author:
K.B. DIXON

Fiction
142 pages
Academy Chicago Publishers

Forget stream of consciousness. I don’t know about you, but my stream of consciousness generally consists of fully formed sentences latched together into comprehensive paragraphs, often incorporating plot and lots of action verbs. This may be why The Sum of His Syndromes works so well. Composed of the narrator’s notes from a sixth floor bathroom as he avoids work, K.B. Dixon’s short novel hits life from workplace gossip to the larger questions of love and happiness. And it works. Protagonist David uses blunt emotion and unintentional humor in describing his depression, his frustrating tête-à-têtes with his pill-pushing therapist, his boring and nondescript job, and his budding relationship with a woman he’s pretty certain won’t stick around.

The story with its tenuously connected notes parses out brilliantly, from the thoughtful (“Aren’t you ever afraid of catching something from us – like an overwhelming sense that it is all for nothing?”) through the sad (“We pretend I am brave because I am here, but I can’t believe in our heart of hearts that either of us feels this is true”) to the completely mundane (“Angie Huffman’s four-year-old daughter killed her pet guinea pig, Max. She thought he was cold so she put him in the microwave to warm him up.”) Throughout, the topics return to life, depression, friendship, and relationships as David struggles to align the pieces of his life, but it’s the little jewels of the everyday that make this book both a piece of humor and a fiction that actually relates to its audience.

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author:
BENJAMIN GREENMAN

Fiction
225 pages
MacAdam/Cage

Benjamin Greenman makes me want to be single for the rest of my life. Seriously. Never before has a collection of stories about “love” left me so jaded, miserable and repulsed at the thought of committed relationships. If I had a boyfriend, I would have left him after reading the story about the girl who broke Bigfoot’s heart and made him want to die. Thanks Ben, you have officially ruined my life.

A Circle is a Balloon and a Compass Both is a collection of short stories, all written by Yale graduate, editor, freelance writer, journalist, etc., Benjamin Greeman. Each story is centered around a relationship and loosely based on an aspect of love such as art, music, sports, power and humor. These relationships are anything but functional and most of them end in one character being utterly miserable.

“Clutching and Glancing” is about a young artist who takes a summer job at a hotel with the intention of seducing her way through the season. She begins a brief affair with a married doctor and after meeting his wife, inconspicuously turns him in after wearing her wedding band while she has sex with him on the hotel room floor. We can only assume she goes on to keep breaking up marriages and he goes on to sleeping on the couch.

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author:
DAVE EGGERS

Non-fiction
342 pages
McSweeney’s

When Dave Eggers publishes a new book, I get pretty excited. Partly because his work rarely disappoints, but also (largely!) because McSweeney’s books are a work of art.

Much like his last book, the cover of Zeitoun in many ways reflects not only the story contained inside, but the prevailing mood. It pictures a man paddling a canoe through the flooded streets of New Orleans. His face looks serene as he glides through calm water, and despite submerged houses and the hood of a car jutting out of the unnatural sea, the scene doesn’t conjure up the sense of devastation that we would expect from a book about the disastrous events of Hurricane Katrina.

The story revolves around a man named Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a prominent and well-liked man in his community. Early on, we follow his day to day interaction with family and friends, neighbors and clients, demonstrating not only that he is a likeable and dependable guy, but someone with character – with principles. And so, when things start to go downhill for our hero, it is extremely disenchanting. Infuriating even. Thankfully, this is a game Eggers is well-acquainted with, and it is where he shines. In every calamity, Zeitoun sees opportunities to help. For every disgrace he suffers, he sees a reaffirming trace of humanity. When things seem dark, he never abandons hope. In the dreariest moments, through his eyes we are left with a sense that all is not lost. It’s a nice feeling. In fact, if Zeitoun hadn’t been so steadfast throughout his trials, I probably would have grown discouraged reading; but that is not meant as a criticism – it is largely the charm of this story. Dave Eggers has a definite skill for this type of emotional balancing act.

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author:
ROY BLOUNT JR.

Fiction
384 pages
Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Roy Blount, Jr. shares his passion for words in this delightful, rollicking book. He mixes etymology with anecdote to create as entertaining a book about the origins of words as one could hope for. Blount fairly gushes with enthusiasm for words which he deems “sonicky” that is, any word “whose sound doesn’t imitate sound, like boom or poof, but does somehow sensuously evoke the essence of the word: queasy or rickety or zest or sluggish or vim..” He goes on to state that, “If you were a caveperson earnestly trying to communicate how you felt digestively, you might without benefit of any verbal tradition come up with something close to nausea.” You get the picture. Mixed in with all the wordplay and bon mots are oodles of examples of how slippery and dynamic our language is, as well as how ridiculously silly it can seem. Blount makes no attempt at being objective; though he’s obviously done his research over the years, this is far from a straightforward reference book, though at first glance it looks kind of like one. The book is arranged alphabetically, with each section beginning with a discussion of the letter in question, sometimes criticizing the placement of a letter in the alphabet, such as T (“It ought to be the last in ours”) or merely expressing appreciation (“Let us pause to enjoy the movement between sliding and sidling”).

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