Eck Reviewed in The Times

Uzodinma Iweala reviewed Matthew Eck’s The Farther Shore in yesterday’s New York Times. It’s not a complete homerun of a review. Iweala praises Eck’s “ability to bring us straight into the devastation, all its sights and sounds whirling around us as they whirl around Stantz and his comrades” and points out that his “writing is best when it vivifies the danger: making us feel the heat of the explosions, see the billowing black smoke or hear the sound of an antiaircraft gun.” But the critic also asserts that “Eck’s writing could also use more rhythm, and more emotional emphasis. Sometimes awkward and stilted, his prose can stumble over itself.”

Regardless, I enjoyed the book. There’s a hypnotic feel to the story that leaves you slightly unmoored. Eck also manages to make some of the most mundane aspects of life in a war zone (such as simply walking along the beach) thrilling.

More on this book later in the week…