Great Review of Growing Up Dead in Texas
David Duhr at The Dallas Morning News had a great review of Growing Up Dead in Texas by Stephen Graham Jones. The payoff of the review? Without giving away any spoilers, Duhr calls Jones’ latest, “one of the truest, and finest, war stories you’re likely to read.” I’ve been running behind so I’m just starting…
continue readingLiving in The World Without You
In The World Without You, Joshua Henkin explores the different ways in which family members grieve after a journalist is murdered in a warzone. The novel centers around the Frankels, a financially comfortable Jewish family from Manhattan who spend the weekends and summers in their Berkshires country house. The clan is composed of Gretchen, a…
continue readingRealistic Absurdity in a Compelling Read
In My Date with Neanderthal Woman by David Galef, there’s an intriguing amount of absurdity and fantasy that remains rooted in reality. Winner of the Dzanc Books Short Story Collection Competition, the book plants outlandish situations into normal, mundane circumstances to which we can all relate. [Disclosure: Galef sat on my thesis committee in graduate…
continue readingBook Review: It’s So Easy by Duff McKagan
When the house lights go down and the crowd jumps to its feet and the spotlight operators squint through the dry ice, seeking musicians on the stage, the bass player is often the last rocker they highlight. Singers and guitarists generally get most of the attention. So perhaps it’s fitting that Duff McKagan released It’s…
continue readingLarry Brown Bio Reviewed in WSJ
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Carl Rollyson examines Larry Brown: A Writer’s Life by Jean W. Cash. The late, great Southern literary icon’s strengths and weaknesses as a writer and a man are described in this book. I’ll have my own comments on Larry Brown: A Writer’s Life shortly. But in the meantime, it’s simply…
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