An interview with Jacob Rubin

The author of The Poser talks about his protagonist, the World’s Greatest Impressionist, about his experience as a juggler and a rapper, about growing up among psychoanalysts and the influence on his character, about the user of first-person confession, about his parallel world fable-like setting, and much more.

A review of Beasts by John Crowley

One can detect a definite indebtedness to T.H. WhIte (The Once and Future KingThe Goshawk) in Crowley’s early novel (1976 was the original year of publication) but it’s an entertaining read and full of memorable characters.  Indeed, I didn’t think I would ever find myself feeling for or empathising with a dog called Sweets, but that’s just what happened here. 

A review of You Have No Power Over Me by Mark Logie

You Have No Power Over Me is a rather scary little story about a Daniel, a young boy alone in the park, and Lark, an older man who lives on what he can steal. Both Daniel and Lark are misfits – society’s cast-offs and both seem to be living a lonely, tenuous and dangerous existence when Lark finds Daniel.

A review of Carolina Skeletons by David Stout

Besides being a very fine mystery, Stout’s novel is as well a provocative meditation on contemporary history.  He reminds us that the primary source for the recent past lies in the memories of the living.  Such memories, fragile as they are, may indeed be the only resource, if you want to challenge the written record.

An interview with Claire Kells

The author of Girl Underwater talks about the origin of her first novel, about the relationship between being a practising doctor and writing, about the Colorado Rockies (her setting), her novel’s structure, about writing love triangles, her themes, PTSD, swimming, would would play her leads in the film version, and lots more.

A review of Shameless by Marilyn Churley

Marilyn Churley’s non-fiction work, Shameless, is a mother-child reunion story, and more. The former Ontario (Canada) cabinet minister has written a memoir about the search for the baby she relinquished in 1968, and, as well, a history of the struggle to get the Ontario adoption disclosure law changed. She shows how social mores of the 1960s were hostile to women’s needs, and how men’s concerns delayed the effort to open adoption records to adoptees and birth parents.

A review of Only the Dead by Wolfgang Carstens and Janne Karlsson

I would say that this book isn’t for the squeamish, or those who prefer to think about death as something that doesn’t really happen. I personally think it would make a superb birthday card – a day when everyone needs a little extra reminder that life is worth living “to the point of tears”. Maybe don’t give it to anyone under ten (though I knew a few canny nine year olds who would love it).