As we prepare to turn the corner into 2025, poetry is in the spotlight this week, with new books of verse from Percival Everett and Ryan Ruby, a scholarly consideration of “Paradise Lost” and a (poetry-adjacent) biography of the lyricist Ira Gershwin. We also recommend an admiring portrait of the billionaire Hong Kong dissident Jimmy Lai that delves into his professional and political activities. Happy reading, and happy new year. — Gregory Cowles
IRA GERSHWIN:A Life in WordsMichael OwenOwen’s biography offers a sympathetic portrait of the lyricist Ira Gershwin, overshadowed in a life that had him tending the legacy of his celebrated younger sibling George, who composed countless entries in the American songbook before dying of a brain tumor at 38. Focusing on Ira’s gift for wordplay and dedication to his brother’s memory, Owen gives this perpetual supporting player an infusion of main-character energy.
Credit...“Dignified but not starchy, efficient but not shallow, and honest about grief’s unrelenting toll. … In careful increments Ira emerges, wry and resigned.”
From Alexandra Jacobs’s review
Liveright | $37.99
SONNETS FOR A MISSING KEY:And Some OthersPercival EverettEverett’s prose is having a moment — his latest novel, “James,” won this year’s National Book Award, and the acclaimed 2023 film “American Fiction” was based on his novel “Erasure” — but he has also published several collections of poems throughout his career, including “Sonnets for a Missing Key” this fall. His best verse displays his deep reading and his willingness to tinker with the reputations of characters both historical and literary, while working out his obsessions with painting, nature, music and — perhaps most important — the frames we attempt to put around these things.
Credit...“Few writers pay more rapt attention to the fact that history is, fundamentally, storytelling. … A pebble in every shoe. It’s the Everett way.”
In a star system 508 light-years from Earth, the researchers found conditions that support an alternative “top down” approach to planet formation, in which the fertile material circling a young star rapidly collapses into a planet. The mechanism, known as gravitational instability, could explain the existence of mysterious, massive worlds known to follow wide orbits around relatively young stars.
From Dwight Garner’s review
Red Hen Press | Paperback, $16.95
WHAT IN ME IS DARK:The Revolutionary Afterlife of “Paradise Lost”Orlando ReadeThis year marks the 350th anniversary of John Milton’s death and the printing of the 12-book edition of his epic “Paradise Lost,” a 10,000-line blank verse retelling of Satan’s rebellion against God. Reade, an English professor at Northeastern University London, offers an expansive history of the epic’s reception as it was interpreted and then put to use by figures as varied as Thomas Jefferson and Dorothy Wordsworth, Virginia Woolf and Hannah Arendt.
Credit...“Enlightening and enthusiastic. … As Reade emphasizes, ‘Paradise Lost’ is also a radical story, a complicated and at times ambivalent testimony about tyranny and resistance, liberty and revolution.”
From Ed Simon’s review
Astra House | $28
CONTEXT COLLAPSE:A Poem Containing a History of PoetryRyan RubyHere’s a book-length poem about poetic innovation, about the ways, over millenniums, that poets and audiences have conceived of each other, and about how poems get delivered from producer to consumer — but wait! Ruby’s book is all of that, yes, but it’s also fun and wise.
Credit...“Ruby’s perceptions are often delightful, as are his skilled modulations among literary, spoken and academic idioms. … ‘Context Collapse’ may get as close as an ink-and-paper object can to the multidirectional, multidimensional rabbit-hole experience of the digital world.”
cash machine slotFrom Daisy Fried’s review
Seven Stories | Paperback, $15.95
THE TROUBLEMAKER:How Jimmy Lai Became a Billionaire, Hong Kong’s Greatest Dissident, and China’s Most Feared CriticMark L. CliffordClifford’s brisk account traces the life and work of Jimmy Lai, the billionaire media mogul and democracy activist in Hong Kong currently on trial for national security offenses, from his impoverished childhood in China’s southern Guangdong province during the Chinese civil war era to becoming one of Hong Kong’s richest men.
Credit...“Emphasizes Lai’s self-sacrifice and courage in his defense of democracy and economic freedom. … A genuinely gripping yarn.”
From Kevin Peraino’s review
Free Press | $28.99jiliplus
