Salvage the Bones
Salvage the Bones is the second mythology-soaked literary account of Hurricane Katrina I've read in the last few months, which is odd, and completely unintentional, as I picked this book…
Purple Hibiscus
Purple Hibiscus is a novel in three parts, a very common and standard thing with regard to form and execution. It is a story of adolescence and a trouble family,…
Swamplandia!
So this is a book that got a lot of buzz a few years back. It took me a while to get to it. It took me a while to…
Notes from Underground
Notes from Underground represents my transition from the novellas and stories of the heavy-hitter Russians to their longer and more involved work. The first section of Notes is a rebellion…
Another Straight White Guy Writer-type in New York featuring Cocaine, or Bright Lights, Big City
Jay McInerney’s 1984 novel Bright Lights, Big City has a lot stacked against it. It’s not only a very “New York” story, it’s about a sensitive and artistic yet somehow…
Coin Locker Babies by Ryū Murakami
Ryū Murakami’s novel Coin Locker Babies was published in 1980, a fact that surprised me when I learned it just a few moments ago. It is certainly not timestamped -I…
Mother Night -yes, more Vonnegut…
Mother Night is one of Vonnegut’s minor novels, but still a strong entry. With my goal of reading all of his novels, (as well as Palm Sunday and Man Without…
A Canticle for Leibowitz
This is a book I would have really loved in high school. That’s not a criticism per se, but, damn, I wish I’d read this when I was younger. A…
Speedboat
Speedboat is a tough book to write about. It’s been written about quite a bit of late -the recent attention drawn by the novel, long out of print, making it…
Next Door Lived a Girl
First off, this is an extremely graphic book. There is sexual abuse and violence directed at children, and it is dark and extremely graphic. If you are sensitive to that…