Also Noted

Regarding Fidel Castro: My Life: A Spoken Autobiography (available January 8)— we’re curious about what the old man has to say, and we’re hoping for wardrobe and grooming tips, along with colorful yarns about outlasting ten American presidents. Plus, how can you resist a two-colon title? … As long as we’re pimping atheists and communists, we might as well throw this one out there, too: Eric Wilson’s Against Happiness: In Praise of Melancholy (available January 22) is pretty much exactly what it says; it argues that depression is a vital force and the wellspring of creativity. We’re happy to hear that … In Life Class (available January 29), Booker Prize-winning novelist Pat Barker (The Regeneration Trilogy) continues her exploration of the First World War’s devastating effects on British society … A.L. Kennedy is one of those prolific, much praised, purported virtuosos that nobody seems to have read. We can all climb on the bandwagon with her latest, Day (available January 8) … Finally, want to read something unlike most of the stuff you read? Try sampling some of the reissues from the virtuous New York Review of Books Classics series. For starters, we’d recommend Elaine Dundy’s delightful The Dud Avocado, a novel of an adventurous American girl in Paris. Or Edward Lewis Wallant’s The Tenants of Moonbloom, about a bill collector for a slumlord. Or Sylvia Townsend Warner’s Lolly Willowes. Seriously, their catalog is full of marvels.