Even when we like them, we don’t always admire the characters in Walter Mosley’s fiction. Ben Dibbuk is no exception. A former hard-drinking, skirt-chasing angry young man, Ben has fallen into a rut thanks to a regular job and a 20 year marriage. It’s as if his soul has been…

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Mark Harris’ account of the making of the five “Best Picture” nominees from 1967 is an epic tale of art, business and character. The films represent old Hollywood’s formulaic approach and devotion to past success (Doctor Dolittle), it’s frustrations in attempts at relevance (Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner), the obstacles…

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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “jazz age” aside, the relationship between America’s “indigenous” music–as jazz is mistakenly referenced–and American literature is symbiotic but somewhat murky. Michael Ondaatje’s Coming Through the Slaughter imagined the hard scrabble beginnings of “jass” through the life of New Orleans progenitor and cornet player Buddy Bolden. Beat-groupie John Clellon…

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Turn-of-the 20th-century inventor-physicist Nikolas Telsa has seen a revival lately. David Bowie played him in the 2006 magicians’ rivalry movie The Prestige. And there’s an electric car company named in his honor. Now there’s Samantha Hunt’s novel that takes the facts of Tesla’s life and imagines him in 1943, the…

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