AltWeeklies Wire
'Ancient Highway' Sculpts Three Generations of Family with Concise and Poetic Prosenew
Author Bret Lott, a professor at the College of Charleston, deftly maneuvers across three generations, running a ribbon through the arms of despondent family members, using rhythmic, undulating prose to deliver an assiduous, heart-worn tale.
Charleston City Paper |
Kevin Murphy |
08-06-2008 |
Fiction
Fraser's 'The Reavers' Might be as Good as They Saynew
"This book is nonsense," the late George MacDonald Fraser writes in the introduction of his last book, The Reavers. "It's meant to be."
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
'Mermaids in the Basement' is Fluff for Smart Girlsnew
Even fluffy books should have their standards. Which is why I was so thrilled to find Michael Lee West's Mermaids in the Basement.
Charleston City Paper |
Erica Jackson |
07-30-2008 |
Fiction
David Sedaris Continues with Un-Fiction in 'Flames'new
Sedaris, in addition to the previous charge of not being a journalist, is now also found guilty of being entertaining.
Charleston City Paper |
Jon Santiago |
07-23-2008 |
Nonfiction
In Catherine O’Flynn’s New Novel, Your Heart Breaks -- Eventuallynew
O'Flynn, author of What Was Lost, gives a pretty spot-on description of mall life. Green Oaks, the Birmingham shopping center detailed in the novel, is a nightmarish complex, and she gives an accurate insight on how suffocating it may be to work there long after you should have moved on.
Charleston City Paper |
Susan Cohen |
07-23-2008 |
Fiction
Stories about Stories: Kevin Brockmeier’s new story collection retells (relatively) new talesnew
Each of the 13 stories in The View from the Seventh Layer is some ingenius variation of narrative genre — there are four fables, a ghost story, an alien abduction story, a fantasy, a science-fiction romance, a situation comedy of sorts, and even a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure story.
Only a few of these breezy and sometimes elegant stories subscribe to that 20th-century dogma of short-story writing that Michael Chabon has called — in the tongue-and-cheek introduction to McSweeney’s Mammoth Treasury of Thrilling Tales — the “contemporary, quotidian, plotless, moment-of-truth revelatory story.”
Charleston City Paper |
John Stoehr |
07-23-2008 |
Fiction
Why It's Worth Reading and Re-Reading the Great Toni Morrisonnew
Long before Barack Obama forced us to re-think race, Toni morrison said it matters when it matters, it doesn't when it doesn't.
Charleston City Paper |
Consuela Francis |
07-23-2008 |
Books
City of Exiles: Learning to be American means finding oneself, even after 9/11new
Outlegged by news networks that never sleep, outsold by the juggernaut of visual entertainment, the novel doesn't bring us the news as it once did. Or at least it's easy to think so until you pick up a book like Joseph O'Neill's splendid Netherland.
Charleston City Paper |
John Freeman |
07-09-2008 |
Fiction
Hipster Homicide: Rayo Casablanca Explains What's Killing Him About The Scenenew
Set in Williamsburg, Hipsters takes off at breakneck speed with a snarl of characters and lifestyles. "I can't tell you how many times people have told me that they really liked reading about hipsters getting whacked," Casablanca says.
Charleston City Paper |
Alli Marshall |
07-02-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
New Comics and Graphic Novels for Summertime Readingnew
Scorching temperatures and soaring prices at the gas pump may make staying close to home sound like a sweet option this summer. Luckily, a bumper crop of superhero stories and graphic flights of fancy are available this year to entertain you throughout 2008's hottest months.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
06-18-2008 |
Books
Rick Bragg Completes His Family Saganew
In The Prince of Frogtown, the book he wrote to put the ghost of his own father to rest, Bragg concludes the set of family tales he began with All Over But the Shoutin' and expanded on in Ava's Man.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
05-28-2008 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Tags: Rick Bragg, The Prince of Frogtown
The Comic Book Industry's Sketchy Futurenew
Though the industry is currently chugging along with a good bit of steam under it, the margins are still precariously thin in places.
Charleston City Paper |
Jason A. Zwiker |
04-23-2008 |
Books
David Hajdu Examines the Beginnings of Comic Booksnew
In The Ten Cent Plague, Hajdu does a fair job of balancing the story of the infamous Kefauver hearings, Seduction of the Innocent, and the subsequent "Approved by the Comics Code Authority" self-policing of the comic book industry.
Charleston City Paper |
Jsaon A. Zwiker |
04-09-2008 |
Nonfiction
'My First Movie: Take Two' Disappointsnew
In theory, this book should be a wet dream for would-be filmmakers.
Charleston City Paper |
Nick Smith |
04-09-2008 |
Nonfiction
Is There Such a Thing as a 'Southern' Memoir?new
There are as many ways of writing a book as there are literary tastes, and as the definition of southern culture evolves with the changing times, so does its literature. But is there within the current memoir craze an emerging southern voice?
Charleston City Paper |
Alli Marshall |
02-27-2008 |
Books
