Dave's Fiction Warehouse

M y daughter once asked me why I read so much crime fiction. I forget what I told her, but the correct answer came to me today: It’s not the genre I love so much, but the certain favorite authors who work so well within it. More importantly, it’s the certain recurring characters who have come to seem like old friends. Which is why I’m reading Tatiana, Martin Cruz Smith’s latest novel featuring the laconic Russian investigator Arkady Renko. When I saw some weeks ago that Smith had written another Renko novel, I actually preordered it. For the record, I never preorder anything. I first met Arkady Renko in Gorky Park, in 1982 or so. I still consider it among the finest crime novels ever written. More than 30 years later, Renko is still in Moscow, which is no longer Soviet but just as brutal and corrupt as ever. Maybe more so, what with Putin’s Kremlin on one side and desperate billionaires on the other. He’s investigating the supposed suicide of a crusading journalist. Of course it’s not ...

"T enth of December]," by George Saunders, might be the best book I’ve read this year. And this year I’ve read quite a few. A few caveats: It’s a collection of short stories, so it might not be for everybody. And some of the stories have an oddball, almost science-fiction feel, so it might not even be for most people. It’s running about 3½ stars on Amazon’s reviews. But trust me: this is pretty good writing. These are not the obtuse and unremittingly bleak little yarns that so often pass for literature and get nominated for obscure prizes. Some are funny, some are sad, but most are both. I’ll just say this: when I laugh on one page and get teary-eyed on the next, I believe I’m in the presence of a master. I’m embarrassed to say I’d never heard of George Saunders until this book was mentioned as a finalist for the National Book Award. Maybe it’ll win and maybe it won’t (the winners are announced next week), but this is one nomination I can agree with. My favorite stories are t...