AltWeeklies Wire
The Shadowy Panels of 'You Have Killed Me'new
You Have Killed Me is a graphic novel in the hyper-stylized tradition of film noir.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
08-06-2009 |
Original Work
'We Did Porn' Peeks Behind the Curtain of the Alt-Porn Industrynew
Oh, pornography. Progressives still get turned around. Does it victimize women? Reinforce impossible sexual expectations? Cheapen intimacy? In his new book, Zak Smith cuts to the crux of the confusion: "The most hideous thing about pornography, of course, is that it works. On you."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
06-19-2009 |
Nonfiction
New Scott Pilgrim!! Squee!!new
Everybody loves Scott Pilgrim—and if they don't, it's only because they haven't met him yet.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-05-2009 |
Fiction
Ed McClanahan's Memoir is Generous and Irreverentnew
Formally meticulous and thematically irreverent, O the Clear Moment is a loose collection of autobiographical pieces in which McClanahan reflects on an idyllic childhood in small-town Kentucky, chronicles the successes and humiliations of high school, and opens a few small but well-placed windows onto his adult eccentricities.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-31-2008 |
Nonfiction
'Veeps' is an Irreverent Guide to the History of the Vice Presidencynew
There are three people on the blue side of the political spectrum who benefited from the selection of the profoundly terrifying Sarah Palin as a vice-presidential candidate: Tina Fey, Bill Kelter, and Wayne Shellabarger.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
10-24-2008 |
Nonfiction
David Sedaris Cranks Out an Airplane Readnew
When You Are Engulfed in Flames does feature flashes of that off-kilter Sedaris wit, but more often the stories here are quickly read and more quickly forgotten: entertaining enough, but easy to put away when the wheels hit the tarmac.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
07-03-2008 |
Fiction
Willy Vlautin's 'Northline' Really has Its Own Soundtracknew
The slow-strummed ballads that accompany Northline provide a lush companion to Vlautin's starkly descriptive prose, and wisely, they're wordless, so you can listen and read at the same time.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
Portland: Comic Meccanew
So by now everyone in Portland knows that, to quote one of the most cliched newspaper headlines ever, "comics aren't just for kids anymore."
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-24-2008 |
Books
'Animal's People' Takes on Corporate Responsiblitynew
The fictional town of Khaufpur is based on Bhopal, India, where a 1984 gas leak at a Union Carbide chemical plant caused thousands of deaths and countless more injuries.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-03-2008 |
Fiction
'True Tales of Rollerderby': A Real-Life Cartoonnew
A comic book about the Rose City Rollers is one of those ideas that's so obvious, once you've heard about it, that it seems strange such a thing hasn't been hit on before
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
04-03-2008 |
Nonfiction
It's Easy to Read Because It's Badnew
Even the most distracted bus rider won't fail to notice that The English American isn't easy to read because it's frivolous; it's easy to read because it's bad. Larkin's sentences unfold with such hackneyed predictability that reading each one in its entirety hardly seems necessary.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
03-27-2008 |
Fiction
Hipsters Add John Brandon to Your Reading Listnew
His first book, Arkansas, has just been released by the McSweeney's Rectangulars imprint.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
03-13-2008 |
Fiction
Slack Onnew
When recovering slacker Kennedy gets a high-paying job in the marketing department of a major record company, he sees his coolness finally validated. Then he started work.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-28-2008 |
Nonfiction
Peter Carey Examines the Democratic National Convention of 1968new
But Carey's book is less about the events of the period than about its immediate consequences; about what happens when rich kids go revolutionary; about those who create tidal changes, and those who, through naivete or weakness, are swept up in them.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-21-2008 |
Fiction
Yes, It's a Werewolf Booknew
In Toby Barlow's surprising first novel, contemporary Los Angeles is secretly inhabited by packs of men who can, at will, transform themselves into dogs.
The Portland Mercury |
Alison Hallett |
02-14-2008 |
Fiction
