“What I’m Reading” is a series that describes books I’m reading that I may or may not review on this blog
What I’m reading: The Flamethrowers (Scribner, 383 pp., $26.99), by Rachel Kushner.
What it is: A Didion-esque novel about young filmmaker and motorcycle enthusiast who moves in 1975 from Nevada to Lower Manhattan, where she has an affair with an artist from a family of Italian industrialists who have grown rich by exploiting the poor. Kushner’s protagonist finds herself swept up in dangerous currents of radical politics when, while she and her lover are visiting his mother in Bellagio, factory workers go on strike and the Red Brigades step up their campaign of terror against Italy’s elite.
Why I’m reading it: The Flamethrowers has been longlisted for the 2013 National Book Award for fiction. NBA nominations have been spectacularly unreliable — and, at times, disastrous — in recent years, but some reviews suggest that this novel deserves the recognition.
How much I’ve read: Nearly all.
Quote from the book: Kushner’s protagonist is struck by how much Northern Italians care about clothes: “I understood this was a cliché of the Milanesi, but it was also true. In Milan, it had bordered to me on comedy, women riding bicycles in platform heels and tight skirts, holding huge black umbrellas.”
Furthermore: Christian Lorentzen, a senior editor of the London Review of Books, wrote in a review of The Flamethrowers for the print edition of Bookforum: “The social codes of Kushner’s ’70s Manhattan aren’t too far removed from those of today, except without the cell phones and with a bit more gun fetishizing than you find lately on Broome Street.” He added that Kushner’s “most charming quality is a willingness to digress and to stage long set pieces, at parties and in bars, in which her more eccentric characters are allowed to talk, and talk, and talk.”
Probability that I will review the book: High, especially if it makes the National Book Awards shortlist.
Jan is an award-winning critic and former book columnist for Glamour. You can follow her Twitter by clicking on the “Follow” button at right.
© 2013 Janice Harayda. All rights reserved.
http://www.janiceharayda.com
One-Minute Book Reviews 
Can’t wait to see what you think of it. =)
Comment by Lars Edwards — October 24, 2013 @ 12:44 am |
Thanks, Lars. “The Flamethrowers” has made the National Book Awards shortlist since I posted this, so I’m hoping to post my review soon.
Comment by 1minutebookreviewswordpresscom — October 24, 2013 @ 11:47 am |