Books

"Ever wondered what a hedge fund manager actually does to take home a cool USD30 million even when his fund goes belly up?” asks Esquire of Lake Success, by Gary Shteyngart. “Enter the world of Barry Cohen, with USD2.4 billion under management... [in this] window into the ridiculous and nonetheless poignant lives of a family – and perhaps a country – on the brink of collapse.” Shteyngart’s latest book, “is an ambitious state-ofthe-nation novel about the miasma of discontents that produced the astonishing election result of 2016,” says Marcel Theroux at The Guardian. “The main character’s jittery mood parallels that of the country as a whole: envy and self-loathing exist side by side with a delusional love of an America that never really existed.” Cohen “Has a proclivity for watches, some of which are valued at USD70,000. He sups 48-year-old Karuizawa single cask at USD33,000 a bottle. But at this very moment in time he’s scarpering with USD600 in his pocket and no plan,” outlines June Caldwell in The Irish Times.”He’s been obsessing about his ex from college, Layla. What if he was to show up in El Paso where she lives now? Not on his NetJets account, but on a Greyhound bus?”

“The adjective most often associated with Betty Ford was ‘candor,’” writes Susan Page in her USA Today review of Betty Ford: First Lady, Women’s Advocate, Survivor, Trailblazer. “She was candid about her support of abortion rights and the Equal Rights Amendment... about the breast cancer... The example she set prompted an uncounted number of other Americans to seek treatment.” Former TV news anchor and reporter Lisa McCubbin “felt the spirit of Betty Ford encouraging her as she wrote,” say Kirkus Reviews. “‘There is little doubt in my mind,’ she writes, ‘that she orchestrated this entire process.’ Drawing largely on Ford’s two memoirs and interviews with her children and others close to her, the author fashions an admiring portrait of a woman who faced physical and emotional challenges.”

It is “meticulously researched and delightful” say Publishers Weekly. “McCubbin skillfully chronicles the life of former first lady [who] married Gerald Ford Jr. – the 38 th president of the USA... The author writes with tact and sensitivity in this beautifully told look into the life of one of the most public and admired first ladies.” “The book’s cover, featuring Brent Dulak wearing a skull mask and holding a syringe in his mouth, could be mistaken for that of a horror story,” says Peter Dabbane of Machete Squad. “In some ways, [it] is just that, full of people being killed or seriously injured, with nerve-wracking attempts by Dulak and his men to preserve life in a chaotic, dangerous environment,” continues the Foreword Reviews critique. “The book pulls no punches, showing soldiers seeking refuge from the horrors of war. But the realism and honesty make it all the more compelling when he finds a kind of purpose and redemption in the book’s climax,” explain Publishers Weekly.

Artist Per Darwin Berg “Visualises Dulak’s tour with simple, cartoony figures penciled in against sketchy backgrounds,” explain Publishers Weekly. “The art is unpolished, but the characters have a satisfying, loose expressiveness. The arc simply follows Dulak on missions and observing day-to-day life.” Say Kirkus Reviews, “This book... offers a vivid, terrifying, and often beautiful illumination of one man’s cathartic experience in Afghanistan. Readers will have a visceral response to the experiences shared by this searing memoir.”