march30–april12, 2020 | newyork 57
Shoes Outside the Door
by michael downing
(Nonfiction, 2001)
➽ The vast majority of “forgot-
ten books” are forgotten for a
reason, which is why it’s exhila-
rating to stumble on the oppo-
site: a book that should have
been massively famous for a
hundred reasons and instead,
by some historical fluke, was
brutally erased like Joni Mitch-
ell’s paved paradise. The topic
at hand is the rise of Zen in America, by way of San Fran-
cisco (of course), and a scandal in 1983 that “rocked the
community” to its vegetarian core. It is also the portrait
of a charismatic entrepreneur and an examination of
how an ancient Eastern
practice took hold and
mutated in the West.
Possibly because the
authorhad not published
a work of nonfiction
beforethis book—novels,
mostly—he brings a party
bagofformal inventions
tothe table. I would
describe the book’s struc-
tureas“fractal-shaped.” I
would describe the author’s use of asterisks as “hilarious”
and his deployment of rhetorical questions as “illuminat-
ing.” Caveat: You don’t need to be interested in meditat-
ing or karma or Buddhism to enjoy the book, but it helps.
Postscript: I was inspired by this book to try a muffin
recipe from the Zen Center cookbook. It tasted like a nor-
mal muffin with one tablespoon of dirt added. Perfect.
The Hot Zone
by richard preston
(Nonfiction, 1994)
➽ There’s one exception to my
“no pandemic” theme, and it is
The Hot Zone. Be warned that
you should read this onlyif
you are a glutton for body hor-
ror, or if you’re in the moodfor
a book that will cauterize your
fear of coronavirus the way
a medieval doctor might torch
a lesion. The prolific blurber
Stephen King described this book as “one of the most
horrifying things I’ve ever read.” I personally guaran-
tee you will have a nightmare about it within three
months of turning the final page. What a ride!
The subject matter is viral hemorrhagic fevers, most
notably Ebola. Preston documents the way these invis-
iblemonsters mutate through humans and other ani-
mals,wending from caves in Kenya to office parks in
Virginia. The prose style is “popular science at its fin-
est.”Ifyou like short sen-
tenceswith colons, such as
thisone: There are plenty.
Titillating phrases like
human virus bomb and
isleof plagues and rich
monkey trader enliven the
book li n a
Funfetti ay
want to sit on a towel while
reading in case you terror-
pee yourself!
✔ RIYL:
❏ ‘Uncanny Valley’
❏ California as a
broad topic
❏ Sex scandals
❏ Home fermentation
❏ Narrative history
❏ Ancient grains
❏ ‘Wild Wild Country’
✔ RIYL:
❏ Escape rooms
❏ Police procedurals
❏ ‘Contagion’
❏ Reading
about rabies
❏ Wondering if
you’d look goodin
one of those “plague
doctor” masks
...SETTLEINTOA
frothingbubblebath
ofJaneGardamwithThe
Manin theWoodenHat?
...BUY
anoldereditionofAlison
Lurie’sForeignAffairson
eBay, becausewhoever
designedthemostrecent
covershouldbesentencedto
sixmonthsinprison?
SUGGESTED
PAIRING
Areyoujonesingforthe
re turnofMindhunteron
Netflix?TheAdversarywill
sateyourhealthy interestin
psychokillers.
...READ
ThePlayer if
Hollywood books
tickleyour pickle?
WHY DON’T YOU ...
...SUCKON
MissAluminum,
a lollipopofa
memoir,if youlike
EveBabitz,
Hollywoodtales,
andcoming-of-age
stories?
+
PHOTOGRAPHS:
COURTESY
OF
THE
PUBLISHERS (REMAINING)
... RIP THROUGH
The Portable
Veblen for
instant mood
elevation?
BONUS!
... DO A
LITTLE
DANCE AND
make a little
lovewith
Astonish Me?
