Tag: Reviews

[ad_1] Errand Into the Maze, by Deborah Jowitt (Farrar, Straus & Giroux). This astute biography, by a veteran Village Voice critic, traces the long career of Martha Graham, a choreographer who became one of the major figures of twentieth-century modernism. Born in 1894 in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, Graham came of age in an era when Americans… Continue reading Briefly Noted Book Reviews | The New Yorker

[ad_1] Schoenberg, by Harvey Sachs (Liveright). In this study of Arnold Schoenberg, the Austrian-born composer who immigrated to the U.S. in 1933, Sachs blends fleet-footed biography with an accessible analysis of Schoenberg’s works. Best known for his development of twelve-tone serialism, Schoenberg believed that he would single-handedly restore Germany’s musical dominance over France, Italy, and… Continue reading Briefly Noted Book Reviews | The New Yorker

[ad_1] The Five Sorrowful Mysteries of Andy Africa, by Stephen Buoro (Bloomsbury). Andrew Aziza, the Nigerian teen-ager who is the protagonist of this début novel, describes himself as a “genius poet altar boy who loves blondes.” A Christian who lives in a largely Muslim town, Andy feels ashamed of his preference for the West, which… Continue reading Briefly Noted Book Reviews | The New Yorker

[ad_1] The Centre, by Ayesha Manazir Siddiqi (Gillian Flynn). The protagonist of this mystery is a young Pakistani Londoner who earns money writing English subtitles for Bollywood films and longs to translate literary classics. When she receives an invitation to the Centre, a secretive language school that produces native-level fluency in ten days, she enrolls,… Continue reading Briefly Noted Book Reviews | The New Yorker