Bookshots: 'The Sarah Book' by Scott McClanahan
Bookshots: Pumping new life into the corpse of the book review
Title:
The Sarah Book
Who wrote it?
Scott McClanahan is the author of Stories, Stories II (Six Gallery Press), Stories V! (Holler Presents), The Complete Stories of Scott McLanahan Vol. 1 (Lazy Fascist Press) and Crapalachia: A Biography of a Place (Two Dollar Radio). He lives in West Virginia, where he is co-founder of Holler Presents, and he would love to eat chicken wings with you.
Plot in a box:
A fictional memoir in which Scott falls in love with Sarah, marries Sarah, and then gets divorced by Sarah.
Invent a new title for this book:
Cold November Rain in West Virgina
Read this if you like(d):
Norman Mailer, Mary Karr, Sam Pink, and meta-Bret Easton Ellis
Meet the lead(s):
Sarah
Scott McClanahan
Said lead(s) would be portrayed in a movie by:
Sarah: Parker Posey
Scott McClanahan: Seth MacFarlane (this could work with a great director)
Setting: Would you want to live there?
Beckley, Virginia. It sounds like the Claremont, NH of the South. Sure, it probably has better weather than Claremont.
Favorite line:
I thought about the million dicks in my mind.
The Verdict:
Wow. It’s a rare thing to get to use the world "excellent" in a review, but this novel was excellent. McClanahan has already established himself as an exciting new writer, but with this book he takes a step towards being one of the great writers of this decade. It’s not a plot-driven book in the traditional sense, but it’s a page-turner because I need to know what "the character" will say next. I need to know more about him and Sarah. McClanahan breaks down expectations of what a novel should be, in creating a work that will be as memorable as the love and heartbreak he felt for Sarah.
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