Nathan Holic

Category: Books – Contemporary

  • “Goodbye, Columbus”

      I came to “Goodbye, Columbus” a little late in the game: I’d already read most the Zuckerman books, “The Plot Against America,” “Portnoy’s Complaint,” and maybe five or six random Roth novels, but I’d never really had any strategy for reading them. If one looked interesting, and I had access to it, I’d get…

  • “Netherland”

    “Netherland” is one of those books that sits in tall stacks on the “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” table at Borders or Barnes & Noble, and it’s right next to one of those other books that you’ve wanted for awhile: “Into the Wild,” perhaps, or “Empire Falls,” or even “Persepolis.” It’s got a striking cover,…

  • From Bauhaus to Our House

      Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction works best in essay form, I think. “Hooking Up” was a great collection, and “The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby” was a great collection, and even “The Right Stuff” (supposedly a nonfiction novel) felt like a collection of short nonfiction narratives pieced together to tell the story of America’s fascination with the…

  • Fatherland

    I learned about “Fatherland” after reading Philip Roth’s “The Plot Against America” and Michael Chabon’s “The Yiddish Policemen’s Union,” both of which were alternate histories that re-imagined the circumstances (and outcome) of World War II. Before reading either book, I’d never really given much thought to the idea of an “alternate history novel,” but Roth’s…

  • Refresh, Refresh

    I remember reading a couple stories from Benjamin Percy in Esquire awhile back, and each of them was haunting, the type of short story that stayed with you long after you finished reading. For my money, at least, that’s the sort of story that I love: the kind that is not easily dismissed, that kind…

  • The Photographer

    “The Photographer” is quite possibly the most inventive book I’ve ever read, and it’s a testament to the author(s) that it stands as an amazing example of a memoir, a piece of literary journalism, a graphic novel, a book of photo journalism, and (most accurately) a piece of “mixed-media literature.” I’ll get back to that…

  • “Indignation,” by Philip Roth

    Philip Roth has made a career out of creating characters who put themselves through absolute hell. Nearly every one of his protagonists, it seems, could lead a fulfilling life, but they all seem to sabotage themselves with their own stubborn decisions and outbursts. In the world of Philip Roth, a happy and satisfying existence seems…

  • A History of the Hip-Hop Generation

    “Can’t Stop Won’t Stop” is a pretty spectacular undertaking, a book that attempts to chart the birth, coming-of-age, and growing pains of a so-called “hip-hop generation.” It’s always readable, always interesting, and surprisingly inspiring, but it isn’t without its issues. First, I can’t help but think of the idea (and subtitle) of the “hip-hop generation”…

  • The Best Creative Nonfiction Vol. I

    As a strong supporter of the “Best American Short Stories” collections, I wasn’t exactly sure what to think of Lee Gutkind’s “The Best Creative Nonfiction.” After all, it seems like a lot of different publishers and editors are using “The Best” in their titles, even when they aren’t affiliated with “The Best American” series, in…

  • The Brat Pack: “Bright Lights, Big City”

    Jay McInernay’s Bright Lights, Big City became one of those “talked about” literary novels in the mid-’80s, a piece of literature that–perhaps because of its thematic content and its accessible or interesting voice–transcends the snobbish categorization of “literary fiction” to simply become “mainstream fiction.” McInernay himself became a sort of celebrity (as much as a…