AltWeeklies Wire
A Plank-worthy Novelnew
Fan-Tan is a novel that blends old-fashioned swashbuckling with ejaculations of racial slurs, profanity, gambling and deviant sex. It was originally conceived over 25 years ago as a collaboration between Brando and Cammell.
Dig Boston |
Paul McMorrow |
11-09-2005 |
Fiction
Creative Writingnew
Bat Boy Lives! reminds the world just how prolific, and wide-reaching, Perel's Weekly World News reportage has been. After all, it gave us word of Elvis' being alive, pizza at the Last Supper, human cloning and alien infestations of the U.S. Capitol.
Dig Boston |
Paul McMorrow |
11-09-2005 |
Nonfiction
Tags: Bat Boy Lives!, David Perel
Exactly as the Title Saysnew
According to publisher McSweeney's Books, Bicycles Locked to Poles is a "mournful but pleasing collection, which features many of the best photographs of bicycles locked to poles ever taken." Enough said.
Dig Boston |
Paul McMorrow |
11-09-2005 |
Original Work
Portrait of a Mannew
Saint Morrissey covers the traditional timeline of Moz's life, from the early days of books and boredom, through the Smiths years and his resurrection as one of the most influential artists of the past few decades. But it is decidedly a fan's book.
Dig Boston |
Luke O'Neil |
11-09-2005 |
Nonfiction
A Master's Lifenew
From afar, he and his art were worshipped; closer in, both looked less comfortable; seen intimately, the paintings worried observers. The second volume of Hilary Spurling's Matisse biography covers the difficult man's life from 1909-1954.
Boston Phoenix |
Michael Freedberg |
11-08-2005 |
Nonfiction
Being Arab in an Increasingly Hostile Worldnew
Infusing the personal into the political (or vice-versa), Ahdaf Soueif dances through the minefield of "Arab" identity in this remarkable collection of essays written over the past 20-plus years.
Orlando Weekly |
Jason Ferguson |
11-05-2005 |
Nonfiction
A Mystifying Failurenew
Cleverly titled, interestingly premised and poorly written, Small Mediums at Large is as promising as it is frustrating.
Orlando Weekly |
Jason Ferguson |
11-05-2005 |
Nonfiction
The Damage Donenew
Sex, drugs, murder, suicide ... the diary of this Hungarian author is a tale so sordid and depraved it seems very nearly a concoction of the writer's imagination.
Orlando Weekly |
Jason Ferguson |
11-05-2005 |
Nonfiction
The Strangeness of the Sunshine Statenew
If you think Northerners believe Florida is fucked-up now, wait until you read a late 19th-century journalist's wide-eyed tales of alligator-hunting, "music-loving cows" and "weak-kneed Democrats."
Orlando Weekly |
Jason Ferguson |
11-05-2005 |
Nonfiction
He Went Under the Cover of Flagnew
In an age of absurdity fit to make Aristophanes shoot milk through his nose, a trickster like Harmon Leon is a welcome reflection of our ridiculous reality.
Creative Loafing (Atlanta) |
Thomas Bell |
11-04-2005 |
Nonfiction
Stranger Than Fictionnew
Arthur Miller's obscure play about a famed, self-doubting, mistreated actress who's making a movie in Reno, Nev., was revived by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago last year but has yet to be performed in the town in which it is set.
Reno News & Review |
Dennis Myers |
11-04-2005 |
Books
Toothpaste -- It's What's for Dinner

First-name-only cartoonist Drew's online comic strip Toothpaste for Dinner gets downloaded into a hard-copy collection.
Columbus Alive |
J. Caleb Mozzocco |
11-03-2005 |
Original Work
Fess Upnew
Two new anthologies of tell-all personal essays leave the reader little to identify with.
SF Weekly |
Karen Zuercher |
11-02-2005 |
Nonfiction
Christ Was Plastic, Amennew
Brendan Powell Smith tells Bible stories with LEGO, and his work receives acclaim even from the devout.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
11-01-2005 |
Author Profiles & Interviews
Losing Their Religionnew
Sam Harris crusades against religion, but other recent religious-themed works strike a different tone.
East Bay Express |
Anneli Rufus |
11-01-2005 |
Books
Tags: Sam Harris, Julia Scheeres, The End of Faith, Anosh Irani, Arjen van der Kooij, Dogs of God, Doorway to Eternity, El Corazón de la Muerte, James Reston Jr., Jesus Land, Khaled Abou El Fadl, Last Night of a Damned Soul, Matthue Roth, Ramon Dekkers, Slimane Benaissa, The Cripple and His Talismans, The Great Theft, Wolf Dreams, Yasmina Khadra, Yom Kippur a Go-Go