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

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