Leaving Brooklyn

Lynne Sharon Schwartz. Penguin Books, $10.95 (160pp) ISBN 978-0-14-013197-0

``Not as complex or inventive as Disturbances in the Field ,'' judged PW , ``this slim, nostalgic novel reincarnates, from a contemporary adult narrator's perspective, post-WW II Brooklyn, where conformity, sensible relationships and coherence wage an age-old battle against passion and creativity.'' Here silver-tongued prose compensates for wobbly plot contrivances. (Aug.)

Featured Fiction Reviews

Robert Seethaler

The beautiful latest from Seethaler (A Whole Life) revolves around the diverse patrons of a Viennese café. In summer 1966, war orphan Robert Simon, now 31 and tired of manual Continue reading »

Roisín O'Donnell

Irish writer O’Donnell debuts with a wrenching and scrupulously realistic narrative of a Dublin-based mother who, after years of emotional and sexual abuse, decides to leave her Continue reading »

Dino Buzzati

These captivating stories selected by Venuti and written over a 50-year-period by Buzzati (1906–1972) exhibit the author’s interest in fantasy, futility, and fate. In “Seven Continue reading »

Maggie Su

In Su’s marvelous debut, a Taiwanese American woman sculpts a seemingly perfect partner out of a sentient blob. Two years after failing out of college, Vi works as a hotel Continue reading »