Community Bookstore’s pick: “Fat City” by Leonard Gardner
Leonard Gardner’s “Fat City” is a boxing novel par excellence: light-footed and muscular, brutal and beautiful. But make no mistake it is also one of the best American novels. Gardner’s rhythmic prose and unmatched ear for dialogue lend a remarkable intensity to the story of retired boxer Billy Tully and up-and-comer Ernie Munger. Praised by Joan Didion and Walker Percy, this classic from 1969 is a vision of a distinctly American tragedy — of her losers, her dispossessed, her bruised, beaten, and forgotten.
— Hal Hlavinka, Community Bookstore [43 Seventh Ave. between Carroll Street and Garfield Place in Park Slope, (718) 783–3075, www.communitybookstore.net].
Greenlight Bookstore’s pick: “Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt” by Matvei Yankelevich
Matvei Yankelevich is one of the topographers of our present moment. He deconstructs the ordinary into its extra-ordinary components and maps entire worlds housed therein. In “Some Worlds for Dr. Vogt,” he amplifies the cosmologies contained in the small moments of our everyday silences so we can listen more closely to them.
— Jarrod Annis, Greenlight Bookstore [686 Fulton St. between S. Elliott Place and S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 246–0200, www.greenlightbookstore.com].
Word’s pick: “M Train” by Patti Smith
While enjoying celebrity, a happy marriage, and a growing family, Patti Smith was faced with a string of personal losses. This is her story, beautifully told, of moving on after loss and loneliness, and of finding a way to rebuild a life without losing the past.
— Kerry Barringer, Word [126 Franklin St. at Milton Street in Greenpoint, (718) 383–0096, www.wordbrooklyn.com].
