BOOKS:
Torrid text

Crummy jobs, suicide satire, the atom bomb, a Hell’s Angel dad and more escapist adventures

If I could only recommend one of this year’s releases for summer reading, it would be Sightseeing by Rattawut Lapcharoensap. Easy to read, laugh-out-loud funny, yet unflinching in its depiction of some of the realities of life in Southeast Asia, this slim collection of short stories has everything you need. Because Lapcharoensap was raised almost simultaneously in Thailand and the U.S., commuting back and forth throughout his childhood and teenage years, he can pull off characters that sound like they could be either surfers or refugees. It’s a fusion that’s both fun and righteous—the perfect recipe for summer reading.

With that melting fudgesicle on the cover, Jonathan Lethem’s collection of essays, The Disappointment Artist, will also go down easy and satisfy most tastes. Part memoir, part cultural criticism, Lethem establishes himself as one of the best American essayists, as well as novelists. Plus, what could be more timely than his memoir of the summer of ’77, when he watched Star Wars 21 times?

For those suffering through a summer job, or a job that really should be just a summer job, Ayun Halliday’s Job Hopper is a smart, funny memoir of a serial part timer. Fans of eccentric but provocative novelist Lydia Millet (Everyone’s Pretty and George Bush, Dark Prince of Love) will be happy about a new novel out next month. Oh Pure and Radiant Heart is part period piece/part eco-epic, and tells the story of three contemporaries of Robert Oppenheimer who were key to the invention of the atom bomb, and who develop a messianic cult following.

Fans of the massive beach book will be out buying John Irving’s latest heavyweight. Until I Find You is a 900-page family saga about a Hollywood actor and his mother, a Toronto tattoo artist. Those looking for something slimmer and darker might want to take a look at Blood Father by Peter Craig. Craig’s last thriller, Hot Plastic, was a sharp, well-written take on contemporary grifters. This one looks to be another family-noir tale, this time a road trip by a former Hell’s Angel and his estranged delinquent teenage daughter.

Fans of U.K. lad lit will be happy to learn that advance reviews of Nick Hornby’s latest, A Long Way Down, are pretty strong, even if The New York Times seems to think he’s a little out of his depth with the book’s subject, suicide. Still, the informal suicide survivor club that forms between a middle-aged mother, a divorced father, a failed rock star and a volatile rich girl sounds like a rich source of serious satire.

Toby Litt, who seems to be emerging as Hornby’s successor, has also scored a huge hit with a brutal satire of British chick lit, Finding Myself. Diana Evans has garnered comparisons to Zadie Smith and Monica Ali with her debut novel, 26a, about identical twins who grow up in London of the ’80s and ’90s. But if you’re looking for a sure bet, you can’t go wrong with Ian McEwan’s intelligent page-turner, Saturday.

On the Canadian front, fans of Desperate Housewives may want to take a look at Michelle Berry’s Blind Crescent, a dark, funny novel about some not-so-ordinary suburbanites. Warren Dunford’s campy take on an ageing Hollywood diva kidnapped from the set of a movie about a kidnapping—The Scene Stealer—sounds like a fast, fun read. Andrew Pyper’s clearly been doing his research for The Wildfire Season, a dark psychological thriller about firefighting, grizzly bear hunting, murder and love. Critics have been predicting big things for Pyper since his first book, Lost Girls. Maybe this will be the season he finally does catch fire internationally.