AltWeeklies Wire
Salman Rushdie Dives into Fantasynew
If he wants to write a meandering, 300-plus page historical fantasy novel that features epic battles, pirates, women who are dreamed into existence, and the odd witch's curse or two, who's going to tell him no?
The Portland Mercury |
Alsion Hallett |
06-13-2008 |
Fiction
Andre Dubus III Tells a Pre-Sept. 11 Tale from the Darker Corners of Floridanew
Like his last novel, 1999's House of Sand and Fog, his latest demonstrates with haunting clarity that Dubus is supremely qualified for the position.
Who Reads Short Shorts?new
A Peculiar Feeling Of Restlessness: Four Chapbooks of Short Short Fiction by Four Women does not fit in my pocket (although it is rather small), nor is it a flimsy bit of folded paper, as chapbooks used to be. But it provides everything else that chapbooks did -- bite-sized, accessible, entertaining stories -- as well as what they do today -- focused, challenging, experimental work.
Portland Phoenix |
Deirdre Fulton |
06-12-2008 |
Fiction
'Rock On' Takes Us into the Bowels of the Recording Industrynew
The main draw is not the book's humor but its behind-the-scenes tour of the profit-driven, out-of-touch mismanagement of a major record label.
'Lady Lazarus' is a Fictional Critique of American Culture Both Great and Smallnew
Lady Lazarus is about more than the cult of (dead) celebrity worship. It's also about the commodification of art, whether that occurs in the high prices charged for a "definitive boxed set," the creation of artists in graduate programs or the anointing of "stars" in the popular press.
Sacramento News & Review |
Kel Munger |
05-30-2008 |
Fiction
Marisa Silver's Ares Ramirez Only Seems Normalnew
Silver gives voice to real outsiders, society's castoffs who eke out precarious livings around the edges of that other failure, the Salton Sea, a river deflected long ago in hopes of creating a desert oasis for tourists, and now so polluted and oversalinated that it washes up trash and dead fish by the thousand.
L.A. Weekly |
Ella Taylor |
05-27-2008 |
Fiction
Dawn Shamp Celebrates 1920s Roxboro in Her Debut Novelnew
On Account of Conspicuous Women is a picturesque, historically thoughtful look at four young women who become friends in 1920 -- a time when women, recently armed with the right to vote, faced the new challenge of proving their equality with men.
'The Lazarus Project' Takes a Trip Through Time with a True-Crime Twistnew
Reading Aleksandar Hemon's latest novel is kind of like staring at one of those paintings where inside that painting is another painting of the painting you're staring at. And like those surreal paintings, it not only challenges your perception of the subject but brings the creation of the work itself into focus.
Chicago Reader |
Greg Boose |
05-19-2008 |
Fiction
Richard Bausch Looks at Life in Wartimenew
Peace is a short novel, and Bausch writes with the immediacy required -- whether he's describing the raw weather and difficult terrain of Italy or the harsh terms and ugly realities of life in wartime.
The Memphis Flyer |
Leonard Gill |
05-16-2008 |
Fiction
The Lawd Tells Hit Like It Isnew
Although this is Hawkins' first and last novel, it is apparent that he had a keen knack for storytelling that was as honest as his long career as a judge. As a writer, he had a feel for humanity that is reminiscent of John Steinbeck (especially Grapes of Wrath), and a feel for the common-man language of Erskine Caldwell.
Jackson Free Press |
James L. Dickerson |
05-07-2008 |
Fiction
'World Made By Hand' Conveys Post-Oil Society Through Richly Descriptive Narrativenew
While no doubt many consider him a doomsayer or a kook, Kunstler has become a go-to guest lecturer on topics ranging from architecture to urban planning to peak oil -- and now he's translated ideas in his nonfiction writing into a novel.
The Texas Observer |
C.B. Evans |
05-07-2008 |
Fiction
'Infidelities' Explores the Struggles of Croatians at Home and Abroadnew
Novakovich's collection of short stories represents a departure from the standard narrative of Eastern Europeans leaving the old country behind. It flows from a more fluid consciousness, able to shift between the horrors, joys and ordinary realities of both worlds.
Montreal Mirror |
Juliet Waters |
05-02-2008 |
Fiction
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
Louise Erdrich Returns with a Crazy Quilt of a Novelnew
The Plague of Doves stitches together several of her recent short stories, most of them previously published in The New Yorker. The remarkable thing is how seamlessly the final product fits together.
Willamette Week |
Matt Buckingham |
05-01-2008 |
Fiction
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
