The English Understand Wool
by Helen DeWitt
New Book of the Week , October 3, 2022
The English Understand Wool
This little book is a delight every bit as scrumptious—though perhaps not quite as sweet—as the slices of Wayne Thiebaud cake on its cover. Helen DeWitt is, for my money, the most brilliant novelist going right now, and she puts all of her talents—for inhabiting people whose genius doesn't fit the world, for finding just the right word (no matter the language), and for inserting her stiletto into the fattiest parts of corporate culture—to work in this marvelously constructed story of a young woman raised to certain standards, which she finds useful when her life takes a sudden turn. It's one of the first set of New DIrections' yummy new line of Storybooks—slim volumes to be read in one sitting—and it's been flying from hand to hand among our staff and in my family ever since we got it. It's that kind of book.
This little book is a delight every bit as scrumptious—though perhaps not quite as sweet—as the slices of Wayne Thiebaud cake on its cover. Helen DeWitt is, for my money, the most brilliant novelist going right now, and she puts all of her talents—for inhabiting people whose genius doesn't fit the world, for finding just the right word (no matter the language), and for inserting her stiletto into the fattiest parts of corporate culture—to work in this marvelously constructed story of a young woman raised to certain standards, which she finds useful when her life takes a sudden turn. It's one of the first set of New DIrections' yummy new line of Storybooks—slim volumes to be read in one sitting—and it's been flying from hand to hand among our staff and in my family ever since we got it. It's that kind of book.
— Tom
The English Understand Wool was reviewed in Newsletter #333 on October 3, 2022. For more like this, and other bookish news, sign up for the newsletter .
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