“It takes guts to write a fairy tale these
days,” said Martha Southgate in The
New York Times. But Ann Patchett has
taken a fairy-tale framework and filled it
in with distinctive characters who are fac-
ing vagaries of life that Hansel and Gretel
might recognize. The story is narrated
by the younger brother of the book’s
heroine, Maeve. Deep into adulthood,
the pair regularly return to gaze upon the
grand house they lost when their mother
abandoned them and an evil stepmother
moved in. Though the siblings’ mutual
devotion proves “quite moving,” it’s
Maeve who, to support her brother,
sacrifices again and again. Patchett
exercises amazing restraint, said Allegra
Goodman in The Washington Post. Per-
haps the book’s most dramatic scene
centers on a woman simply fetching her
morning newspaper, because the mo-
ment functions as a climax in the novel’s
central conflict—“not the struggle be-
tween orphans and stepmother, but the
war between childhood myth and adult
analysis.” Though The Dutch House can
seem a gentle tale, “lives hang in the
balance, and we cannot stop reading.”ARTS^23
Review of reviews: Books
Ronan Farrow has struck again, said Marisa
Guthrie in The Hollywood Reporter. In
his new book, the young, born-into-fame
reporter whose work helped launch the
#MeToo movement once again names
names, as he recounts how entertainment
insiders lined up against him when he
worked to expose movie mogul Harvey
Weinstein’s long history of sexual predation.
“Part memoir, part spy thriller, the book
is an engrossing account of the dark arts
employed by the powerful to suppress their
stockpiled bad behavior, as well as the cover-
up culture that pervades executive suites.”
In Farrow’s telling, his bosses at NBC News
quashed the Weinstein story, before he took
it elsewhere, because of their personal and
business ties to Weinstein—and also because
NBC was covering up similar allegations
against some of its own executives and stars.
The network denies both charges.Paul Theroux’s
51st book grew out
of a one-on-one
encounter at the
U.S.-Mexican bor-
der, said Andrew
Graybill in The
Wall Street Journal.
The veteran novel-
ist and travel writer
was interviewing
deportees at an
Arizona shelter a
couple of years ago when he encountered a
woman who wept as she shared her story.
Hoping to land menial hotel employment
in the U.S., Maria had left behind three
young children in Oaxaca, but on the way
had been arrested, abused, and scheduled
for deportation. Theroux’s memory of
Maria praying stalked him, he says, “like
an apparition”—until he resolved to take a
deep dive into her home country, traveling
by car, to find out why so many like her
risked all to cross the border. This “fierce
and poignant” book is the result.Book of the week
“The behavior documented in Catch and
Kill is profoundly distressing,” said Jennifer
Szalai in The New York Times. Farrow
focuses mainly on the stories of women
victimized by Weinstein and other powerful
men, and on the fight to have those stories
told. In one of the book’s bombshells, a
former NBC employee alleges that she was
raped by former Today show anchor Matt
Lauer while they were in Sochi to cover the
2014 Olympics. Lauer claims the encounter
was consensual. But Farrow has uncoverednumerous other allegations against the dis-
graced former network star, and argues that
these incidents undercut NBC’s claim it had
been unaware of any misconduct before
Lauer’s firing in 2017. Farrow also reports
that Weinstein himself obtained dirt on
Lauer from the National Enquirer that he
used to blackmail the network into silence.“Farrow, of course, is no ordinary re port er,”
said Paul Farhi in The Wash ington Post.
Son of Mia Far row and Woody Al len,
the onetime prodigy graduated from Yale
Law School at 21 and worked in high-
level diplomatic posts before joining NBC
at 25. Farrow’s sister, Dy lan, famously
accused Allen of molesting her as a child.
She’s “both the muse and moral center of
Catch and Kill,” encouraging and guid-
ing her brother as he pursues justice for
other women and withstands even pres-
sure brought to bear by former Mossad
agents hired by Wein stein. Far row’s effort
paid off. After he left NBC, his report-
ing on Wein stein was published in The
New Yorker and won him a Pu lit zer he
shared with two New York Times report-
ers. Together, they “touched off a cultural
avalanche.”Catch and Kill: Lies, Spies,
and a Conspiracy
to Protect Predators
by Ronan Farrow (Little, Brown, $30)Novel of the week
The Dutch House
by Ann Patchett (Harper, $28)On the Plain of Snakes:
A Mexican Journey
by Paul Theroux
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $30)“Readers who have followed Theroux
through the decades will find here an old
friend,” said Sara Wheeler in Literary
Review.co.uk. As he travels from violence-
plagued border towns to Mexico’s southern
tip, Theroux “deploys his usual potent
blend of specificity and accumulation”
while letting the people he encounters tell
their stories. He attends a first communion
in San Diego de la Unión, surveys pyramids
in Monte Albán, teaches a 10-day writ-
ing course in Mexico City, and settles in
for a few weeks in Oaxaca. There are real
risks for a 77-year-old making this journey
alone. In Mexico, police shakedowns are
routine (Theroux is targeted more than
once), and in many places, murder, corrup-
tion, and poverty are endemic.Mexico has been “so long misunderstood,
mischaracterized, disregarded,” said Yvette
Benavides in the Houston Chronicle. But
a book like this can help erase Americans’
fears. “Theroux shows again and again
through the stories of the people he meets
that what they really want is to do honest
work, make a little money, and go back
home.” By approaching each stranger with
curiosity, compassion, and open ears, he
“proves again and again the old adage
‘Hablando nos entendemos’—by talking we
understand each other.”Weinstein arriving for a 2018 court dateJe
en
ah^
Mo
on
/Th
e^ N
ew
Yo
rk^ T
im
es/
Re
du
x