Fiction Archive

The Messiah of Morris Avenue - Film and music buffs know right off who Tony Hendra is --- he played "Ian Faith," manager of the band in the immortal mockumentary, "This Is Spinal Tap."

The Mirror in the Well - In 2004, her first novel was a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Foundation for first fiction. This was the only prize that Micheline Aharonian Marcom missed that year ---

The Nickel Boys: A novel - Thirty-one states allow the open carrying of a handgun without any license or permit, although in some cases the gun must be unloaded. Fifteen states require some form of license

The Oblivion Seekers - She dressed as a man. Born Russian, she moved to North Africa, converted to Islam, joined a Sufi sect. She drank, smoked hashish, slept with any man she pleased. An

The Oriental Wife - Guest Butler Elizabeth Benedict is the author of five novels, including the bestseller Almost. She is, most recently, editor of the anthology Mentors, Muses & Monsters: 30 Writers on the

The Pat Hobby Stories - That Scott Fitzgerald --- he was really funny. And you are thinking: Where? What were the laughs I missed in The Great Gatsby --- the body floating in the pool?

The Perfect Nanny: A Novel - Your home is not safe. Your children are in danger. It’s hard to think of a sentence more upsetting than those two. Well, try this: “The baby is dead.” That’s the

The Pianist in the Dark - Sheku Kanneh-Mason played three pieces at the Royal Wedding. One was by Gabriel Fauré. One was by Franz Schubert. The third was "Sicilienne," by Maria Theresia von Paradis. If

The Pied Piper of Park Avenue - In 2014, The New York Observer published its first serial since "Sex and the City" --- my seven-part fiction about idealistic kids at New York’s elite private schools. I'm dealing

The Pleasure Was Mine - September 21 is World Alzheimer’s Day, and a good way to honor the occasion is to give a fine novel --- The Pleasure Was Mine --- to someone who is

The Pledge - When you give your “word”, what is it worth? What if you gave your “word” --- and had to make good on it? What if your “word” actually cost you something? These aren't

The Plot - Jimmy Fallon has an annual Summer Reads competition, with viewers voting for their favorites. The other night, he revealed the winner: Butler readers knew "The Plot" was a winner on May

The Postmistress - At dinner parties in New York this week, I anticipate three hot topics. The policy wonks will spend a few minutes debating our government’s announcement that it has the right to

The Professor of Truth - James Salter in Conversation: Frank Delaney, an Irish novelist who has such the gift for gab that I shut up and just listen, goes one-to-one with James Salter on Thursday night at

The Psychedelic Symphony: An Historical Novel 1968 - Freaky coincidence --- or cosmic plan? Today Tom Fels looks back to 1968. On Tuesday, March 1, from 7 - 8:30 PM, Joe Conason and I will be at New

The Quality of Life Report - "The Quality of Life Report" might well appeal to the women who read chick lit. On the other hand, it might appeal equally strongly to women who wouldn't be caught

The Queen’s Gambit - If you saw the dramatization of the Walter Tevis novel on Netflix, you didn’t see “Queen’s Gambit.” The New Yorker: “She doesn’t need chess to survive. She’s a confident girl

The Recessionistas - If you feel, as I do, that women are superior beings, it is painful to open a novel categorized as “chick lit.” The authors generally write as badly as James Patterson.

The Road - I came to Cormac McCarthy so late that the first book of his I tried to read was “No Country for Old Men”. It was so silly I had to

The Rocks - Guest Butler Betsy Kane Ellis, when not reading, is a Life Enrichment Specialist at Jewish Family Service of St. Paul and an artist. She loves nothing more than putting books