Summer Arts Preview

June

Kate Christensen's Trouble

By LEV GROSSMAN
Article Tools
Print
Sphere
RSS

Available June 2

Fresh off her award-winning novel The Great Man, the still (still!) underrated Christensen takes up the story of a middle-aged, married woman whose long-dormant libido abruptly awakens at a party, causing her to fool around with complete stranger. Shedding her dead marriage like a chrysalis, she and a friend Thelma-and-Louise it off to Mexico City, where the book's title just gets more and more apt. Reading Christensen's prose is an almost painfully intense and exhilarating experience. This is normal and caused by the fact that she is smarter and funnier and more painfully honest than most other writers: she'll say things most people won't dare to. And she knows just how to say them.

See The All TIME 100 Novels

TIME's 100 Most Influential People: Did Your Pick Make the Cut?

View the full list for "Summer Arts Preview"
Next: Alain de Botton's The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work >>

May Preview

From The Goode Family to Mandy Moore's Amanda Leigh, TIME surveys the month's hottest entertainment options

June Preview

Conan O'Brien takes control of The Tonight Show, Woody Allen returns with Whatever Works, the work of James Ensor arrives at MoMA, and more

July Preview

Bruno and Harry Potter in movie theaters, Free: The Future of a Radical Price in bookstores, Richard Avedon at SFMOMA, and more

August Preview

Thomas Pynchon returns with Inherent Vice, Hayao Miyazaki is back with Ponyo, Willie Nelson resumes with The Nearness of You, and more

Most Popular »

Full List »
  1. The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job
  2. Powerhouse Priests Spar Over What it Means to Be Catholic
  3. Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
  4. The Ft. Hood Hero: Who is Kimberly Munley?
  5. The Meaning of Manny Pacquiao
  6. Hunting for Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows
  7. Indie Film Shakeout: There Will Be Blood
  8. Troubles for a Deal — and for Obama — in Honduras
  9. Is the Dollar Dying a Slow Death?
  10. The Quicksilver Mess
  1. Powerhouse Priests Spar Over What it Means to Be Catholic
  2. Are You Getting Scammed by Facebook Games?
  3. The State of Hillary: A Mixed Record on the Job
  4. To Help The Kids, Parents Go Back to School
  5. Indie Film Shakeout: There Will Be Blood
  6. The Ft. Hood Hero: Who is Kimberly Munley?
  7. The Meaning of Manny Pacquiao
  8. Is the Dollar Dying a Slow Death?
  9. Hunting for Tuna: The Environmental Peril Grows
  10. Let's Bail Out the Pot Dealers!