bookshelf.
august.week.one
"Can marriage save your life, or is it just the beginning of a long double homicide?" And so Adam Ross dives into the dark side of relationships in his debut novel, Mr. Peanut. Told in dueling points of view, murder suspect David Pepin and detective Hastroll; Ross investigates the dichotomy of marriage.
What starts as an intriguing jaunt quickly turns into a tedious journey. Ross’ prose feels excessive and clunky. Ross chases tangents for dozens of pages, drawing attention to the writer rather than the writing. He flexes his wit and chooses style over substance. Despite its flaws, this jocular and macabre tale of matrimony is a strong effort.
- Brian W. Wood
"This story of a marriage, played out in flashbacks, is one of the most hyped novels of the summer — and for the life of me, I'm not sure why."
Tina Jordan Entertainment Weekly
july.week.four
The first word that comes to mind is Bourbon, and lots of it. But the second word is authenticity. Raymond Carver unequivocally writes authentic American fiction. It seems like it should be an easy enough craft. Write the word “dirt” in place of “earth.” Use the monosyllabic whenever possible. But Carver creates complex masterpieces, which resonate long after they are read, using simple prose.
Carver’s America has whisky on the Formica counter. Snubbed cigarettes spill out of ashtrays. The men are quiet and their hands are rough. It’s a hard, sad America full of broken dreams. It’s a land of scars, scratches, and survivors.
- Brian W. Wood
“At his worst Carver can bore a reader, and leave them wondering what the hell the story was all about? But, at his best Carver’s tales are like those old family photos you flip through, years after the familiar faces have lost their name, but none of their ability to move. It’s in the lacuna between name and motion Carver touches greatness.”
Dan Schneider The New Review
july.week.three
With a sustained soliloquy Adam Rapp uses poetic language and dark haunting chords to explore the lasting impacts of tragedy. Rapp begins in summer, suburbia. Like Euginadies’ The Virgin Suicides or Yates’ Revolutionary Road the promise of the picket fence and manicured lawn crashes against the inevitable pain and loss of living.
After a horrific accident, the Son searches for solace in the anonymity of the city. He longs for escape through words, a mastery of language. But grief’s refrain will not dampen. “Fifteen years ago I killed my sister.”
- Brian W. Wood
“‘Nocturne,’ at the New York Theater Workshop, is so congested with lyricism that you expect Mr. Roberts to suffocate. Which would seem to be the point of this intense, sustained lamentation. Words are all this fellow has to come between him and his pain, the tools of a feverish quest to understand a catastrophic car accident that happened when he was 17.”
Ben Brantley NYT Theater Review
july.week.two
Rodes Fishburne’s debut novel is reminiscent of M.C. Escher’s “Hands.” Writing his first novel while living in San Francisco, he casts his protagonist in San Francisco working on his first novel. It’s a literary world. A place anyone who creates will love to visit; a world where trunks are filled with first editions. And the power of the pen can not only revitalize a dying newspaper, but rescue a doomed city.
Going to See the Elephant is a Bay Area concoction of one measure Ken Dorsey, one Tom Robbins, shaken vigorously and garnished with exclamations of Tom Wolfe!
- Brian W. Wood
“And there is Fishburne’s San Francisco -- a magical dream city on a bay so placid a young, wildly successful reporter can paddle a beautiful, mysterious chess star in a rowboat from Fisherman’s Wharf to a cove on Alcatraz Island for a picnic lunch, and the worst that happens is the tide flees before they can return. It’s a place San Franciscans won’t recognize but readers will love.”
Melissa Lion Barnes and Noble
july.week.one
Disaster is inevitable when the level of luck is mirrored by the amount of oxygen and degree of judgement. Jon Krakauer’s account of his Everest expedition is a cautionary tale of hubris and megalomania that is mythic in scale and scope.
Into This Air was initially criticized for being rushed into publication. It lacked perspective, was too personal. And why not? It was a personal story. With subjective and visceral journalism, Krakauer allows flat-landers like myself to experience heroism and tragedy on the roof of the world.
- Brian W. Wood
“Thanks to a surge in corporate sponsorship of expeditions, there are probably more professional explorers today than at any time in history. Membership of the Explorers Club in New York is at an all-time high, and the National Geographic Society has created the oxymoronic position of ‘explorer in residence.’”
John Tierney NYT Magazine
june.week.four
Have you ever been in an airport and wished you could take another flight? Walking past the gate to some sunny destination have you had the desire to disappear, leave everything behind and start fresh? If so, read Layover by Lisa Zeidner.
With a smooth and sexy narrative Zeidner creates a middle aged heroine who sleeps in hotels without paying, seduces the young, and abandons the responsibilities of yesterday.
- Brian W. Wood
"Think of all the meanings implicit in "layover": an overnight respite during a journey, sex during same, an end to that sex. Zeidner plumbs all those connotations in this zesty, funny and sweetly touching account of a traveling saleswoman on the lam."
Bella Stander Washington Post
june.week.three
This is the greatest living author. J.M. Coetzee's Summertime blurs the line of memoir and novel. It is a self-portrait of an artist, warts and all. Although it can be enjoyed without knowing Coetzee's earlier work, I would recommend reading Dusklands or Foe to fully appreciate the subtle layers of Summertime.
With bare and tender prose Coetzee reveals the hidden inner-workings of the mysterious and newly deceased writer, John Coetzee. Witness firsthand how an average teacher, living with his elderly father, struggles to become a writer.
- Brian W. Wood
"I wonder if the publishers didn't calculate that a double Booker winner and Nobel Prize laureate would generate more sales with what purports to be a novel than with a very tricksy memoir.
And this is a very tricksy memoir."
Justin Cartwright The Telegraph, UK
june.week.two
Chuck Palahniuk and porn. It should go together like a cage fighter and cauliflower ear. Like a calloused fist in a glove. But rather than a knock-out Palahniuk's latest novel feels more like Pacino's latest film, or Jack Johnson's next song. Ultimately, Palahniuk has become a caricature of himself. The "look ma, I'm being edgy!" style of prose is starting to feel haggard. It is a shame too. His writing talents are far deeper than the shallow well from which he continually draws.
- Brian W. Wood
"What the hell is going on? The country that produced Melville, Twain, and James now venerates King, Crichton, Grisham, Sebold and Palahniuk. Their subjects? Porn, crime, pop culture, and an endless parade of out-of-body experiences. Their methods? Cliche, caricature and proto-Christian morality. Props? Corn chips, corpses, crucifixes. The agenda? Deceit: a dishonest throwing of the reader to the wolves. And the result? Readymade Hollywood scripts."
Lucy Ellman New York Times
june.week.one
In an interview director Quentin Tarantino stated that his favorite film in the last 20 years was "hands down" Battle Royale. This Japanese cult classic is based on an equally controversial and wildly successful novel by Koushun Takami.
A bus load of eighth graders, marooned on an island off the coast of Japan, are forced to participate in a sinister government program. Fitted with exploding collars and equipped with random weapons the students have 48 hours to fight to the death. There can be only one survivor.
With equal parts shock, terror, and gore Takami concocts a gruesome allegory. It's a dog eat dog world. You have to fight to survive, kill to succeed.
- Brian W. Wood
"Lord of the Flies meets The Most Dangerous Game meets the gruesome, bloody stylings of Quentin Tarantino...on acid who killed Stephen King and tossed his body into BTK's backyard."
Katherine www.goodreads.com
A bus load of eighth graders, marooned on an island off the coast of Japan, are forced to participate in a sinister government program. Fitted with exploding collars and equipped with random weapons the students have 48 hours to fight to the death. There can be only one survivor.
With equal parts shock, terror, and gore Takami concocts a gruesome allegory. It's a dog eat dog world. You have to fight to survive, kill to succeed.
- Brian W. Wood
"Lord of the Flies meets The Most Dangerous Game meets the gruesome, bloody stylings of Quentin Tarantino...on acid who killed Stephen King and tossed his body into BTK's backyard."
Katherine www.goodreads.com
