Kirkus Star
THE KIRKUS STAR
Awarded to Books of Exceptional Merit

BROWSE BOOK REVIEWS




Books by Nicholson Baker


Cover art for THE WAY THE WORLD WORKS
NONFICTION
Released: Aug. 7, 2012

"Not a major work, but a thoughtful collection from a writer who, to quote his own description of Daniel Defoe, has "an enormous appetite for truth and life and bloody specificity.""
The erudite novelist and essayist ponders obsessions both old (newspapers and rare books) and new (Kindle 2, Wikipedia, video games). Read full book review >
Cover art for HOUSE OF HOLES
FICTION
Released: Aug. 9, 2011

"Baker explores a fine line between eroticism and pornography here, and were it not for his wit and verbal play, the latter would win out."
Baker returns to the eroticism of his earlier Vox (1995) and The Fermata (1994) but kicks it up about a dozen notches. Read full book review >
Cover art for THE ANTHOLOGIST
FICTION
Released: Sept. 1, 2009

"The author's characteristic obsessiveness and attention to minutiae will appeal mainly to those who know and care as much about poetry as Paul."
Novelist/polemicist Baker (Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization, 2008, etc.) takes a nullity as a protagonist. Read full book review >
Cover art for HUMAN SMOKE
NONFICTION
Released: March 1, 2008

"Similar to but less noisy than John Dos Passos's U.S.A.: Selective, well-chosen fragments add up to a living history."
A catalog of primary sources creatively fashioned by novelist and National Book Critics Circle Award–winner Baker (Double Fold: Libraries and the Assault on Paper, 2001, etc.) tells the grim story of the making of two world wars. Read full book review >
Cover art for CHECKPOINT
FICTION
Released: Aug. 10, 2004

"An absolute treasure for anti-Bushists, the purest sin-and-snake-venom deceit and villainy to pro-Bushists. Let the reader-voter call it."
From Baker (A Box of Matches, 2003, etc.), a tiny little slip of a thing about--about what? About assassinating George W. Bush? Read full book review >
Cover art for A BOX OF MATCHES
FICTION
Released: Jan. 14, 2003

"Skilled. Often charming. Minor."
Baker (The Everlasting Story of Nory, 1998, etc.) applies his fine-tooth comb--or magnifying glass--to a short and tightly controlled meander through the hyper-dailiness of domestic life--in a kind of extended prose haiku. Read full book review >