Chris Adrian's tragic enchantments

By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | May 10, 2011

Although it's rife with death and despond, The Great Night is Adrian's most upbeat novel. (That's to say, when I finished it, I did not break into great, gasping sobs, dazed at the horror and beauty of life, as I did when I finished The Children's Hospital.) And though the book is in no way inconsequential, it's the lightest entry in a gloomy œuvre. This lightness — augmented by airtight, propulsive plotting and a relative brevity — indicates a step forward for Adrian. Someday soon, he might write an even shorter, even more devastating novel. What on earth will we do if he gets happy?

THE GREAT NIGHT by Chris Adrian | Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 304 PAGES | $26

CHRIS ADRIAN | Harvard Book Store, 1256 Mass Ave, Cambridge | May 16 @ 7pm | 617.661.1515

< prev 1 | 2 |

Topics: Books , Books, Book Reviews, Harvard Book Store, More

| More

Most Popular

The Current Issue

Table of Contents

Cover Archive

Masthead | Authors | Contact us

Blogs

Where To Follow Me
Talking Politics | March 24, 2013 at 11:09 AM

Mo Takes His Turn
March 21, 2013 at 12:59 PM

[Q&A] KMFDM's Sascha Konietzko on art, Columbine and having balls
On The Download | March 18, 2013 at 3:22 PM

See this film series: The Belmont World Film Series @ Studio Cinema in Belmont
Outside The Frame | March 18, 2013 at 11:00 AM

See this film: This is Spinal Tap [with post-film talk by expert from Acoustical Society of America] @ the Coolidge
March 17, 2013 at 12:00 PM

ARTICLES BY EUGENIA WILLIAMSON

IS BOSTON RIGHT FOR WRITERS? | March 05, 2013
Boston, the birthplace of American literature, boasts three MFA programs, an independent creative-writing center, and more than a dozen colleges offering creative-writing classes.

INCREMENTALLY MORE KIND: GEORGE SAUNDERS CHANGES THE WORLD | March 05, 2013
George Saunders: satirist, humanist, and — after 20 years, four magisterial short story collections, a novella, and a book of essays — now a bestselling author.

INTERVIEW: THE PASSION OF MIKE DAISEY | February 14, 2013
Last January, storyteller Mike Daisey achieved a level of celebrity rarely attained among the off-Broadway set when the public radio program This American Life aired portions of his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs .

GETTING BOOKED: WINTER READS | December 21, 2012
Who cares about the fiscal cliff when we'll have authors talking about Scientology, the space-time continuum, and Joy Division?

BRILLIANT FRIENDS: GREAT READS OF 2012 | December 17, 2012
You already know Chis Ware's Building Stories is the achievement of the decade (thanks, New York Times!), but some other people wrote some pretty great books this year too.