Milton is larger than life and Jones seamlessly incorporates an historical perspective that includes World War Two and the Cold War, the operations behind the scenes at big department stores like Gimbels and Macy’s, Milton’s round the world twin-engine propeller flight that broke Howard Hughes’ record. In addition, Milton and Jim’s difficult relationship, coupled with both Milton’s marriage and Jim’s marriage to Zelta, mingles the domestic with the historical perfectly.
Category: Book Reviews
Book Reviews
A review of Landslides, Slumps, & Creeps by Robert Goodwin
While this book is not one most first grade students might read, the pictures added to the text, news accounts on television and recent tremors we have experienced in Oklahoma have heightened Osage County First Grade interest in all things to do with earth movements, slumps, slides, quakes and all.The book presents opportunities for discussion, and is helping to ease the worry my students have begun to develop.
A review of Radiance by Andy Kissane
Though the poems in Radiance are powerful and hard-hitting – making the familiar new, and challenging the reader’s perspective, the entire collection is suffused with warmth that continues to charm, even when we’re reading about horror. These are poems that, regardless of theme, remain unabashedly positive, at times, extremely funny, and inviting, even as they’re undermining our prejudices.
A review of Penny From Heaven by Jennifer Holm
Holm has intertwined a delightful narrative within a story. On the one hand the reader spends the summer and autumn with Penny Falucci and her loving and fun loving extended family. Penny’s maternal relatives are home, Mom and apple pie American with Penny, Me-Me, Pop-Pop and Mom. While Penny’s Falucci relatives encompass many uncles, aunts, cousin and Nonny-Grandma is the pillar of the family.
A review of Dreaming for Freud by Sheila Kohler
Stylistically, Kohler makes excellent use of interior monologue, alternating between Freud and Ida. The novel is presented in a poetic, intimate way that encourages readers’ intense emotional involvement. Kohler also makes effective use of “flashes forward”, interrupting the present of the story to provide tidbits of information about the characters’ futures. The novel is suspenseful. We wonder: Will the young woman give in to Freud, or will she assert her own interpretation of her feelings? What becomes of her and the adults who poisoned her teenage years?
A review of Barracuda by Christos Tsiolklas
Danny’s growth process through Barracuda raises questions about the nature of what it means to be a ‘good’ and self-fulfilled person, about marginality and the politics of difference – in terms of race, sexuality, and capability, about notions of ‘home’ and nationality (and not only with respect to migrants, though the migrant perspective is strong), how we make meaning in our life even when our dreams falter, the notion of privilege, and questions of class. All of these things are handled subtly and powerfully, through dichotomies that play out naturally through the course of the narrative.
A review of Working Stiffs by George Dila
The characters in Working Stiffs don’t openly embrace the company’s mean-spirited, oppressive, or murderous policies. They get talked or lulled into them. Out of exhaustion, fear, or basic survivalism, they accept their superiors’ language and logic—however it comes. In “Eyes to Wonder, Tongues to Praise,” the narrator, Baker, learns that he’s bound for a promotion but only because his buddy is getting canned. Baker has to keep it secret, and it eats him up. He’s riddled with anxiety, but he manages the discomfort and accepts his own complicity.
A review of The Fateful Apple by Venus Thrash
Venus Thrash open The Fateful Apple deep in the heart of the Garden of Eden and moves toward Tutankhamen’s tomb, continues on to Atlanta, before mentioning The Tree of Life, The Tree of Knowledge and womankind bearing the brunt of Eve’s disobedience. The reader is left breathless, but driven to turn the page and check the words coming next.
A review of Desert Swarm by William Manches
Manchee sets down underpinnings for his tale, peoples it with believable characters, fills in holes with credible dialogue and moves the narrative forward in an acceptable manner. Muddying the water is an overzealous deputy who is searching for a conspiracy, and wants to implicate Jack.
A Conversation with Joël Dicker
The author of The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair talks about his first American novel, about its New England setting, about the structure of the book, his inspirations, about the Nabakov connection, his characters, about the popularity of fiction about academics, his detour into law, the writers he admires and lots more.