Podcast Summary: The Book Review – "Our Book Critics on Their 2025 in Reading"

Host: Gilbert Cruz
Guests: Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs, Jen Zalai
Date: December 12, 2025

Episode Overview

In this special year-end episode, New York Times Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz is joined by critics Dwight Garner, Alexandra Jacobs, and Jen Zalai to recap their reading highlights of 2025. The critics reflect on a diverse range of books and genres, discuss trends in memoirs and biographies, delve into notable fiction, and share personal favorites that shaped their year. Peppered with candid banter, sharp insights, and their trademark idiosyncrasy, this episode offers listeners a snapshot of the literary landscape as seen through the eyes of three of America's top book critics.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Sentences as a Unit of Literary Pleasure

Dwight Garner’s Year in Sentences

• Dwight approaches year-end reflection by compiling his favorite sentences from books he read, weaving them together for commentary.
• He keeps a "commonplace book" of lines that strike him, asserting:

  "The sentence is my favorite unit of prose...something intelligent and really well expressed. That's what I live for as a reader." (02:28 - 02:47)

2. Fiction Highlights

Ian McEwan’s "What We Can Know"

• Seen by Dwight as a return to the engaging, multi-layered style McEwan displayed in "Atonement" and "Saturday."
• Described as a "big crowd pleaser" that appeals to both literary and casual readers

  "You can recommend to your most, quote, unquote literary, and yet also recommend to your relative...this is one of those books." (04:03 - 04:27)

David Szalay’s "Flesh" (2025 Booker Prize Winner)

• A narrative of male alienation, featuring spare, terse prose compared to Hemingway’s style.
• While Dwight “admired it deeply” but wouldn't re-read it, Jen was “drawn in and mesmerized by it” (05:21 - 05:53).
• Alexandra expressed mild frustration at qualified praise, calling for bolder opinions about major literary prizes (06:48 - 07:20).

Kiran Desai’s "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny"

• Alexandra’s top pick; despite its heft (688 pages), she wished for “double the length.”
• Appreciates the 20-year labor of love and laments a literary culture that doesn’t always reward such efforts.

Adam Ross’s "Play World"

• Alexandra champions this under-the-radar novel set in late 1970s-early 1980s New York, noting its evocative depiction of the city, ambiguous morality, and nuanced treatment of coming-of-age amidst adult irresponsibility (08:42 - 09:47).

3. Memoirs & Femoirs

Graydon Carter’s "When the Going Was Good"

• A lively, wistful look back at the heyday of glossy magazine journalism. Enjoyable for the anecdotes rather than the plain prose (10:40 - 11:55).

Keith McNally’s "I Regret Almost Everything"

• Deemed "riotously mean and funny," with McNally’s unfiltered opinions serving as both a memoir of New York’s restaurant scene and a vehicle for self-reflection post-stroke (11:58 - 13:21).

Susan Cheever’s "When All the Men Wore Hats"

• Alexandra applauds Cheever’s candid, late-career excavation of family and literary history—part memoir, part criticism (13:38 - 14:44).

Joan Didion’s "Notes to John"

• An intimate collection of raw, unpolished notes. Despite controversy over publishing such material, Alexandra argues:

  "If she's that meticulous...I think this was intentional, and if not intentional, who cares?...it’s the raw, unfiltered Joan Didion unplugged." (15:14 - 16:14)

4. Nonfiction on South American History

Jen Zalai spotlights two standout books on dictatorships:

"A Flower Traveled in My Blood" by Hayley Cohen Gilliland

• About the "Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo" and the long search for Argentina’s disappeared children; a complex, moving work (18:59 - 21:52).

"38 Laundress Street" by Philippe Sands

• Explores quests for justice after Chile’s dictatorship, Pinochet’s London arrest, and transnational legal accountability (21:52 - 22:35).

5. Engaging Biographies

"Wild Things" by Sue Prideaux

• Gauguin biography that balances serious critique with storytelling verve, contextualizing the artist’s darker controversies (22:48 - 24:35).

"R. Crumb: A Biography" by Dan Nadell

• Dwight celebrates Nadell’s skill at capturing Crumb’s singular creative burst and the vibrancy of the underground comics scene (24:42 - 26:16).

"Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark" by Francis Wilson

• Alexandra relishes this creative, primary-documents-based portrait of the eccentric novelist (26:16 - 27:48).

Mark Twain, Updike, and Authorial Letters

• The critics debate the optimal balance of life vs. work in literary biography, with Dwight noting that sometimes the life suffices for an engrossing review.
• The failure of Ron Chernow’s new Twain bio to strike that balance is critiqued (28:31 - 30:01).
• Discussion of John Updike’s "Selected Letters" as a particularly rich source for both literary history and personal revelation.

6. The Elusive Thomas Pynchon

• With Pynchon’s new novel "Shadow Ticket," the panel reflects on his continued literary vitality, secretive persona, and ongoing influence (30:08 - 31:12).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Gilbert Cruz:
  On critics being themselves:

  "It's one of the primary tasks of a critic to simply read, be themselves, to experience culture with their own unique and idiosyncratic minds and then tell their audience about that experience." (00:56 - 01:10)

• Dwight Garner:
  On the pleasure of a great sentence:

  "The sentence is my favorite unit of prose...something that's intelligent and really well expressed. That's what I live for as a reader." (02:28 - 02:47)

  On reading Dave Barry growing up:

  "I grew up in Southwest Florida, largely. And he got his start there. Dave Barry...he cracked me up. He was smart, he was funny." (24:42 - 26:16)

• Alexandra Jacobs:
  On the value of raw Didion:

  "It’s kind of like the raw, unfiltered Joan Didion unplugged...I just think it's incredibly valuable writing to have in the…box set of bereavement." (16:09 – 16:39)

  On Jessica Mitford:

  "Jessica Mitford is the most fascinating Mitford because she somehow winds up in Oakland, California, and Montgomery, Alabama, and she becomes a major leftist activist...she just was a fascinating, sizzling creature." (34:54 – 35:30)

• Jen Zalai:
  On the Pinochet book’s complexity:

  “This is another one of those books that’s…incredibly powerful. How do you tell such a complex, layered story, but also retain its potency and its import? And Sands really does do that.” (22:15 – 22:35)

• Group Banter:

  • On literary feast and competition for reviews, Alexandra jokes:

    "I will never forgive Dwight for taking the Updike letters, but I retaliated." (34:00 - 34:05)

• On the act of reading collections of letters:

  "As a critic, I'm too scared to skip anything because…if you missed this one page…then you look stupid, and so you can't skip anything." (33:39 – 33:58)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:35 – 01:51 Introduction by Gilbert Cruz and panel
• 02:12 – 02:47 Dwight on the art of the sentence
• 03:07 – 04:27 Ian McEwan’s "What We Can Know"
• 04:39 – 06:48 "Flesh" by David Szalay and Booker Prize discussion
• 07:21 – 09:47 Alexandra on "The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny" and "Play World"
• 10:40 – 13:22 Memoirs: Graydon Carter and Keith McNally
• 13:38 – 16:50 Alexandra on femoirs: Cheever and Didion
• 18:59 – 22:35 Jen on South American dictatorship nonfiction
• 22:48 – 24:35 Gauguin biography discussion
• 24:42 – 26:16 Dwight on R. Crumb and Dave Barry
• 26:16 – 27:48 Alexandra on Muriel Spark bio
• 28:05 – 30:05 On biography, Mark Twain and the art-life ratio
• 30:08 – 31:12 Pynchon’s new novel and persona
• 31:47 – 37:36 Personal book recommendations for the holidays
• 37:44 – end Closing gratitude and light banter

Critics’ Holiday Reading Recommendations (Stumping for a Book)

• Dwight Garner:

  • "Selected Letters of John Updike" – “A book about literary vocation...his letters about his marriages are very moving.” (31:47 – 32:58)

• Alexandra Jacobs:

  • "Troublemaker: The Fierce, Unruly Life of Jessica Mitford" – “Really recontextualizes her for our moment…a fascinating, sizzling creature.” (34:00 – 35:31)

• Jen Zalai:

  • "More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires and Silicon Valley's Crusade to Control the Fate of Humanity" by Adam Becker – “A combination of big meaty ideas...and surprisingly fun to read.” (37:06 – 37:36)

Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is lively, self-deprecating, and studded with literary in-jokes and friendly rivalries. The critics don’t hesitate to disagree or tease each other about books assigned or loved. Deeply informed but approachable, the discussion offers both keen literary analysis and plenty of warmth, making it essential listening—or reading—for anyone interested in the contemporary book world.

Prepared for readers who want the substance and spirit of the episode without having heard it: here’s a whirlwind tour through a year in books with some of America’s most distinctive critics.