I'm on holiday
noroxin I fell in love with the heroines of two novels this year. Reno, in Rachel Kushner's "The Flamethrowers," is every bit like the novel itself: beautiful, ambitious and full of keen social observations. Ms. Kushner captures the energy and artifice of the art world and also dissects notions of class, gender and modernity. I can't remember when I last read a novel so full of brilliant set pieces. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's "Americanah" reinvents the Immigrant novel, the Race novel and the Feminist novel. Lushly romantic, unapologetically confrontational in its exploration of race and identity, it made me reconsider issues I thought I'd figured out a long time ago. It's also very, very funny: The blog postings of its main character, Ifemelu, taught me more than I thought possible about the politics of hair and Hollywood. While both these novels have an epic quality to them, neither can compare with the monumental nature of David Tod Roy's translation of the 16th-century classic "Chin P'ing Mei" ("The Plum in the Golden Vase"). The fifth and final volume, "The Dissolution," completes the joyous rediscovery of a genuine masterpiece.