News
April, 2025
Air Mail A Hole in the Story Review
Link: Recommended
It seems impossible—and also a little foolhardy—to write a novel set in the #MeToo movement as it reached its fulminating peak in 2017 with the toppling of Harvey Weinstein. There are so many trip wires blocking the way. Ken Kalfus has written a novel that proves it can be done: A Hole in the Story is nuanced, sure-footed, dryly funny, and unpredictable. If there were such a thing as a social-mores thriller, this would be it. The setting is a wonky Washington magazine (think The New Republic) where the revered editor is confronted by a sexual predation he made in 1999, back when Bill Clinton was struggling to avoid impeachment over the Monica Lewinsky scandal. Trump, in his second term, has reduced “cancel culture” to an insult aimed at woke-loving Democrats. A Hole in the Story restores its meaning in a complex human drama that is disturbing and totally addictive.($26, milkweed.org) —Alessandra Stanley