NBCC member reviews roundup

The National Book Critics Circle used its April 13 roundup to point readers to four member reviews spanning new fiction, poetry, and 19th-century classics. (bookcritics.org) The post, published Monday and credited to Michael Schaub, lists Brian Tanguay on Bar Fridman-Tell’s *Honeysuckle* for the California Review of Books, Kevin Anthony Brown on three Stendhal novels for *New English Review*, Valerie Duff-Strautmann on Maggie Dietz’s *If You Would Let Me* for *On the Seawall*, and Tara Menon on Ben Lerner’s *Transcription* for *The Nation*. (bookcritics.org) That format is routine for the National Book Critics Circle, which regularly publishes “Reviews and More From NBCC Members” posts that aggregate members’ criticism and interviews across other outlets rather than commissioning all of the work itself. (bookcritics.org) The four reviews in this installment map a wide range of current literary conversation: a newly published novel, a new poetry collection, a major contemporary novelist’s latest book, and a return to Stendhal, whose *The Red and the Black*, *Armance*, and *The Charterhouse of Parma* were first published in the 19th century. (calirb.com) (ronslate.com) (thenation.com) (britannica.com) Tanguay’s review calls *Honeysuckle* “one of the strangest novels” he has read in a long while; the California Review of Books published it on April 3. Brown’s essay, “Three Times Three: Stendhal at 200,” appeared in the April 2026 edition of *New English Review*. (calirb.com) (newenglishreview.org) Duff-Strautmann’s review of Dietz’s *If You Would Let Me* ran April 9 at *On the Seawall*, where the piece describes the collection in terms of parent-child separation and grief. Menon’s *Nation* essay on Lerner’s *Transcription*, published April 7, frames the novel around fathers, sons, and the uses of art. (ronslate.com) (thenation.com) The roundup also shows how the National Book Critics Circle functions as a professional network as much as an awards body: it surfaces members’ work after publication in venues ranging from nonprofit review sites to national magazines. (bookcritics.org) (calirb.com) For readers, the result is less a single verdict than a weekly map of where criticism is appearing — and this week’s map runs from Stendhal to Ben Lerner in four links. (bookcritics.org)