AltWeeklies Wire
Madison Smartt Bell Brings the Civil War to Your Doorstepnew
Devil's Dream's frontispiece includes a photograph of the small-eyed, dark-bearded Civil War general Nathan Forrest. Prepare to flip back to that single photograph over and over again as you read.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
12-08-2009 |
Fiction
Thomas Pynchon's 'Inherent Vice' is an Endlessly Entertaining Variation on the Detective Yarnnew
Unlike any previous Pynchon work, Vice fully embraces genre. And in doing so it's difficult to tell if the genre is merely pliable enough to accommodate all of Pynchon's literary whims or if the now 72-year-old author has basically been riffing on this form his entire career.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
08-25-2009 |
Fiction
A South African Novelist Shows How Passivity Corruptsnew
Damon Galgut's story ambles along languidly though pleasantly enough, but ultimately never reaches a satisfying end.
Baltimore City Paper |
Joab Jackson |
03-31-2009 |
Fiction
Irvine Welsh Keenly Appropriates the Boilerplate American Crime Novelnew
It's amazing what a linguistically gifted writer can do once he decides to wander outside the confines of his comfort zone.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
09-30-2008 |
Fiction
Tags: crime, Irvine Welsh
Charles Stross Brings Robert Heinlein's Robot Sexy Backnew
For those uninitiated to speculative fiction's history and tropes, Stross' Saturn's Children (Ace) is a simple tale about a sex robot who is out of work because the humans she was built to service are extinct.
Baltimore City Paper |
Adrienne Martini |
08-05-2008 |
Fiction
'After Hours at the Almost Home' Captures Wait-staff Dynamicsnew
From the crisscrossing, interconnected perspectives of haggard wage slaves, After Hours at the Almost Home documents a single late shift at a fictitious Denver bar.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
07-08-2008 |
Fiction
Iain M. Banks' Latest Won't Win Him New Convertsnew
His latest sci-fi epic, Matter, is dense, both in terms of weight and scope.
Baltimore City Paper |
Adrienne Martini |
04-08-2008 |
Fiction
Has Tank Girl Grown up - or Just Boring?new
The cult comic series, on hiatus since the mid-'90s debacle of a movie adaptation, has been revived. Unfortunately, its namesake has lost her gutter charm.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raven Baker |
02-05-2008 |
Fiction
Daniil Kharms: Aburdish and Brutenew
Today I Wrote Nothing is a generally knuckleheaded collection, so rife with undeveloped ideas and nonendings that you suspect that Kharms took great pleasure in tweaking his reader.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
01-29-2008 |
Fiction
Like 'The Devil Wears Prada' For Lawyersnew
Chambermaid delivers post-law school ennui without the frayed nerves and student-loan debts endured by lawyers. Better yet, it makes us root for them.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
10-23-2007 |
Fiction
Epiphanies Rare in 'Dead Boys'new
If you can think of a well-worn male stereotype, it's in here: the gruff ex-con, the bitter drunk, the hopeless junkie, the down-and-out prodigal son, the existentially numb cubicle rat.
Baltimore City Paper |
Zak M. Salih |
10-23-2007 |
Fiction
Portrait of a Nymphnew
Erotica novelist Zane's new advice book, Dear G-Spot: Straight Talk about Sex and Love, offers a glimpse of what it might be like to bang Zane herself.
Baltimore City Paper |
Makkada B. Selah |
10-16-2007 |
Fiction
'The Religion' Turns 16th Century Battles into Fantasynew
Yes, this is airport fiction about an obscure historical military conflict.
Baltimore City Paper |
Robbie Whelan |
10-16-2007 |
Fiction
Don DeLillo's Slender Novel Shows Impressive Depthnew
If Underworld was an epic exploration of the political and cultural machinations of an entire era in American history, then Falling Man is a subtle snippet of said history, subversive in how it undermines exactly what we crave and expect from this popular chronicler of our country's highs and lows.
Baltimore City Paper |
Zak M. Salih |
09-11-2007 |
Fiction
Freebird!new
Mitch Myers might have done better to split The Boy Who Cried Freebird into two separate halves: one devoted to straightforward rock journalism and another for fiction-oriented CD reviews and tall tales best told over tallboys.
Baltimore City Paper |
Raymond Cummings |
09-11-2007 |
Fiction
