The Maris Review, vol 117

This week's theme is who gets to celebrate and go home, and who doesn't What I read this week Etna by Paul Yoon I'm a big Paul Yoon fan but I approached his latest novel with some trepidation. As Josh said, the only book

The Maris Review, vol 116

The theme of the week is how AI is making the world (more) stupid What I read this week The Vivisectors by Missouri Williams What to do with this frustrating, brilliant novel! I almost wanted to take a week longer to think about it before I wrote about it, but

The Maris Review, vol 115

This week's theme is what happens (nothing good!) when you mine your life for material for your fiction What I read this week You Won't Get Free of It: Stories of Mothers and Daughters by Rachel Aviv Rachel Aviv has one of my favorite journalistic beats.

The Maris Review, vol 114

The theme of this week is very simple: two of the hottest novels of summer 2026 What I read this week Famous Men by Julie Buntin "I was naive, but not so naive that I hadn't already heard this story, both of us fitting neatly into our

The Maris Review, vol 113

The theme of the week is terrible men and the havoc they wreak! What I read this week A Real Animal by Emmeline Atwood In 2019 Catapult published Meander, Spiral, Explode, novelist Jane Allison's craft book on narrative structure and the classic hero's journey and how

The Maris Review, vol 112

The theme of the week is multiple personalities, figuratively What I read this week I'm a Lot: Surviving Myself and All the People I've Been by Alison Leiby Alison Leiby is my husband's work wife which means that we are family. I know a

The Maris Review, vol 111

This week's theme is fictional characters who are destined to write autobiographical fiction What I read this week Whistler by Anne Patchett So damn charming, as always. Whistler is a deceptively simple story of family love told with absolute precision, just as Tom Lake was previously. How good

The Maris Review, vol 110

**More patience from you required because I'm definitely not my sharpest this week: After so much water leaked into our apartment last weekend, we found out that we have to completely pack up our apartment and move out while gut renovations happen, timing unknown – somewhere between four and

The Maris Review, vol 109

This week's theme is affordable housing **Please bear with me this week. On Sunday the sprinkler system in our building went on the fritz, and we had water coming in everywhere. Thankfully most of the books have made it (a few galleys had to go) but everything is

The Maris Review, vol 108

This week's theme is mighty triumvirates and/or friend throuples What I read this week My Year in Paris with Gertrude Stein: A Fiction by Deborah Levy No one does it like Deborah Levy on a sentence level, whether she's writing a novel or a memoir

The Maris Review, vol 107

The theme of the week is crossing boundaries and borders; it's so on the nose that I'm a little ashamed What I read this week No God But Us by Bobuq Sayed "Istanbul is where the people displaced by all the wars end up. They&

The Maris Review, vol 106

The theme of the week is "Every piece of writing is a wager about how things may or may not hold together, on the page and off." – Emily Labarge What I read this week Dog Days by Emily Labarge I love books like this: a big fat blend

The Maris Review, vol 105

This week's theme is somebody's watching you. What I read this week Men Like Ours by Bindu Bansinath What a propulsive and assured debut novel! I know Bindu a little bit from her work at The Cut, and we've been to a few book

The Maris Review, vol 104

This week's theme is inheritances. What I read this week American Rambler by Isaac Fitzgerald It's always illuminating to read a friend's personal writing about a time period when you sort of knew what was going on but not exactly. Sporadic texts are not

The Maris Review, vol 103

This week's theme is the excesses of girlhood What I read this week Last Night in Brooklyn by Xochitl Gonzalez It's been a long time since a novel has captured a particular time and a place with such love and precision of feeling, if not fact.

The Maris Review, vol 102

The theme this week is sequels you can enjoy even if you haven't read the previous novel. What I read this week A Violent Masterpiece by Jordan Harper My friend Sarah Weinman gave Jordan Harper's new novel a rave in the New York Times, calling A

The Maris Review, vol 101

This week's theme is college in the late 1990s was wild. I can attest. What I read this week Transcription by Ben Lerner I'm a Ben Lerner completist. I am always intrigued by his work, as long as I can block out the sounds of his

The Maris Review, vol 100

The theme of the week is hurt people hurt people. What I read this week Here Where We Live Is Our Country: The Story of the Jewish Bund by Molly Crabapple I never thought that in my adult life I would spend so much time thinking about what it means

The Maris Review, vol 99

This week's theme is errant children What I read this week London Falling: A Mysterious Death in a Gilded City and a Family's Search for Truth by Patrick Radden Keefe When you think of "narrative nonfiction," Patrick Radden Keefe is likely the writer whose

The Maris Review, vol 98

The theme of this week is primogeniture. What I read this week The Keeper by Tana French Tana French is a stop-everything-and-read author for me, and so I was lucky when the audiobook version of The Keeper was uploaded to the PRH audio app last week just

The Maris Review, vol 97

This week's theme is homecomings What I read this week The Fountain by Casey Scieszka For transparency: Casey is a member of my writing group. That said, she joined when this novel was pretty much in the bag so there is not much reflected glory that I can

The Maris Review, vol 96

This week's theme is multiple POVs. The other theme is air travel in America and how canceled flights and persnickety wifi can really throw off a newsletter writer (sorry this is a day late!). What I read this week Whidbey by T Kira Madden An explosive revenge novel

The Maris Review, vol 95

The theme of the week is schadenfreude What I read this week Night Night Fawn by Jordy Rosenberg Why aren't more people screaming about this book? What an accomplishment for Jordy Rosenberg to change the entire tenor and tone of his work after his excellent debut, Confessions of

The Maris Review, vol 94

The theme of the week is poetry in unexpected places. What I read this week The Copywriter by Daniel Poppick Not since Hannah Horvath worked in advertorial at GQ has a true artiste's creative energy been so stifled by a day job. Daniel Poppick's debut novel