During this holiday week, The Common is presenting highlights from the past year. Today’s highlights come from “Reviews.”
Read Melinda Misener’s review of Townie by Andre Dubus III, here, and Sarah Malone’s review of NW by Zadie Smith, here.
LAUREN YU-TING BO
Paramaditha does not abstain from widely acknowledged gothic tropes entirely...and yet, Night of a Thousand Hells contains mainly the horror of reality. We are told from the beginning that it's the story of three sisters and that the youngest sister Annisa, “the beautiful one,” has committed an act of terrorism.
NICOLE SCHRAG
Liberal Arts isn’t a satire. Instead, the humor originates in situational ironies that arise from the bizarre juxtapositions that might be made possible in and around universities, where people who otherwise have no earthly reason to find themselves in the same room are brought together.
ZARA KARSCHAY
Translated into English from the original Galician by Jacob Rogers, Lamela’s novel foregrounds the Franco regime’s work in disappearing villages, displacing its inhabitants, and forcing hundreds of political prisoners to work on its new reservoirs and dams.
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