Dear readers, Among the comments we regularly receive from our readers, one seems to be growing louder lately: Where are the books by or about men? The short answer, of course, is “everywhere.” To that end, may I recommend this double review of two new books that report from the front lines of the epidemic of male loneliness? One of them, by the journalist Jordan Ritter Conn, follows four men from diverse demographics and with different life paths, as each works to figure out what kind of man he wants to be. Our reviewer Mark Oppenheimer calls it “readable, empathetic and quietly profound.” The other, by the actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy, traces the cross-country road trip he took to reconnect with old friends and chat with male strangers about their own relationships. Those aren’t the only books we’ve reviewed lately that might speak to our correspondents in search of books about men. I’m intrigued by “Eradication,” Jonathan Miles’s allegorical story about a man who takes a job exterminating thousands of invasive goats on a fictional Pacific island. The opportunity is billed as his chance to save the world, but while he’s there the man confronts his own limitations and philosophical boundaries. I’d also encourage you to read Jonathan Dee on Karan Mahajan’s boisterous new novel, “The Complex,” featuring an Indian family in the shadow of its larger-than-life patriarch. Its premise is pretty irresistible: What would you do if the worst person in your extended clan became a national leader? Michael Pollan — of “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” fame — turns to the byzantine subject of human consciousness in his latest book, and offers a personal and sensitive exploration of a topic no one has really mastered quite yet. Finally, earlier this month our critic Jennifer Szalai reviewed a memoir by Tom Junod, “In the Days of My Youth I Was Told What It Means to Be a Man,” an excavation of his larger-than-life father. (If a traveling purse salesman could be swashbuckling, Lou Junod fit the bill.) The writer digs up boatloads of secrets about his father, and resolves not to fall prey to the chaos that engulfed him. There’s a quiet poignancy in how the younger Junod came to look at his own evolution, one we might all learn from: “I have to figure out a way to be a man by becoming a human being.” See you on Friday. In other news
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