Book Reviews: The Candy House

(Bought at the Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, Brooklyn): Even though I sometimes needed a diagram in order to keep straight the multiple characters in Jennifer Egan's intricate, decades-spanning novel, I throughly enjoyed the ride. Employing characters from her earlier Pulitzer Prize-winning A Visit from the Goon Squad, The Candy House explores the impact of technology of a host of interconnected people. Each chapter is written in different style, the most involving being an vast chain of emails. Egan's command of language and imagination is awe-inspiring. Like the levels in a video game you can't stop playing, a minor detail in one chapter leads you into the next where it becomes significant. The saga is launched when tech guru Bix Bouton invents a system to access all your memories and upload them to an even-more invasive version of the Internet. Like AI, this new invention has its benefits such as solving crimes, but its flaws have devastating effects.  

From the 1970s into the 2030s, we meet movie stars, music producers, citizen spies, black ops military, anthropologists, artists, drunks, drug addicts (recovering and otherwise). 

Egan expertly explores the dangers and delights of ever-expanding tech and the pitfalls it presents.

Book Review: Answered Prayers

(Borrowed from friends' house in Mexico): During our ten-day vacation visiting friends at their home in Malinalco, Mexico, I finished both the Anne Tyler novels I brought along and needed a break from the incredible complexities of Jennifer Egan's The Candy House (which I'm almost finished with.) I came across Truman Capote's notorious, incomplete roman a scandale on their bookshelf. Despite having read it a few years ago, I started it as a stopgap between books and couldn't put it down, completing it in a few hours. 

This does not mean it's a good book, but it is a juicy read. Capote contracted with Random House on a Proustian take-down of international cafe society (as they called in The Barefoot Contessa). He completed only three chapters and published each in Esquire Magazine, alienating all of his high-tone friends, his "swans," spilling their collective beans without even bothering to change their names in some cases. He claimed to have written several additional chapters, but never turned them in to his publisher, finally dying in Joanne Carson's bedroom. The remainder of the manuscript has never surfaced. In the TV-mini-series Capote Vs. The Swans, the fictional version of Capote burns the missing chapters. But I believe he never completed his assignment, having run dry of creative juices while drowning in drugs and alcohol, destroyed by the backlash from his former admirers. If he had written anymore than we have received, those texts would have been found by now. (I did find an alleged missing fragment called "Yachts and Things" on the Internet, but I cannot vouch for its authenticity and it's thin and negligible. A fourth chapter, "Mojave" was also published in Esquire, but was later published as a separate short story in Capote's collection Music for Chameleons.)

In editor James M. Fox's introduction, he reveals Capote claimed to have written the last untitled chapter, the first two (Unspoiled Monsters and Kate McCloud), the fifth (A Severe Insult to the Brain), and the seventh (the infamous La Cote Basque). The last and fifth chapters remain missing. All we have are the three pieces that appeared in Esquire. As they stand, they are entertaining, but ultimately unsatisfying. The first two chapters at least have a narrative drive and seem to go somewhere. Down-on-his luck drifter, masseur and would-be writer PB Jones (obviously a stand-in for the author) unwinds his sad tale of floating around Europe and alternating his past exploits with his present sorry state of working as a male prostitute, counting a thinly-veiled, pathetic Tennessee Williams among his clients. Careering from Paris to Tangiers to Venice, Jones encounters the Holly Golighty-like Kate McCloud, a stunning siren living in isolated luxury after two disastrous marriages. Capote's self-portrait is a bisexual stud, pleasing to both men and women with a memory for gossipy anecdotes involving the likes of Ned Rorem, Tallullah Bankhead, Dorothy Parker, Montgomery Clift, and many other famous names. 

The second chapter ends with Jones meeting Kate and imagining a future where he helps Kate kidnap her child from her second husband, a German millionaire. We then jump to the supposed seventh chapter, "La Cote Basque," wherein Jones has stepped up from the oldest profession and is now the intimate of tout le haute monde. Kate has evidently vanished from his life. While lunching with Lady Ina Coolbreath (in reality Slim Keith), he overhears and repeats salacious tidbits from and about Gloria Vanderbilt, Carol Matthau, Jacqueline Onassis and her sister Princess Lee Radziwell (names are not bothered to be changed) and, Babe Paley. This is the chapter that utterly destroyed Capote's reputation and arguably his life. Practically all of his friends deserted him--and for what? Some nasty bedroom tales?

I'm sure he thought this work would be on a par with Proust and Fitzgerald, exposing the frailties of the ultra-rich and making a "major statement" about our corrupt society. But it's just an incomplete harangue, beautifully written in places.

I can imagine what the rest of the novel would have been like: PB Jones and Kate McCloud rescue her son from the clutches of her former spouse in a daring raid worthy of James Bond. They run across the world with the husband's murderous minions in hot pursuit. After several chapters encountering thinly-veiled celebrities, the hunters catch up with them. Maybe Kate is killed, maybe the kid too? Jones gets away with his life and returns to NYC where we find him at the beginning of the book. In the present he goes to the farm of one of clients for Thanksgiving. He finds happiness of a kind as the secret lover of the client whose wife is very understanding, but not before having lunch with Lady Ina Coolbreath.

B'way Update: Proof Revival; Muppets and Magic

Ayo Edebiri and Don Cheadle will star
in the Broadway revival of Proof.

Emmy winner Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) and Oscar nominee Don Cheadle (Crash, Hotel Rwanda) will star in the first Broadway revival of David Auburn's Proof, directed by Tony winner Thomas Kail (Hamilton). Previews begin March 31, 2026 in advance of an April 16 opening at a Shubert theater to be announced. Proof concerns Catherine, a brilliant but emotionally troubled daughter of a recently deceased mathematician. When she discovers a groundbreaking proof in her father's papers, she seeks to prove she was the one who wrote it. 

The play opened Off-Broadway at Manhattan Theater Club and then transferred to Broadway, winning the 2001 Tony Award for Best Play and the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama and running 917 performances. The original cast featured Mary-Louise Parker (Tony for Best Actress), Larry Bryggman, Johanna Day and Ben Shenkman. The 2005 film version starred Gywneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhall, and Hope Davis.

Magician Rob Lake and Kermit the Frog 
will be making their Broadway debuts in a
holiday limited run at the Broadhurst.

In other news, magician Rob Lake and The Muppets will make their Broadway debut in a holiday show at the Broadhurst with previews beginning Oct. 28, and opening Nov. 6 for a limited run through Jan. 18, 2026. Lake burst onto the scene with an appearance on America's Got Talent in 2018 and has since toured the world with his act. He has contributed to the illusions in Death Becomes Her and is the youngest magician to win the Merlin Award. There has been talk of The Muppets coming to Broadway since 2013 when director Alex Timbers was reportedly working on a show for them. The fuzzy puppet troupe have performed on stage in Disney World, starred in their own Emmy-winning TV series as well as numerous TV specials, and headlined eight feature films from 1979 to 2014.

B'way Update: Bug; Cats

Carrie Coon and Namir Smallwood in 
Bug at Steppenwolf Theater.
Credit: Michael Brosilow

Manhattan Theater Club will present the Broadway debut of Tracey Letts' Bug at the Samuel J. Friedman Theater with performances beginning Dec. 17 and opening on Jan. 8, 2026. The production, directed by Tony winner David Cromer (The Band's Visit, Good Night and Good Luck) comes to Broadway after a 2021 run at Chicago's Steppenwolfe Theater. Bug premiered in London in 1996 and after American productions in Ithaca, NY, Washington, DC, and Chicago, the play premiere Off-Broadway at the Barrow Street Theater in 2004. Michael Shannon recreated his role from the London and Off-Broadway productions in the 2006 film version directed by William Friedkin.

Set in a seedy motel room, cocktail waitress Agnes encounters Gulf War vet Peter who draws her into his paranoid conspiracy theories involving UFOs, the war in Iraq, the Oklahoma City bombing, cult suicides and government experiments on soldiers. The cast includes Tony and Emmy nominee and Letts' wife Carrie Coon (Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, The Gilded Age, The White Lotus) as Agnes White, Namir Smallwood (Pass Over) as Peter Evans, Randall Arney (Steppenwolf’s You Can’t Take it With You, True West) as Dr. Sweet, Jennifer Engstrom (Sweet Bird of Youth at Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) as R.C., and Steve Key (Sweat, Off-Broadway: Blue Surge, The Effect) as Jerry Goss.

Book Reviews: French Braid; Redhead by the Side of the Road

(Borrowed from the Jackson Heights library): While taking a ten-day trip to Mexico I read these two later novels by Anne Tyler. Both were very quick (about 200 pages each), enjoyable and endearing. French Braid concerns three generations of the Garret family and how their stories are inextricably intertwined like the strands of hair in the title coiffure. We begin in 2015 with two Garret cousins randomly encountering each other in a train station and then flash back to a family vacation in 1959 where the separate interests and personalities of parents Mercy and Robin and children Lily, Alice and David are established and foreshadow the paths they and the next generation will take. The Garrets appear to be unlike other families in that as they age, they grow further apart. The names of nephews and nieces are forgotten as well as phone numbers. Wedding announcements are made abruptly with no forewarning or prior introductions of the bride or groom to the family. But as they progress across the decades, the Garrets come in and out of each others' lives. One of the central strands involves Mercy who moves out of the family house to concentrate on her art work in her studio, yet remains connected to her husband Robin. As in many of Tyler's works, the small details tell so much. After moving into her studio, Mercy is asked to care for her landlord's cat. Her treatment of the cat parallels that of her attitude towards her children, but Tyler never calls attention to the metaphor.

Redhead by the Side of the Road is narrower in scope, but just as deep. The protagonist is Micah, a 40-ish bachelor living a well-regimented but limited life. He works as a freelance tech troubleshooter and an apartment-building super. His orderly world is turned upside down when the son of a former flame shows up claiming Micah is his biological father and Micah's long-time girlfriend is facing eviction but doesn't feel brave enough to drop the hint they should move in together. The story doesn't turn out quite the way you'd expect, and the characters are fully fleshed out. I loved the dynamic between Micah and his four sisters, each one a waitress and the center of a cluttered, pell-mell household. The title refers to Micah's near-sighted mistaking a fire hydrant for a small child, another subtle metaphor on Tyler's part. 

Gay Marriage and Kennedy Center Horrors--I Mean Honors

I haven't written about the horror show known as the Trump administration for a while. But two major developments have cropped up which call for immediate comment--the first major challenge to the Supreme Court's gay-marriage ruling and Trump's first roster of Kennedy Center honorees after he has taken over operation of the venue and its formerly highly-cherished life achievement awards. 

Both these events are indications of Trump and Trumpism's attempts to take over the culture and set it back to the days before DEI, multiculturism and being "woke"--the right's latest bogeyman phrase (succeeding the L word and politically correct). 

I had thought there wouldn't be a challenge for gay marriage because there would have to be lawsuit, not just a red-state legislature passing a wish SCOTUS would overturn Obergefell. Kim Davis--remember her, the Kentucky county clerk who refused to marry a gay couple and liked to wear Grranimals--has filed a suit that she should not have to pay the $125K fine for her refusal because it violates her religious beliefs. She is also suing to have the entire gay marriage decision overturned. Evidently her religious rights are more important than my rights to equal treatment under the law. 

I was worried about this, knowing the the current court is capable of anything. They overturned Roe v. Wade and are allowing Trump to do whatever he wants even if it's a criminal act, as long it's official business. Then I saw that in 2022 the House and Senate passed and Biden signed the Respect for Marriage Act codifying non-discrimination for gay, interracial and international marriages. This law makes gay marriage federal and not just a state-by-state thing, backing up the SCOTUS' Obergefell decision. Also, if I read the law correctly, it says that even if the Supremes do reverse Obergefell, states that have no gay-marriage laws on their books must recognize gay and interracial unions from those states which do have such laws. In other words, if a gay married couple from NY moves to Arkansas which has rejected gay marriage, Arkansas still has to recognize this pairing. I think it can also be interpreted that a gay Alabama couple could go to NY or a gay-friendly state, get married there and return to their home red state and still be legally joined. They just couldn't get married in Alabama or Arkansas or wherever. 

Book Review: Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002

(Bought at the Strand book stall on Central Park West for $10) I had read Sedaris' later volume of diary entries, A Carnival of Snackery, while I was recovering from a car accident. This book covers his days struggling at odd jobs in his hometown of Raleigh, NC, then moving to Chicago to teach and finally the big move to New York where he eventually finds his niche as a best-selling humorist. These entries were more coherent than the later book where he jumped from anecdotes about living in France and England to going on book tours. Here we get the sense of Sedaris' career progressing. I remember seeing a play he wrote with his sister Amy at LaMaMa when they collaborated under the name The Talent Family. It was called One Woman Shoe and I reviewed it for BackStage. It was fascinating to see behind the scenes what was going on in his life as he emerged as a major writer in the 1990s. The diaries have lots of funny diversions about farting and animal's assholes. 500 pages went very fast. Though I think sometimes he does weird stuff in order to write about it. Like feeding spiders.