AltWeeklies Wire
Keith Gessen Tackles Familiar Turf in 'All the Sad Young Literary Men'new
Gessen's debut follows three Harvard graduates as they struggle with too much education and not enough purpose in literary Manhattan.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
Marc Acito's Strong Satirenew
The sequel to Acito's 2004 coming-of-gay comedy How I Paid for College finds its self-obsessed protagonist, Edward Zanni, kicked out of Juilliard, working as a "party motivator" at ritzy bar mitzvahs and moonlighting as a corporate spy for a jaw-droppingly sexy stockbroker of questionable ethics.
Willamette Week |
Ben Waterhouse |
04-23-2008 |
Fiction
Gin Phillips Needs to Figure Out What to Say With Her Very Strong Voicenew
For anyone who happens to have read Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, Phillips' debut novel will seem familiar.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-27-2008 |
Fiction
Manil Suri Flys Under the Radarnew
Even halfway through The Age of Shiva, you'd swear that his new novel was homespun, unambitious and sentimental. But keep reading; it grows some serious teeth.
Willamette Week |
John Minervini |
02-20-2008 |
Fiction
Are You One of 'Them'?new
The title of Nathan McCall's debut novel refers both to the black residents of one Atlanta inner-city ward and the young white "urban homesteaders" who are moving in, snapping up properties, and literally changing the neighborhood's complexion.
Willamette Week |
Kevin Allman |
01-16-2008 |
Fiction
Per Petterson Finds Shelter in Norway's Wintersnew
Despite the cold (and dark), there is warmth and security in a crackling fire, and Norwegian novelist Petterson has written a wonderful novel, Out Stealing Horses about a man who, indeed, is comfortable with his surroundings in a twilight land.
Willamette Week |
Tom Alkire |
11-28-2007 |
Fiction
Author Michael Pritchett Gets Lost Between Lewis Past and Presentnew
Pritchett's first novel requires readers to follow a similarly delicate navigation with two pieces of fiction in the same book.
Willamette Week |
Henry Stern |
10-24-2007 |
Fiction
Philip Lam's Novel Shows the Human Side of Doctorsnew
The book's title hints that our understanding of medicine is in flux: Doctors are no longer seen to possess mystical knowledge, as of old, but neither is the science of medicine as coldly rational and exacting as the 20th century would have us think.
Willamette Week |
Hanna Neuschwander |
09-19-2007 |
Fiction
'Powers' Reveals the Truth Behind Fantasynew
Portland author Ursula Le Guin peoples her worlds with mutable characters motivated complexly, humanly, not by inner wellsprings of grab-bag good or evil.
Willamette Week |
Matthew Korfhage |
09-12-2007 |
Fiction
Crime Novel 'Heartsick' Doubles as a Guide to Portlandnew
Oregonian columnist Chelsea Cain creates a stale, gory whodunit set in the Pearl District, North Portland and Sauvie Island, offering the simple personalized pleasure that a child might get from seeing his name in one of those made-to-order storybooks.
Willamette Week |
Alastair Rockoff |
08-29-2007 |
Fiction
'Ovenman': The Pizza Boy's Best Efforts Equal Mediocritynew
Equal parts sleazy and frenetic, Parker's debut is a chortle-out-loud story about the sweaty, battle-scarred struggle between creating self-monuments and throwing hand grenades.
Willamette Week |
Annie Bethancourt |
08-29-2007 |
Fiction
Novelist Lance Olsen Casts an Eye on Kafka's Insectnew
An enduring literary rumor has it that Gregor Samsa -- the young cloth-salesman who wakes up to find himself possessed of vaguely "numerous" legs and a hard-plated back -- is, specifically, a cockroach.
Willamette Week |
Mark Cunningham |
07-30-2007 |
Fiction
Lance Olsen Casts an Eye on Kafka's Insectnew
Anxious Pleasures does for The Metamorphosis what Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead did for Hamlet: furnishes a familiar story with fresh dimensionality in order to creatively re-explore it.
Willamette Week |
Mark Cunningham |
07-25-2007 |
Fiction
'Thirteen' Explores the Oldest Theme in Sci-finew
The creator of Takeshi Kovacs returns with something old, something noir.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
07-18-2007 |
Fiction
The Pros and Cons of the Superhero Lifenew
Soon I Will Be Invincible is an entertaining mash-up of superhero antics and literary ethos -- too bad the magic wears off.
Willamette Week |
Wayne Bund |
06-21-2007 |
Fiction
