Author: stevenowad

A biography of the Venezuelan terrorist known as “the Jackal”—the world’s most wanted man for two decades. Carlos is raised a communist and becomes a hired gun for just about any group that truly understands the “mendacity” of the West. He becomes a fantastically successful …

Haven’t seen the HBO series, but the novel, by the author of the much-feted LITTLE CHILDREN and the underappreciated THE WISHBONES, is a unique tale of middle-class angst and beauty. Perrotta finds the extraordinary in the ordinary—the small glories in the numb predictability of suburbia. …

Hemingway’s mostly factual ode to his years in Paris after World War I. The events take place a full century ago, and at times the various wisdoms are outdated, but this is still a great read, with the energy of youth even though it was …

The title tells the story. Ageing professor David Kepesh fears his impending decline and death but is also fiercely attracted to a young student one-third his age. Before you think, “Well, here’s another whiny confession by an old, white male lusting after a young thing,” …

Before he gave us movies such as IN BRUGES and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI,” Martin McDonagh was one of the coolest playwrights on the planet. This play, about an outrageously weird criminal looking for the hand that was cut off his arm and then …

Yet another book about the Mafia? Is there really anything left to say? Only if you like spending time in this corner of the true crime universe. The book follows the rise and fall of a mobbed-up union leader in 1970s Cleveland. “Irishman” Danny Greene …

Presidential memoirs are notoriously guarded exercises in protecting the author’s image. Uncomfortable truths are suppressed. Important backstories are ignored. Anecdotes are anodyne. This book is no different. Despite Obama’s obvious brilliance, charm and eloquence, he’s clearly determined to keep the reader at arm’s length. For …

To mark the milestone of our 50th review, we present the best novel ever written. This earth-shattering work is unrivalled in every way imaginable. Thomas Pynchon wrote in the New York Times Book Review, “Any author who reads Owad’s work and doesn’t retreat to the …

This book by a medical examiner in New York fairly reeks of formaldehyde—but in a good way. Melinek guides us through homicides and suicides and John Doe cases without glorying in gore and without losing respect for the dead. She brings us into the autopsy …

A curveball this week: a sixty-year-old play that’s nothing like the plays that get written today. The story follows a defrocked minister who’s having a nervous breakdown triggered by weakness of the flesh. It’s a story about wounded souls at the end of their ropes—about …