wreckage,” a poem that anticipates the themes of “Spi- white). All are reasons to get an abortion, and it goes on for der Signatures,” spoken in the voice of the titular arach- Elsewhere, in “My First Derby Party,” Kingsolver five pages. Oates, as always, has compelling insights nid: recalls growing up in Kentucky where a thoroughbred about toxic masculinity and human brutality. Speaking If you come across me suddenly was “important enough for a swimming pool” but the through her characters, she often reveals the harrowing you scream: Too many legs, children’s “schoolyard was gravel.” Because of this dis- consequences of violence. In “Little Albert, 1920,” the or is it the eight red eyes, parity, she grew up hating horses. Now, as an adult, she baby featured in John Watson’s psychological experi- the glossy blob of abdomen? has a realization: “freeborn, field-stained, I wonder / at ments says: “Ask me did I adjust to life after the / infa- Drop of thumb’s blood, popped grape: my old envy for the well-shod mansion slave.” Perhaps mous experiment. Ask me / did I overcome my terror of that’s what you’d aim for. she’s denouncing that old envy, recognizing her privi- animals?” But for all of Oates’s moralizing about peo- lege, but it’s not entirely clear how the “well-shod man- ple’s inability to speak for themselves, her poem “Blood- Here we see Atwood at the height of her poetic pow- sion slave” fits into the narrative. Is it a metaphor for the line, Elegy: Su Qijian Family, Beijing” ignominiously ers: her imagery made tangible with sound, that “glossy horse? If so, it’s an incredibly dehumanizing figure of constructs a singular voice for an entire Chinese family blob” more globular through assonance, the “drop of speech. If these moments had been removed and the and portrays a whole nation as a homogeneous mass, as thumb’s blood, popped grape” literally popping in the book distilled further, readers could have had an evoca- “creatures of the hive” who “do not question the hive.” mouth through the p’s. tive glimpse into a daily life ripe with the poet’s curi- One must hope that, after publishing this poem, Oates The more Atwood wields specifics, the more of the osities. asks herself what she asks in another poem: world she skewers with her fantastically sharp imagina- tion. The “Siren Brooding on Her Eggs,” for instance, sits why did it matter on her “frowsy nest / of neckties” singing a lullaby to so much “hungry egglets” who will soon hatch into something to have the last “ravenous with song.” Only Atwood could muster up that word? (literally man-eating) vision with such relish. or any word?

EMILIA PHILLIPS is the author of three poetry collections, most recently “Empty Clip.”

22 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021 ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN GALL Revisited / A History of the Comedian Memoir in Eight Books / By Jason Zinoman A syllabus of sorts for exploring some of the funniest books of all time by the funniest people.

TREADMILL HARPO SPEAKS!, by Harpo Marx (1961) TO OBLIVION, by Fred Allen (1954) Taking readers on a glamorous trip from vaude- ville to Broadway to Allen, a giant of 20th- Hollywood, Marx wit- century comedy, left tily exposes the behind this splen- chasm between public didly cranky portrait persona and private of the golden age of personality. In his act, radio comedy in the he was all silent appe- 1930s. He argues tite and id. But on the television ruined page, he’s a refined ro- comedy, and almost mantic, an intellectual convinces you. A pio- who never finished neer of insult com- the second grade. This edy and topical hu- is the gold standard of mor, Allen includes transcripts of his famous feud the comedian memoir. with Jack Benny, the roast battles of their day.

HOW TO TALK DIRTY AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE, ENTER TALKING, PRYOR CONVICTIONS, by Lenny Bruce (1965) by Joan Rivers (1986) by Richard Pryor (1995)

Writing in the tumultuous last years of his life, There’s more raw terror When Pryor was 5 Bruce set the template for the antihero comic, in this book than in a years old, he acciden- cheerily mapping the thousand suicide notes. tally stepped in dog birth of a rebel, raging The ferociously funny poop. His mom laughed. against hypocrisy and Rivers wrote many So he did it again, this moralism, mocking the books, but none distilled time on purpose. “That comedy of the previous her warrior mentality as was my first joke,” he generation before be- much as this account of writes. From these coming a free-speech her tortured childhood humble beginnings martyr, sent to trial for and early career. In her grew the career of the obscenity. It’s a master view, comedy is a by- greatest stand-up comic class in mythmaking, product of suffering and who ever grabbed a mi- with Bruce’s staccato struggle, requiring desperation, an unappeas- crophone. The outlines of his now famous story delivery translating able need to succeed and an unimaginable toler- have been chronicled many times, but never in beautifully to the page. ance for humiliation and rejection. Sounds fun, more raw, blunt detail than here. huh? For the reader, it actually is.

I FEEL BAD ABOUT MY NECK, by Nora Ephron (2006) BORN STANDING UP, BOSSYPANTS, by Tina Fey (2011) by Steve Martin (2007) This witticism-packed book is not a memoir. Nor More than any other book, with the possible excep- is it written by a comedian. So what is it doing on Most comedian mem- tion of Howard Stern’s “Private Parts,” this block- this list? Ephron defies easy categorization, but oirs are baggy, ram- buster created the mod- her massively influen- bling affairs, but this el- ern comedy memoir tial prose has made her egant chronicle of the boom. Many imitations a titan of modern com- beginning and end of a have followed but what edy. Her reflections on meteoric stand-up ca- makes Fey so singular is aging, parenting and reer is the rare one her sharply self-mock- New York are classic with the precision of a ing, wry voice and boun- comic set pieces. She joke. A ton of wisdom tiful punch lines. What even gets her origin packs into this slim holds this book together story down to two sen- book. Martin breaks is the sneaky density of tences: “I wrote a mag- down the mechanics of jokes, one after another, azine article about hav- the art with a rigorous analytic mind, then de- some better than others, ing small breasts. I am scribes how he subverted them, choosing to make but very few duds — a now a writer.” comedy without punch lines, to create tension but ruthless feat of comedy. never release it, to bomb with a smile.

JASON ZINOMAN is the comedy critic for The Times and the author of “Letterman: The Last Giant of Late Night.”

THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW 23 24 SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2021