Little Known Facts

Bloomsbury, $25 A Northwestern writing professor, Evanston resident, and accomplished short-story author, Christine Sneed published her first novel in February. The tale centers on an aging Hollywood leading man, Renn Ivins, whose celebrity is almost a living thing, a lurking monster constantly disrupting his family life. If anyone could inject subtlety into the story of a Hollywood domestic drama, it’s Sneed, who writes with precision in this incisive meditation on the corrosive effects of fame.