"Ask Again, Yes" is a new novel getting a great deal of attention. It's literary fiction, but it's among the top five bestsellers in the NYT right now. A rare achievement. The cover has some crowded suburban streets--house after house--but then the image is drenched in a bizarre blue-ish/green hue, so it feels like you're looking at something surreal. The blurbs are from heavy hitters--J. Courtney Sullivan, Louise Erdrich, Meg Wolitzer. There is one truly moronic comment, and keeping it to only one seems like an achievement. The moronic comment is something like this: "Mary Beth Keane combines Joan Didion's attention to detail with Alice McDermott's emotional wallop." Why is this moronic? Because it implies that Alice McDermott herself does not have a notable attention to detail. When in fact McDermott is one of the most eagle-eyed writers alive today; her attention to detail equals, if not surpasses, Joan Didion's attention to detail. Th...