The protagonist in this fictional “self-help” book searches for wealth and love in an unnamed Asian country (closely resembling Pakistan), straddling the region’s old habits and new aspirations. It is a poignant, funny, and often touching tale of the pressures and paradoxes faced by a new generation trying to make it in “rising Asia.” Don’t be put off by the narrator telling his story in the second person; it works. Also the author of The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Hamid more than grasps narration and, as always, his prose and story line are clever and original.
This satire of the politically correct Microsoft set who now populate Seattle is clever, witty, and wonderfully entertaining. In addition to her keen eye for the comical, Semple’s story-telling is partly about the strains that modern day life places on relationships, especially those between parents and children. Mostly, though, her book is just a really fun read.
Color Blind: The Forgotten Team That Broke Baseball’s Color Line (Atlantic, $25),by Tom Dunkel, is sports journalism and narrative history at its best. While most Americans think of Jackie Robinson’s debut in the Major Leagues as the event that broke the color barrier in baseball, Dunkel has unearthed a remarkable and previously untold story of a formidable semipro baseball team in the mid 1930s that included some of the nation’s most talented black ball players, including Satchel Paige and Quince Troupe. The team didn’t play in New York City or Chicago or a major metropolitan area, but in the drought-ravaged, Depression-ravaged remoteness of Bismarck, North Dakota, in the mid 1930s.