John Delaney

Publishing industry insider Alena Graedon’s debut novel The Word Exchange invokes modern Luddite disgust with Facebook and paranoia about Google Glass. Advertised as “a dystopian novel for the digital age,” Graedon pens a high-data NYC satire depicting industry and cultural wars between high-tech behemoth Synchronic and The North American Dictionary of the English Language. Synchronic, […]

Juliann Garey’s disciplined literary realism navigates a murky, disruptive plot detouring through Rome, Bangkok, Israel, Kampala, Nairobi and Santiago in debut novel Too Bright to Hear Too Loud to See. Greyson Todd, a high-powered Hollywood studio executive hiding his bipolar disorder for years, tires of living the lie. Unhinged, Todd spontaneously abandons saintly suburban wife […]

A modest formal experiment in narrative minimalism, Danish thespian Lars Husum provides as little data as possible to move the plot along for star appearances by My Friend Jesus Christ. Expect no realistic descriptions. Husum’s first novel transliterates cartoon panels depicting spare silhouettes without detail. Comic book exclamatories like SMACK, WALLOP, a page-long AAAAHHHH and […]

What encore does Jeffrey Eugenides perform following his 2003 Pulitzer Prize for the universally acclaimed Middlesex? Writing an even better book. The Marriage Plot may initially underwhelm, as Eugenides’ detailed narration of one college clique’s graduation week at Brown University resembles an elitist scrapbook illustrating his brilliantly tight first novel, he Virgin Suicides. Once off-campus, […]

The intent behind Jorge G. Castaneda’s Manana Forever? mirrors John Ralston Saul’s Reflections of a Siamese Twin—it’s an intellectual excursion into national identity so as to set contemporary national priorities. Like former Canadian vicar general and native Ottawan Saul, Castaneda (both Jorge and his father served on different Mexican presidents’ cabinets) boasts Mexico City federal […]