Cheng’s writing is so lovely, and her insights so acute, that even the slow chapters remain engaging. Her figurative language is especially striking. When Amy drifts into sleep, “better days flash, in orange hues, behind her lids.” Pauline reflects that, when one is young, “death [is] something to be teased and taunted, unseen and remote, like a hibernating animal.”
Author:
New giveaway!
We have a copy of Hannah: The Soldier Diaries audiobook by Zoe Wright to give away!
To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of December from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!
A Review of The Golden Land by Elizabeth Shick
Shick expertly pulls us into Yangon life and culture through glimpses of people, streets, food vendors, colorful gardens, and ancient temples. As Etta strolls through a working-class neighborhood, she notes how “makeshift shacks are stacked one upon the other like the slipper seashells I used to collect at the beach as a child,” then passes a man who “stands in front of his shack, his longyi hiked up to his groin as he lathers soap over his bare chest and legs.”
A review of The Bone Picker by Devon Mihesuah
While this book is a clear indication that Choctaws also like to tell each other scary stories, the implication of that line is that Choctaws have many stories. But when these narratives diverge from Anglo-European expectations, settlers and their descendants almost immediately force them into gothic or horror storytelling structures.
A review of Foreign Attachments by Roslyn McFarland
Foreign Attachments is beautifully written, with a great attention to detail and obvious research that brings the characters to life. Jean Rhys is a particularly interesting and tragic character in this rendition with plenty of intrigue left to the reader’s imagination, though I dare anyone to read Foreign Attachments and not give into the temptation to not only begin looking closer at Stella Bowen’s paintings but also exploring Rhys’ story and the work, not so well read these days, of Ford Madox Ford.
A review of Zeke Borshellac by James Damis
The book is a lurid purple-prosed comic masterpiece. I have not had as much pleasure reading a deep dense novel like this since The Sot-Weed Factor, A Confederacy of Dunces, Tristam Shandy, Quixote, Auto-da-fé, Joy Williams. The lietmotif of the book is wretched comic human excess. And ambition. And language! Borshellac begins his self-transformation as a stowaway on a fishing vessel, where he ineffectually disguises himself as a man-sized perch, lolling among the mountainous heaps of fresh-caught fish.
An Interview with Steve Rasnic Tem, King of the Horror Short Story
Tem lives alone in a modest house just south of Denver. Most striking when you walk in are the two walls—living room and adjoining dining room—covered with family portraits: his kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids. One senses the warmth and richness of his family that’s he’s surrounded himself with which makes his forays into darkness and horror all the more frightening and intriguing.
A review of Fall and Recovery by Joanne de Simone
The narrative also encapsulates what it’s like to feel excluded from the community at large, calling out the societal structures in place that demean people with disabilities. Reflecting on various schools and playgrounds, De Simone observes, “We had every right to be there, but I didn’t feel like we belonged.”
A review of Rural Ecologies by Michael J. Leach
Leach’s Haiku varies from three lines to two and sometimes four lines. Like all good haikus the insight and the images come from observations of the natural world. In most of this collection the haiku present an observation followed by a contrast or interpretation of the observation.
New giveaway!
We have a copy of Fine by John Patrick Higgins to give away!
To win, sign up for our Free Newsletter on the right-hand side of the site and enter via the newsletter. Winner will be chosen by the end of November from subscribers who enter via the newsletter. Good luck!