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Doug Wright just can’t stay away from weirdos. His play Quills dramatized the Marquis de Sade’s exploits, and I Am My Own Wife told the story of an East German transvestite informant. And now he’s written the book for a new musical, Grey Gardens.

Seven steps to Broadway, then drama club-and back.

It’s one kind of memoir that won’t fall out of publishing-world favor anytime soon: Do something kooky for a year (from transvestitism to aggressive promiscuity) and then write about lessons learned. A look at four new entries in the thriving subgenre.

In his new novel, The Good Life, Jay McInerney (a New York contributing editor) explores that post-attack feeling�equal parts grief, stoicism, and morbid humor.

Four new books and the family issues their authors carry with them.

Two novelists find rich material in competing Soviet legacies: artistic genius and thuggish repression.

Former child actor Eliza Dushku finds herself Off Broadway in the dark �Peanuts� parody Dog Sees God.

"I remember saying to my daughter, 'Lisa, if you see me doing something absolutely absurd, if I lose my mind one day and have too much makeup or my skirt's too short, please tell your mother.'"

"I have become more cynical�they lied to my face and said they hadn’t done anything. When I hear a spokesman in Iraq or Afghanistan saying something, I can’t just accept it."

It wasn’t just E. L. Doctorow who looked into the past this year�though some didn’t look too far, with one 9/11 novel outshining the rest. Brooklyn writers kept themselves busy (when not feuding), graphic books continued to pop, Joan Didion redeemed the memoir, Mary Gaitskill made us happy-sad, and Donald Trump defended his authorial honor.