fiction
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Review of What is All This?: Uncollected Stories by Stephen Dixon
I’m not going to go easy on Dixon this time. But I will read more of his stuff and decide if he deserves the accolades and blurbs. The stories here are artificial because the mechanics of what he is doing are never concealed by the writing. You can see the…
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Review of Man or Mango? by Lucy Ellmann
Man or Mango is my least favorite Ellmann novel. I have gotten through all of her novels aside from Doctors & Nurses and Ducks, Newburyport. This not to say that Man or Mango, a Lament, is not good. It is entertaining, like all of her work, though it lacks focus…
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Review of Sing to It: New Stories by Amy Hempel
Amy Hempel’s award-winning The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel was chock-full of absorbing, somewhat dog-centric tales, with formal artistry and quirky characters. Her latest collection proves that she has been doing something the past thirteen years. The main problem is the brevity and insignificance of what is on display here.…
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Review of The Titan’s Curse (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #3) by Rick Riordan
The Titan’s Curse is better than it predecessors and sets up the next entries nicely. Where the last book was weighed down by lackluster stakes, this one brings the conflicts to a new level of urgency. The plot grows in every chapter and the power of the main villain is…
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Review of Terra Nostra by Carlos Fuentes
A Möbius striptease. Time is a permeable membrane.Cervantes and Caesar, Bosch and Quetzalcoatl.Historical figures rise, maggot-ridden from their tombs to conquer, make love, philosophize and dissolve in the polychromatic strobe of dreams. These fantasies fuse with antiquity, birthed from moldered tomes, exhausting the faiths of pious men, eviscerating kings, and…
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Review of Hammers on Bone (Persons Non Grata, #1) by Cassandra Khaw
An unconventional noir novella with the distinct flavor of Mieville and Lovecraft, and a dash of hashtag Elder Gods mythos thrown in. Entertaining if a bit brief, and ecstatic if a bit forced, it is nonetheless a daring mishmash of fun otherworldly ideas.
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Review of The Waitress Was New by Dominique Fabre
Fabre is a French novelist. He has written a lot, from the looks of it, but English translations are slow in coming. His biographical data reveal that he chooses to focus on describing life on the periphery, on neglected people in society. For this slim novel, the main character works…
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Review of Fluffy’s Revolution by Ted Myers
Blade Runner X Homeward Bound. This was top-tier dystopian science fiction. The stakes are high in this wryly humorous anthropomorphic adventure. In its future world like Poul Anderson’s Brainwave, with a touch of Orwell’s Animal Farm mixed in, I was intrigued and won over by the charming and witty characters,…
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Review of Hotel World by Ali Smith
While I appreciate Ali Smith’s experimentation, I’m not a fan of the quotidian rhythm of her narrators. Whether they are waiting at the airport, or sitting around on their home computer, or flopping on the bed of a sleazy hotel room, I find myself waiting for something interesting to happen…
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Review of Zeroville by Steve Erickson
Abandoned at 65%. I’ll only comment on the positives and negatives I noticed listening to the audiobook version. Don’t know about the ending, but was not sufficiently engaged to finish it. Beginning showed a quirky voice. I liked the cine-centric commentary and obsession with old film stars running through the…
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Review of Buddha, Vol. 1: Kapilavastu (Buddha #1) by Osamu Tezuka
Tezuka manages to sustain a gripping pace while inserting subtle philosophy and universal themes. If the other 7 volumes are as good as this one it might be his greatest series. I like this first volume more than most of the volumes of Phoenix. While the narrative is not bound…
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Review of Old Floating Cloud: Two Novellas by Can Xue
A rare scatological mosaic elevated to the highest levels of artistic expression. Can Xue is my favorite contender for the Nobel Prize. Rising out of humble beginnings in China to become in the space of a decade, a force to be reckoned with in world literature. A titan of disjointed,…
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Review of Lagoon by Nnedi Okorafor
This book is loud. I do not mean that as a bad thing. A lot of books are not quiet. A book full of voices need not be silent. This reminded me in some ways of Black Leopard, Red Wolf. This has a similar aura, but a different tone. (Those…
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Review of Uzumaki: Spiral into Horror, Vol. 1 by Junji Ito
Many of Junji Ito’s themes and motifs are simple and even nonsensical, but they tend to stick in the mind. They have the ineluctable quality of nightmares, of good horror films. His concepts have the same staying power as a cheesy slasher flick, with the advantage of impressive artwork. No…
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Review of Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orïsha, #1) by Tomi Adeyemi
“Children of Blood and Bone” is an interesting study of themes that is dragged down by odd storytelling decisions and a bloated length. It’s at its best when it is using its themes. The idea of slavery and oppression go hand-in-hand with this world’s characters, creating a deep perspective on…
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Review of Lila by Marilynne Robinson
While I admire M. Robinson’s writing ability I found the messages in this book plain as day. The ideas and character emotions were well-conveyed but did not require much analysis or interpretation. What I’m trying to say is that cut and dry situations, and some repetitive concepts added up to…
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Review of The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson and the Olympians, #1) by Rick Riordan
Nothing beats a good adventure story. Whether it’s the adventure of discovery like in Ringworld, the adventure of slaying a dragon in The Hero and The Crown, or a hybrid like Brave Story, you can get into these journeys so long as they are done well. Which is why, though…
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Review of A Spy in the Panopticon by Damian Murphy
I wish I could find the edition pictured on Goodreads. I only had access to the first part: Spy in the Panopticon, which by itself is another stunning work of the imagination from Damian Murphy. In this one especially, the seed of an obscure metaphysics seems to be present. There…
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Review of The Babysitter at Rest by Jen George
I admire the author’s boldness. There is a lack of restraint in the freewheeling bizarro-ideas. The stories function without character development, plot twists, or reflection. They are fast-paced, bare-bones cobbled-together surrealist evocations of modern day discontent, obsession and sexual fantasy. Shock and awe, surprise and delight, but plainly stated, divested…
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Review of Our Tragic Universe by Scarlett Thomas
The first thing you’ll notice about this book is the unique design. The black-stained page edges and the reflective hardcover. The high-quality paper. These are the things which lend themselves to a unique reading experience, and that is what it is. Our Tragic Universe contained most of what I love…
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Review of Reality Testing (Sundown, #1) by Grant Price
Reality Testing is a colorful novel, generously long, pumped full of so much creativity that the experience of reading it can only be compared to an overdose of science-fiction brand narcotics. Blending a complex web of illusion and reality, with prose that is so tight, sleek, polished, and chromium-plated, it…
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Review of Snakes and Earrings by Hitomi Kanehara
Unlike Ryu Murakami’s transgressive works, this small book lacks polish. It deals with the immature, shallow concerns of its adolescent characters with stark, unapologetic realism. Edgy in the extreme, but lacking depth of any appreciable kind, it reads quickly and has all of the trappings of a bestselling Japanese alternative…
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Review of You Remind Me of Me by Dan Chaon
So far, I’ve enjoyed the short stories of Chaon more than the novels. The novels stick with you, though. He might be compared to Lorrie Moore for the crystalline style, but his depiction of American life verges on disturbing at times, and reveals the undercurrent of our repressed age, bringing…
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Review of The Seducer by Jan Kjærstad
Jonas Swallows the Whale. This is a cathedral of words. Cocooned within these pages is a living organism. In preparations for metamorphosis, the encasing structure takes on increasing complexity, immersing the reader in its development, through stages, through time, the creature inside is the main character, Jonas, but he is…
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Review of The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 1: The Faust Act by Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie (Illustrations), Matt Wilson (Colorist), Clayton Cowles
“The Wicked+ The Divine: The Faust Act” is an interesting opening act. The concept might be its strongest selling point. The premise that 12 gods from different pantheons are reincarnated every 90 years can lead to a lot of plot development. These reincarnations will then die 2 years later. I…
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Review of The Magic Kingdom by Stanley Elkin
The Magic Kingdom is bound to arouse mixed feelings from many readers. If you approach it as a playground for linguistic experimentation, it succeeds in entertaining. From most other perspectives, I felt, it failed to compel me. The forceful writing Elkin is known for is here in evidence, but the…
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Review of We Are Legion (We Are Bob) (Bobiverse, #1) by Dennis E. Taylor
It didn’t live up to the hype. For me at least. Many other people will enjoy this. Every time I was introduced to an interesting, high-brow scientific concept, I was cringing at the corny humor. The main issue is Bob, the narrator/ commentator, giving a peanut gallery run down of…
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Review of The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera
I didn’t laugh. And it was quickly forgotten. Kundera knew how to write. (I speak in the past tense because he is now 90 years old and I wonder how much writing he’s doing nowadays.) But he chose to write about things I find it very hard to care about.…
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Review of Vlad by Carlos Fuentes
Fuentes serves up a vampire yarn in a minimalist style. Compared to many of his other works, this one is straightforward, short, and perhaps a departure from his ordinary fare. What begins as a hilarious and subtly creepy familial tale, complete with comedic and eccentric descriptions of a Count morphs…
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Review of The Other City by Michal Ajvaz
A harmless and creative work, quirky and European in flavor, but lacking the depth of the shameless blurbs hailing Ajvaz as the Czech Kafka Wait, never mind. This is a dream book, a better than average Surrealist romp. Relatively flat, but well-animated, colorful, goofy, surprising, and atmospheric. Superimposition plays a…
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Review of Blinding by Mircea Cărtărescu
Monsu held the butterfly uterus in the open palm of his right hand. Its skin fibers gently pulsed. In the end, it took flight, not through the mechanical beating of lepidoptera, but by undulations within the gelatinous medium, the way transparent beings on the bottom of the ocean proceed dreamlike…
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Review of Lost in the Funhouse by John Barth
One’s enjoyment of this collection may depend on one’s enthusiasm for wordplay. There is a significant amount of utterly clever portmanteuing. Buried beneath the lexical prestidigitation is a penchant for unconventional storytelling. Combining homages to classical mythology with post-modern shenanigans, Barth’s creative use of the English language is a rare…
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Review of The Book of Human Insects by Osamu Tezuka
With the Book of Human Insects, Tezuka’s appeal is reaches new heights. He compressed an incredibly fascinating character study into a short space. It is what he did with MW, but you’ll see even more compression here. One eternally gets the sense that Tezuka suffered from too many ideas. He…
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Review of And Quiet Flows the Don by Mikhail Sholokhov
There are so many versions of this book on Goodreads because this book has been reprinted so many times. It’s one of those classics, like War and Peace, that endures. It is a multi-volume epic, and aside from its intimidating size, how is an American reader supposed to choose an…
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Review of The Invisibility Cloak by Ge Fei
This was one of my favorite modern Chinese novels. Instead of dealing with the horrors of war and destruction of families and bureaucracies, as in Mo Yan and Yan Lianke’s works, this was a breath of fresh air. It read much more like Japanese fiction in its depiction of an…
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Review of The Paper Door and Other Stories by Naoya Shiga
Naoya Shiga’s short story collection, translated by Lan Dunlop is a condensation of a career, a well-translated, well-written, well-selected enticing collection. In Japan, Shiga is hailed as “god of the novel.” His only novel-length work was the morose A Dark Night’s Passing, but in Japanese, apparently, the term ‘novel’ refers…
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Review of An Evil Guest by Gene Wolfe
“Money is an evil guest.” Gene Wolfe can write in any genre he desires, I suppose. This book was a noir with subtle science fiction elements. The blurbs and book jacket call it Lovecraftian horror, which is a lie. You can expect 95% dialogue, well-polished, for about 250 pages, and…
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Review of Literature™ by Guillermo Stitch
Guillermo Stitch is starting off strong. This and his more recent Lake of Urine showcase a singular ability to incorporate dark comedy, magical realism, and slick writing chops. This short novel is easy to read, but deep enough to keep me thinking about the world and characters afterward. The onset…
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Review of Three Fantasies by John Cowper Powys
In the Afterward, Cavaliero draws a lot of biographical significance out of the farcical improvisation of the juvenilia of Powys in his dotage. This Beckettian collection of three novellas is both saddening and quirky At the forefront are confrontations with physical embodiments of Death. The skepticism of an animist, the…
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Review of The Pleasures of Queuing by Erik Martiny
The second book by Martiny I’ve read. This one was very different from Night of the Long Goodbyes. Both were singular in their content, and contained a mix of traditional and non-traditional techniques. I would call this a hysterical picaresque novel infused with mesmeric weirdness, peppered with quirky satirical aplomb…
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Review of The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson
A passing acquaintance with Samuel Johnson will reveal that the man could write splendidly. He possessed, by all accounts, an unapproachable intellect. His literary works are reminiscent of Voltaire’s: witty, erudite, vast, and infinitely readable. His travel accounts and the biography by Boswell are considered paragons of their genre. Sadly,…
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Review of Vaseline Buddha by Young-moon Jung
What a fascinating read!I’m going to unpack it, but there’s no way to properly convey the captivating reading experience this author provided me. Undergo the trial of reading it. It’s well worth your time. Dalkey missed their chance at publishing this, and I’m grateful to Deep Vellum for putting it…
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Review of Lord Valentine’s Castle (Lord Valentine, #1) by Robert Silverberg
A grand and imaginative adventure on an alien planet. Our prototypical hero has been transplanted from his rightful throne, and he must rise from rags to power through the sheer will contained in his magical dream-enhancing powers and his innate juggling ability. He will gather a band of weird followers,…
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Review of The Kindly Ones by Jonathan Littell
I could try to compose a lengthy review, but the essential points are in the product description. You don’t need to know more than that to determine if this book is for you. Combined with the page count, it shouldn’t be a difficult decision. I will just say that it…
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Review of Dragonflight (Dragonriders of Pern, #1) by Anne McCaffrey
The start of a well-known series. While the writing was on par with many fantasies I’ve read, the characters and setting did not amaze me. It is dragon-centric, so heavy with dragon-lore and dragon-activities and dragon-relationships and dragony stuff that it left me curious about the characters. For all of…
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Review of Eggs, Beans And Crumpets by P.G. Wodehouse
Wodehouse may be the most comic writer from his time. This book, in a consummately British, very moist audiobook reading, was constantly hilarious. This author’s use of similes might be unequaled. The wordy acrobatics he pulls off juxtaposes a mundane setting for bumbling characters. The prevalent theme is money, and…
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Review of Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
I have trouble motivating myself to write about the works of Haruki Murakami. The fact of the matter is, I have read all of his work in English, I love it, I know it has flaws, and I don’t care. He has a legion of followers, rivaling Neil Gaiman, but…
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Review of Great Short Works Of Henry James by Henry James
Without further reading, a comprehensive view of James cannot be gained from 6 of his short novels. He is one of those authors: namely, no matter how many of his books you power through, there is always an infinite amount of reading left to do, like Trollope and Dickens. Your…
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Review of Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
Earthling is a very absorbing and unconventional coming-of-age story. It is told from the perspective of an eleven year-old girl and then shifts to later in her life. Broken up into two perspectives, they are both profoundly effective and deeply disturbing. I found the novel to be an exploration of…
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Review of Willie Masters’ Lonesome Wife by William H. Gass
Reads like an appendix to The Tunnel. For Gass enthusiasts, it represents a departure into more experimentation than is really useful. Plenty of meaning can be drawn out of his alliterative sentences, but untangling the twelve fonts and piecing together the abstruse suggestions takes work. The entertainment value is limited.…
L. S. Popovich 