There are some who think that Pynchon is only about style, only a wordsmith who strings together syllables and sentences the way others light off chains of firecrackers on the Fourth of July. But in this newest and his most accessible novel, Pynchon not only has something to say and does so in his own inimitable style he does it in a way that should bring him readers from all over the interest-map. As it happens, in AGAINST THE DAY, he does it with firecrackers.

 

When Susanna Clarke’s novel JONATHAN STRANGE & MR. NORRELL became a runaway best-seller many people thought it might have been magic -- or at least some deal with the Faerie Realm. Now in this collection of short stories entitled THE LADIES OF GRACE ADIEU(many written and published before the novel) the reader is invited to revisit Magical Olde Englande.

 

In the title story, Magician Jonathan Strange visits a relation in the village of Grace Adieu never dreaming or even scrying that he would run into the Three Ladies of Grace Adieu. Although Magic has in this age of rediscovery seemed a male sport, what with magic being used in the  Napoleonic Wars and all, these Ladies have found it intriguing, helpful, even delicious.

 

 

Each years sees a few, sometimes many, coming-of-age novels. But few decades are witness to a classic in the genre and in the first decade of this new century we see a believable story of an Everyman -- truly an Everyboy -- making his way to adulthood in BLACK SWAN GREEN by David Mitchell.

 

The story takes place in Cold War England but although there are many topical references and English slang it could be taking place anywhere. The main concerns of the novel are the growth in awareness of a child toward seeing the world through adult eyes.  This being author David Mitchell, there is an unsurprising, surprise twist as to what this awareness brings to Jason Tyler as he struggles and matures.