The Darkness and the Light

Two golden couples’ lives intertwine in Joukovsky’s clever take on the Narcissus myth. They come from the sort of East Coast privilege that’s easy to satirize, but you know you are in good hands when you read lines like, “There is no greater compliment in this world than being the uncooperative catalyst of another person’s misery, if not all-out self-destruction.” The author mixes elements of both the art and the business worlds (from personal experience) in this very delectable exploration of contemporary relationships.

Henkin has beautifully captured the journey of a fractured family and the strong reverberations that affect each member when a devastating diagnosis of early onset Alzheimer’s strikes. Pru is a young Ohio girl who comes East for college and marries her older Shakespeare professor. Their marriage and his illness form the heart of the book, but we also come to understand how each part of the extended family (a son from a previous relationship, a possible new love interest) deals with the shattering situation of a beloved man in decline. It is a tender, honest story with big emotions, exquisitely told.

Lippman’s recent and terrific Lady in the Lake was one of the most successful novels of her career and will be seen shortly as a TV series starring Natalie Portman and Lupito Nyong’o (can’t wait). Her new novel, more psychological suspense á la Stephen King than procedural, finds a novelist bed-ridden after an accident, recuperating alone in his apartment. But reality comes into question when an ex-girlfriend appears, odd phone calls persist relating to a fictional character in one of his novels, and then . . . a dead body. Signed copies available while they last.