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I recently finished two novels. One is by Glenn Arbery, Boundaries of Eden. It’s a thoroughly engaging story set in the history-haunted South. One part Dickens in its arresting characters, one part Tom Wolfe in its splendid eye for social reality, and one part Faulkner in its evocation of the encroaching darkness of our sin-soaked past, Boundaries of Eden is a must-read. The other novel I recently read is The Idiot by Elif Batuman. The opening pages feature mordant observations about elite miseducation that can be very funny. Batuman is a writer’s writer, creating a character who sees but does not know, observes but does not understand. Unlike the odious Jean-Paul Sartre, whose fiction is far too “philosophical,” and not unlike Walker Percy, Batuman captures the “lostness” of the human condition as a reality, not an idea.

Tom wolfeMark bauerleinJia tolentinoRumer goddenRamona tauszDana gioiaJacquelyn leeLauren oylerJohn zhengJean paul sartreElif batumanWalker percyGlenn arberyUniversity of mississippiNational endowment for the artsMississippi press