(Algonquin). Japanese-American families in the sugar cane fields of Hawaii One man’s family doesn’t have a child so his brother gives him a newbom son. Uneven pace, but evocative pidgin dialogue and a movie-ready plot
(Random House) A ruined family moves to the Chesapeake Bay area before WWII. Quixotic dad may ruin them again. Tilghman’s a powerful short-story writers but this is stately and slow.
(HarperCollins). A vivid but nihilistic tale of circus life: kinky sex, white trash and drugs. Snowwhite Winona Ryder bought the rights. Maybe this’ll be her “Leaving Las Vegas.”
(Morrow). A mariage blanc in black South Philly, circa 1950; husband takes up with jazz singer. Go for time, place community; attempts at lyricism just so-so.
(Houghton Mifflin). Decent, rational man snuffs terminally ill dad on page 8. Things go to Hell from there, so artfully that this sad tale of marriage and adultery feels triumphant.
(Little, Brown). Boy (10) meets girl (19), leading to decades of tragicomic sexual desperation. Why sonnet? 14 chapters. Why snakebite? She gets one; he sucks out poison. Ah, romance.
