AltWeeklies Wire
Author Holds at Arm's Length the Actual Worldnew
The story is about how we make and transform the meaning of our lives. The protagonist, an alt-weekly rock critic, knows the difference between what happens and what stories we tell about it, but only as cold theory, shadows of the real.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
02-10-2005 |
Fiction
Antiheroes Are Despicable But Endearingnew
Ronald Everett Capps has created a difficult duo of despicable and -- damn it all, but it's true -- endearing antiheroes in Off Magazine Street, the story of two lifelong friends and the daughter of their personal big easy.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
12-09-2004 |
Fiction
The Low-Carb Soulnew
What would happen if science and religion were to be boiled together in a beaker, then centrifuged, amalgamated, shaken and stirred into a slurry of superstitions, unwarranted presuppositions and outright alchemical quackery?
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-24-2004 |
Fiction
Tags: Len Fisher, Weighing the Soul
Wild Riffing Style Leads to Modestly Noble Visionnew
Inman Majors' crazy Southern comedy, Wonderdog, finds the former alter-Opie child star in a world of bad actors: clumsy political players, competitive romantic ritualists and caricatures of masculinity. And the hell of it is that they all seem to be more comfortable in their skins than he is.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-18-2004 |
Fiction
Tags: Inman Majors, Wonderdog
Author Has Constructed an Entire Teleology of Turdsnew
Obenzinger has constructed an entire teleology of turds, a sacred scatology of sphincters complete with neo-cannibal rites and the saintly ablutions of Our Lady of Shit, who cleanses the public toilets of the world.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-11-2004 |
Fiction
Tags: A*hole, Hilton Obenzinger
Postmodern Metaphysical Novel Brings Together Fin de Siècle Figuresnew
The characters in this novel come to Africa during a time of colonial retreat to impose their own philosophies on the African jungle's "darkness" (an idea author Norman Lock mercilessly slices and dices with his deconstructive Ginsu).
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
10-07-2004 |
Fiction
Book Whispers the Ancient Continuities of Faith and Culturenew
For Southern fiction, these are familiar stories, tragic and sublime, with an unusual cast of characters. For Jewish fiction, these are familiar characters in unaccustomed tales.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
09-30-2004 |
Fiction
My Nipples Loved Fruitnew
Call me an anthrocentrist (my nipples often do, though they lisp the "tr"), but I read the novel more as the story of an obese 13-year-old Canadian boy whose considerable social burdens have been increased by the budding of his nipples into cherry-sized stigmata.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
08-26-2004 |
Fiction
McSweeney's Anthology Reveals the Mind of the Comic Book Guynew
The comic book anthology McSweeney's Quarterly Concern #13 marks the latest milestone in the medium's drawn-out coming of age. If American comics saw their infancy with newspaper strips in the early 20th century, and endured an endless adolescence with superhero titles, the art form now emerges ready for adulthood.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Curt Holman |
08-26-2004 |
Fiction
