Fast fiction may sound like a pejorative, but I don’t mean it that way. Sometimes, particularly after deeper literary fiction I’m happy to jettison character development and lyrical prose for books that go down like any of my favorite sugary snacks—easily, mindlessly, and with no nutritional value. Empty calories, but yummy, and just how much kale should any one person ... Read More...
The First Day of Spring
“I am here. I am here. I am here. You will not forget me.” These are the words painted on a wall by 8-year-old Chrissie, a girl so desperate for attention in a world that gives her none that she commits a reprehensible act. She lives alone with her mother and everything, including love, is in short supply. She is starving for the things a child needs to thrive, powerless to ... Read More...
Olympus, Texas: A Novel
When the word Texas is in the title there’s an automatic expectation that what lies between the covers is going to be as bold, brash, and over-the-top as the state itself. In this way, Olympus, Texas does not disappoint. The Briscoes are the stars in the novel’s firmament, even if their shine is due to their bad behavior. Patriarch Peter can’t keep his hands to himself, which ... Read More...
What Comes After
When a novel begins with a shocking act of violence it often indicates more dramatics, more action, to come. In the case of What Comes After, author Joanne Tompkins opts to go a different route, turning the novel inward to the lives of the characters left behind. A small Washington town is rocked when childhood best friends are found dead in a murder-suicide. The murdered ... Read More...
The Mysteries by Marisa Silver
Set in the early 1970s The Mysteries by Marisa Silver is about Margaret Ann (Miggy), the only child of Julian and Jean Brenneman. They married in their early 20s so he could avoid the Vietnam War draft and Miggy was born when Jean ran out of birth control pills. Not necessarily an auspicious beginning for a marriage or having children, but they’ve settled into their own version ... Read More...
Sorrow and Bliss: A Novel
Sorrow and Bliss opens after Martha and her husband Patrick have returned from a party he threw for her 40th birthday. It did not go well and two days later Patrick says he’s leaving. It’s both an ending and a beginning for Martha as she grapples with what to do next in a life that often feels like too much to bear. When she’s 17 Martha is suddenly under such physical, ... Read More...
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