Book report for October 2025

Sometimes Dr Essai hangs with a not-very-good book because one element keeps him engaged. Or stays with an exasperating character because there are rewards that temper his exasperation. Both were true this month. Despite some notable distractions, the doctor managed to turn many pages, most of them worthy of his attention. The better titles have been linked to Dr Essai’s Bibliothèque on Bookshop.org. Should you purchase a volume through this affiliate link, Bookshop kicks back a minor contribution to the doctor’s gin fund, a salubrious arrangement for all concerned.

Completed

• Fire, George R. Stewart. Amateurish 1948 novel about a California wildfire and the people who struggle to contain it. The characters are cardboard, the dialogue worthy of a high school class assignment, but I stayed with the book because the writing about the wildfire is extraordinary. The fictional Spitcat fire is a riveting character. Stewart didn’t seem to know much about people, but he knew fire.
• You Must Change Your Life, Rachel Corbett. An erudite biography of Auguste Rodin and Rainer Maria Rilke, whose lives were intertwined in a profound way.

• The Dregs of the Day, Máirtín Ó Cadhain. Two days in the scattershot mind of N., whose wife has just died. “Hapless” falls far short of describing the protagonist, who is simultaneously engrossing and exasperating. Ó Cadhain (pronounced oh-KINE) reminded me of Joyce and Faulkner, but is like neither. An acquired taste, but as original a voice as you are likely to encounter.

• The Best American Essays 2004, Louis Menand (ed.). Best work is by Kathryn Chetkovich (“Envy,” about her struggles with that emotional state while romantically involved with Jonathan Franzen), and Anne Fadiman (“The Arctic Hedonist,” on the explorer Vilhjalmur Stefansson). Top of the list, though: Cynthia Zarin’s superb “An Enlarged Heart,” and Laura Hillenbrand’s extraordinary “A Sudden Illness.”

In progress

• Martian Time-Slip, Phillip K. Dick
• The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr

Purchased

• Analog Days, Damian Searls
• No Less Strange or Wonderful, A. Kendra Greene
• Exophony: Voyages Outside the Mother Tongue, Yoko Tawada