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This is my second book by Claire Messud and it is chock full of bits I want to remember. Essentially it is a fictionalized multi-generational family history, made more interesting by the world events that moved family members around the globe. First we have Gaston and his wife Lucienne, French people who lived in Algeria (pieds-noirs) who were displaced in 1940 by the war, Gaston to Salonica...

My initial reaction before I began reading this was concern about reading a book about writing a book, especially one that bills itself as a black comedy. Some of the cheap shots did make me uncomfortable. Ultimately it’s much more complicated than that, taking comedic aim at the publishing world, academia, the television industry, while exploring aspects of dealing with racial identity...

I truly loved There There and admire this one at least as much. I’ve now read my favorite book for the year. It begins with the Sand Creek Massacre in 1864, a surprise attack by the US army on a peaceable Native American encampment in southeastern Colorado. Orange brings this and subsequent policies and events to life with characters, beginning with Jude Star, a child who barely escaped...