AltWeeklies Wire
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
'X Saves the World' Gets Motivational for the Unmotivatednew
Just as Tom Brokaw's books remind us how everyone born right after 1945 is a worthless piece of shit, so Gordinier focuses on how super-great Xers are.
The Portland Mercury |
Temple Lentz |
04-10-2008 |
Nonfiction
'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
Edward Docx Could Take a Load Off, Chillaxnew
Pravda (or Self Help, as it is known in the UK) was long-listed for the 2007 Man Booker Prize, and I suppose it's understandable -- it's certainly not the sort of book I like reading, but it's enjoyable enough once you get past its wordy temper tantrums.
The Portland Mercury |
Courtney Ferguson |
03-27-2008 |
Fiction
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
Joseph Ferris' Novel Doesn't Live Up to the Hypenew
Make no mistake, Then We Came to the End is not without its merits -- but that's also part of its undoing.
The Portland Mercury |
Courtney Ferguson |
03-20-2008 |
Fiction
Ambition Achievednew
Richard Price betrays his cellular familiarity with the Lower East Side in Lush Life, his riveting eighth novel, without once sounding like he's broken a sweat.
The Portland Mercury |
Chas Bowie |
03-20-2008 |
Fiction
Scott Heim's Demonsnew
It's weird to imagine that a fucked-up novel like We Disappear could be partly autobiographical. The parts about holding a boy captive in the basement are not, thankfully.
The Portland Mercury |
Kevin Sampsell |
03-13-2008 |
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
For the Love of Moneynew
Lydia Millet's sixth novel, How the Dead Dream, opens with an unforgettable image: A young boy named T. is so entranced by money that he purses coins in his mouth, as if to absorb the currency's mysterious power.
The Portland Mercury |
Chas Bowie |
03-06-2008 |
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
Creepy Not Scarynew
Not quite good enough to be entirely interesting and not quite scary enough to be... well, all that scary, Duma Key is a weird book.
The Portland Mercury |
Erik Henriksen |
02-28-2008 |
Fiction
What Would Jesus Debate?new
Thumpin' It (besides boasting an enviable title) is a thorough examination of how politicians manipulate scripture to support their assertions.
The Portland Mercury |
Will Gardner |
02-21-2008 |
Nonfiction
