Slate's summer reading.  Reading between the lines. July 3 2007
7:24 AM  Summer Books  What Slate is reading this summer.  Slate
has asked a number of its contributors to recommend some recent
books of note. Below is a list of their responses. Pack them up
for the beach or sit down next to the air conditioning, and
enjoy.   A Day at the Beach, by Helen Schulman.  A Day at the
Beach, by Helen Schulman (Houghton Mifflin). This intense,
disconcerting novel chronicles a single day in the life of a
Manhattan couple: Gerhard Falktopf, a once-sensational
choreographer past his prime, and Suzannah, his former prima
ballerina and now wife and mother to their son, Nikolai. That
day happens to be Sept. 11, and after Suzannah and Nikolai watch
from their window as the first plane crashes into the World
Trade Center, the Falktopfs pack up and head for the Hamptons.
At one point Gerhard expresses admiration for the "hyperrealism"
of Chuck Close's portraits, a term that aptly characterizes
Schulman's technique: Every detail