I began my first selection of November’s new titles with what will undoubtedly be a big hitter: Jonathan Coe’s Middle England. This one kicks off with a book that its publishers are clearly hoping will also be jumping off the shelves into customers’ open arms – William Melvin Kelley’s A Different Drummer, dubbed by the New Yorker ‘the lost giant of American literature’ which has been appearing in my Twitter feed for months. Set in the smalltown South, it opens in 1957 when a young black man destroys his farm and livestock before leaving the state, swiftly followed by the entire African-American population. First published in 1962, ‘A Different Drummer is an exploration of what it is like to live in a white-dominated society. It’s a transparent, brutally honest portrayal of the impact and repercussions of systematized oppression; with a culmination as unflinching and unrivalled as its author’s insights’ say the publishers, hoping for a Stoner-like bestseller, I’m sure
Lucia Berlin’s superb collection A Manual for Cleaning Women was also heralded as a lost classic, comprising stories stretching back into the ‘60s. Those of us who thought that might be the last of Berlin, who died in 2004, have an unexpected treat to look forward to with Evening in Paradise which takes us from Texas to Chile, from New Mexico to New York. ‘Evening in Paradise is a careful selection from Lucia Berlin’s remaining stories – a jewel box follow-up for her hungry fans’ say the publishers whetting our appetites nicely.
Louisa Hall’s Trinity is about Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb, told from the perspective of seven fictional characters and revealing the contradictory character of this brilliant scientist. ‘Blending science with literature and fiction with biography, Trinity asks searing questions about what it means to truly know someone, and about the secrets we keep from the world and from ourselves’ according to the blurb. It sounds fascinating. I’ve not read much fiction about the development of the bomb which shaped the second half of the twentieth century apart from The Wives of Los Alamos, Lydia Millett’s Oh Pure and Radiant Heart and Joseph Kanon’s Los Alamos. 
It seems fitting to end with what’s being billed as a pacifist novel after that. Józef Wittlin’s The Salt of the Earth begins in the remote Carpathian mountains where Piotr’s limited ambitions are fixed on a job with the railway, a cottage and a bride with a dowry until he finds himself drafted into the army to fight in the First World War. ‘In a new translation, authorised by the author’s daughter, The Salt of the Earth is a strongly pacifist novel inspired by the Odyssey, about the consequences of war on ordinary men’ say the publishers, landing us back where we started in rediscovered classic territory.
That’s it for November. A click on a title will take you to a more detailed synopsis for any that have snagged your interest and if you’d like to catch up with the first instalment it’s here. Paperbacks soon…
I didn’t know Louisa Hall had a new one. Did you read her previous one Speak? It does what seems to be a similar thing to Trinity but was about the development of AI. I was surprised it didn’t appear on prize lists/get more coverage in the UK.
I didn’t get around to Speak, Namoi, although I know it’s somewhere in the pile. You’re right – given its subject matter you’d have expected that it would get a little more attention.
Speak was great! I’m going to be reviewing Trinity for Shiny New Books.
Excellent. I’ll look out for that, Rebecca.
I have The Salt of the Earth from NetGalley and I’m looking forward to reading it.
I spotted that on your blog yesterday, Cathy. looking forward to seeing what you think of it.
I think it’s probably lucky for my TBR stack that none of the November titles are calling me in a major way…
Ha! Still paperbacks to come though…
The Berlin really appeals. I’ve never read her, did she write only short stories?
As far as I know. They’re excellent – clean, crisp prose. Highly recommend them.
Ooh, Trinity sounds really interesting.
It does, doesn’t it? I’m really surprised this hasn’t been covered more in fiction but perhaps it has in the States.
We had a wonderful play in Stratford a couple of years ago about Oppenheimer. Trinity really appeals to me.
It does to me, too. Oppenhiemer, himself, is a fascinating character let alone the effect of the Nuclear weapons’ development on the world.
Great round up! All these interest me in one way or the other. Berlin sounds like the kind of author I’d enjoy, and knowing Lydia Davis wrote the foreword to her previous collection makes the book even more appealing.
Thanks, Michael. That was a great forward. It threw much light on Berlin and her stories.
I’ve got copies of both A Different Drummer and Evening In Paradise, and both appeal (although I’ve read the first two stories of Evening In Paradise, the day before leaving for the States, and didn’t find it terribly hard to put down. I’m sure it’ll live up to A Manual For Cleaning Women, though.)
It’s a tough act to follow, isn’t it. I have both of those, too.