Recent publications from the 可乐视频 community.
The Very Nice Box
by Eve Gleichman 鈥�15 M.F.A. and Laura Blackett
ST脛DA, a Brooklyn company that makes reasonably priced Swedish furniture with names such as the Encouraging Desk Chair, Dependable Drying Rack, and Practical Sofa, is the setting for聽The Very Nice Box聽(Mariner, 2021). Employed at this company where the conference room is outfitted with a 鈥渘eg alarm鈥� that goes off any time someone says 鈥渘o,鈥� 鈥渃an鈥檛,鈥� or 鈥渂ut,鈥� and where employees undergo mandatory personality tests, is Ava, a gay, 30-something furniture engineer pouring herself into her work after the death of her fianc茅e, Andie. Her life is routine, and she prefers to keep it that way. The absurdity of her workplace culture (鈥淎m I in a cult?鈥� she asks at the start of the novel) reaches new heights when a charismatic new employee, Mat, who believes in 鈥淵es, And鈥� and is the embodiment of bro culture and male entitlement, joins the staff. He becomes her boss鈥攁nd surprisingly鈥攈er lover, culminating in a shocking twist.
Morningside Heights
by Joshua Henkin, professor, English
滨苍听Morningside Heights聽(Pantheon, 2021), a young Yale graduate, Pru Steiner, arrives in New York in 1976 looking to take the city by storm, not anticipating she would fall in love with her English professor, Spence Robin. Thirty years pass and something is wrong: Spence is distracted, cold all the time, makes small mistakes like misreading a party invitation, and can鈥檛 make any progress on his book project, a new, annotated Shakespeare. With their daughter away at medical school, Pru is left alone to care for Spence as he sinks into the gloaming of early-onset Alzheimer鈥檚, a fate on which neither she nor Spence had reckoned, and one that could test the limits of love in the face of adversity.
King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne
by Ronald O. Howell, associate professor, English
King Al: How Sharpton Took the Throne聽(Fordham University Press, 2021) charts the course of the enigmatic, colorful, and politically adroit Sharpton on his rise to media stardom. At the same time, the book provides a detailed survey of the late-20th century in New York City at the often-volatile intersection of race and politics. Howell shows how 鈥渢he Reverend Al鈥� overcame scandal, controversy, and the mainstream media portrayal of him as a clown and hustler in the 1980s to become the popular activist, minister, and television host he is today.
