Briefly Noted

Unfolding across four decades via dozens of characters, this satirical novel takes aim at several targets. When, in 2012, Faye Andreson-Anderson pelts a right-wing Wyoming governor with rocks, in the lead-up to his Presidential bid, she achieves "meme status." She also becomes newly present for her son, Samuel, who tries to leverage the assault into a best-selling memoir. His research leads him deep into his mother's childhood and his own. Hill astutely skewers the media for the way it packages experience--Samuel's publisher claims to be an "interest maker" specializing in "multimodal cross-platform synergy."