The characters in these novels grew up with strict rules about masculine strength and dominance. But extreme situations force them to let go of all that.
In Erin Somers’s debut, “Stay Up With Hugo Best,” a 60-something retired late-night host invites his 29-year-old writers’ assistant to New England for a long weekend.
The directionless heroines of Jen Beagin’s “Vacuum in the Dark” and Halle Butler’s “The New Me” follow in the footsteps of Ottessa Moshfegh and Catherine Lacey.
The poet, essayist and environmentalist cites Ovid’s “Metamorphoses” as an inspiration: “Ovid in a sense tried to write the entire Roman story. I take it as a challenge to look for the storyteller of the planet.”
The new book by the historian Kristin L. Hoganson explodes conventional ideas about the Midwest as America’s “insulated core” — the wellspring of its values and identity.