Black Chalk was an Indie Next Pick that was also named a best book of the year by NPR, and a “must read” by the Boston Globe, BBC.com, and the New York Post.
Grist Mill Road was an Entertainment Weekly "Must Read" and one of the NPR Book Concierge's "Best Books of the Year."
At Bustle Yates tagged his "five favorite books set in dark, dusty campus corridors. They’re the original dark academia tales...." One title on the list:
Pale Fire by Vladimir NabokovRead about the other entries on the list.
If I could convince just one reader to dive into this remarkable, mazelike novel, I would consider my time on Earth well spent. The story is structured around apoem, named Pale Fire, written by a professor at the fictional Wordsmith College. It contains 999 lines — its author, John Shade, was murdered before he could pen the final sentence. Shade’s neighbor, a fellow Wordsmith professor named Charles Kinbote, is our narrator, having taken it upon himself to interpret the poem on the reader’s behalf. Kinbote is the most fascinating unreliable narrator in the history of literature — a lunatic, a narcissist, and perhaps an exiled king from a land named Zembla. He is also absurdly funny as, page by page, he manages to make Shade’s last poem all about himself.
Pale Fire's John Shade is among John Mullan's ten best fictional poets. The novel appears among Brian Boyd's ten best Vladimir Nabokov books, David J. Peterson 's five best books with invented languages, Jane Harris's five best psychological mysteries and Edward Docx's top ten deranged characters. It is one of Tracy Kidder's six best books as well as the novel Charles Storch would save for last. It is one of "Six Memorable Books About Writers Writing" yet it disappointed Ha Jin upon rereading.
--Marshal Zeringue
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