Saturday over Garner? You’ve got to be frickin’ kidding me.
[UPDATE: My colleague Scott Esposito says it better than I can. But as an aside, what kind of literary appreciation you expect from a woman who writes for Entertainment Weekly?]
Magic Hours by Tom Bissell: This marvelous collection of essays chronicles everything from film shoots to novelists rescued from oblivion. (The essay on the Underground Literary Alliance, with its portrait of raucous factions, unexpectedly reveals how soft today's literary world has become.) But if you peer between the cracks of these smart pieces, you may very well see how cultural lives are formed from the most unexpected life choices. And as we follow Bissell's development as a writer over the years, that goes for Bissell as well. (Bat Segundo interview with Bissell)
Angelmaker by Nick Harkaway: Harkaway's latest novel greatly improves on his previous book, The Gone-Away World, which I'm already on record as praising. Angelmaker adopts genre elements without ever feeling like a genre book, and it leads me to believe that Harkaway is well on his way to a narrative grace close to China Miéville's. Yet inexplicably this very fun book, which includes an eightysomething badass named Edie Banister, a mysterious mechanical object that may destroy the world, farcical scenarios involving lawyers and the police, and some unexpectedly moving moments about fatherhood, doesn't appear to be getting much attention in American newspapers. Nothing from the snobs at The New York Times Book Review, nothing from The Washington Post. And since I can't get Harkaway on Bat Segundo, I hope this Jump Up and Down mention gets you hopping as well.
The Age of Insight by Eric Kandel: Unless you're really pressed for time, forget Jonah Lehrer. If you want to understand creativity and its relationship to neuroscience, then the bowtie-wearing Nobel laureate is your man. In addition to being a physically beautiful book (you will drool over many of the paintings), there are helpful overviews on optical illusions, science, biographical backgrounds, and many vital figures from the Vienna Secession. Kandel's enthusiasm (and his call for greater unity between the humanities and science) is contagious. 
Come now, Ed, Saturday has plenty of merits. Now, if Allio lost out to Michael Crichton, *that* would be jumping the shark.
I hate to say it, but for the first time in a veeeerrrrrrry long time, I’m beginning to feel as if I’m not entirely crazy. While I loved Allio’s gorgeous sentences, I felt exactly the same way while reading Garner. I, just like Whitney Pastorek, have been sure that it denotes a grand failing on my part. But, geez, it feels nice to not be the only one who doesn’t like a book that everyone I respect adores.
I know. I’m probably missing something.
Saturday is a interesting if flawed novel that deals with one of the most hackneyed themes in contemporary fiction: an affluent middle-aged man undergoing a personal crisis. Now granted, it’s McEwan who’s running with this theme. And a lesser McEwan is better than most writers.
But Garner, by contrast, is more interesting in style and theme, and it also deals with a very unusual range of perspectives. Plus, as Scott says, it’s about as lean and tight a novel as one could possibly read. In fact, if anything, Garner‘s precision is reminiscent of McEwan at his best.
As to Garner being universally praised, did it really get the amount of coverage that Saturday did? Did we really see Garner covered in every Sunday literary supplement from here to Des Moines? Hardly.
Entertainment Weekly has some of the best book reviews around. Minimal wank and often informative on who the book is likely to appeal to and why. Stop being such a snob Eddie. Plus, Ms. Pastorek also edits (or at least edited) a well thought of journal, Pindeldyboz.
I agree the review was weird, but can’t second the trashing of EW — which I often like and agree with. I think Garner is one of those books that you either get sucked into the reading experience and the lushness of it, or you don’t. I loved it, but I can see how some people would be left cold.