The brilliant author famously followed up her cult-hit debut, The Last Samurai, with a slow-burn breakdown as her second novel (Lightning Rods) almost fell victim to a publishing merger. Here she finally takes her revenge, with thirteen ornery but self-aware stories about the vultures who tear apart our culture. Artists resist the money-changers via the art of self-sabotage, which ranges from craven capitulation to, say, an unhealthy obsession with mathematical formulas. There’s some bitterness here but no sanctimony, because the author is almost as funny and self-deflating as she is smart — which is saying a lot.