Also of interest... In varying degrees of madness

Also of interest... In varying degrees of madness


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TOO BRIGHT TO HEAR TOO LOUD TO SEE by Juliann Garey _(Soho, $25)_ One man’s bipolar disorder begins to feel like a universal human affliction in Juliann Garey’s debut novel, said Samantha


Nelson in the _A.V. Club_. The protagonist, a deeply flawed Hollywood executive, may seem an unlikely everyman, especially after he leaves his family for a debauched world journey. But by


navigating his highs and lows and the self-destruction they each bring, Garey “provides a visceral, sometimes hard-to-read look” at how vexed any quest for individual happiness can be.


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From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter,


get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox. INSIDE REHAB by Anne M. Fletcher _(Viking, $28)_ Anne Fletcher has written an “indispensable” corrective to public misperceptions


about drug and alcohol rehab, said Laura Miller in _Salon.com_. Enrolling in a residential rehab program turns out to be among the least effective ways to beat addiction, and 12-step


programs in general are known to be less than a one-size-fits-all solution. Fletcher’s “informed and judicious” study can’t be called compelling reading, but no one seeking an answer to


addiction should ignore it. TIGER RAG A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com by Nicholas Christopher _(Dial, $26)_ Not much is


known about Buddy Bolden, the New Orleans cornetist often called the father of jazz, said Laura Eggertson in the _Toronto Star_. He left behind no known recordings before being


institutionalized at 30 with what was probably schizophrenia. But novelist Nicholas Christopher has built an “engrossing” tale about lost cylinders recorded by Bolden that cuts between eras


and features a “poignant picture of his descent from a popular local hero into a destitute and deranged outcast.” WHEN MY BROTHER WAS AN AZTEC by Natalie Diaz _(Copper Canyon, $16)_ Poet


Natalie Diaz copes with her brother’s meth addiction through metaphor, said Eric McHenry in _The New York Times_. He might dress as Judas or a skeleton, and Diaz responds to his


unpredictability in kind, depicting him in her poetry as a moth, a magus, an Aztec. In this “uneven, beautiful” debut, Diaz’s brother is central to the portrait she creates of life on a


Mojave reservation. She makes him a figure who “can’t be fixed in either sense: made better or fully apprehended.” Explore More Magazinebooks