On 'Freedom' Pub Date, Franzen Picks Four OTHER Books You Must Read

On 'Freedom' Pub Date, Franzen Picks Four OTHER Books You Must Read

Ms. Hempel Chronicles by Sarah Shun-Lien Bynum

What appear at first to be just interconnected short stories--albeit beautifully written, distinctively voiced, deeply smart, and very funny--in the end reveal themselves to have been a complete, organic novel about a love like none I've ever read about before. I don't understand why people didn't carry Bynum around New York City on their shoulders after this book was published. Maybe the title was too unassuming.

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