The combination of lighthearted comedy with a very serious main character and intense scenery descriptions makes for an enjoyable and even languorous read. Right from the start the novel plunges into deep description – one imagines Proulx herself driving past…
A review of Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier
As an example of mainstream fiction it is by no means despicable. It offers solid enjoyments although the careful reader will be uneasy about many authorial choices. Reviewed by Bob Williams Girl with a Pearl Earring by Tracy Chevalier Plume…
A Review of My Life As a Fake by Peter Carey
The slick post-modern magic realism narration never interferes with Carey’s first and greatest strength, which is that of a terrific storyteller. Although the story moves quickly, the writing is almost always tight, beautiful, and compelling, interlaced with delicate puns, and…
Interview with Stephen Blake Mettee
The author of the Fast Track Guide on How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal talks about the impetus for his book, on why the nonfiction book market is easier to break into than the fiction one, his Fast Track…
A review of How to Write a Nonfiction Book Proposal by Stephen Blake Mettee
If you want to put together a nonfiction book proposal, this is as clear and focused a guide as you could hope to find. Mettee cuts straight to the chase and provides a very easy to follow, no nonsense guide…
A review of What A Piece of Work I Am by Eric Kraft
Much of the novel issues from the stage and much of the language is stagy. Since the explanation for staginess comes after the fact, one is obliged to determine how much satisfaction a belated explanation can give. Contrivance is a…
A review of Terry Denton’s Storymaze Series
So what’s Denton’s secret? First of all, the book contains a quirky narrative interspersed with cartoons. These aren’t the pretty pastel pictures they got with their preschool books though. Denton’s cartoons are only slightly more sedate than Robert Crumb’s Mr…
A review of DeLillo’s Cosmopolis
It is possible that under the poor structure and pretty prose lies a deeper truth – some vision about the world and what matters. Or perhaps we are to read into the book that nothing matters – that in the…
A review of Crabwalk by Gunter Grass
Crabwalk is a complex and difficult novel which challenges the reader to think about history, about perspective, and narrative truth, but keeps the reader at arms length. The story is narrated by Paul Pokriefke, a 50 year old survivor of…
A review of What’s Wrong with Dorfman by John Blumenthal
The style is a marvelous succession of deadpan one-liners, quick and funny. A perceptive reader will see in this a device whereby Dorfman, the narrator, distances himself from his problems. Reviewed by Bob Williams What’s Wrong with Dorfman? By John…