Make-Believe Town, by David Mamet (Faber, £9.99 in UK)

The Chicago playwright David Mamet has become famous through the often overwhelming verbal power of his dynamic, aggressive work. But there is another side to him, as readers of his offbeat debut novel The Village (1994) will confirm. The 24 short pieces gathered here offer a thoughtful combination of casual autobiographer and concerned citizen; above all, concerned American. There is also a strong element of perplexed American Jew, acutely aware of an outsider status which still lingers. A tone of controlled exasperation runs through many of the essays, which address the ethical side of movie-making, theatre and the media. "Cleansed by Death" is an outraged, hard-hitting attack on the handling of Richard Nixon's legacy. It's a lively book which tells the reader something about America as well as a lot about Mamet.