Reviews

'The Sea is My Brother' by Jack Kerouac

March 20th, 2012

A lost novel is a very strange thing. The term implies that the author’s career carries or carried (as is often the case) enough weight to justify the publication of a previously unreleased work, which creates problems for a critic. How should one judge a never-released, not-quite-finished book? Is it fair to judge this “lost” novel through the lens of the author’s legacy, and more importantly, is any alternative even possible?

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'Tales From Development Hell - The Greatest Movies Never Made?' by David Hughes

March 6th, 2012

Aspiring writers dream of the day they sell their first screenplay.  But for many, that day is only the beginning of a long waking nightmare, drawn out over years, as their beloved creation is battered, eviscerated, and rewritten by drooling barbarians.  And there are no guarantees that their story, in any form, will ever make it to the screen. Instead, it will remain mired in Development Hell.

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'The Wolf Gift' by Anne Rice

February 15th, 2012

The Wolf Gift marks Anne Rice’s return to the gothic horror novels that her fans adore, this time taking a detour from vampire territory into the lair of the werewolf. Reuben Golding is a handsome, wealthy young reporter nicknamed “Sunshine Boy” due to his charmed life and easy smile. On assignment at a sprawling estate in the mountains of Mendocino, California,  Reuben meets the elegant Marchent who has lived a tragic life as the heir of Nideck Point.

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Ten Years Later, We Still Love 'The Dirt' by Neil Strauss

February 13th, 2012

It's been ten years since journalist and world-famous pick-up artist Neil Strauss unleashed his biographical masterpiece, The Dirt: Confessions of the World's Most Notorious Rock Band on an unsuspecting world.

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'The Mirage' by Matt Ruff

February 7th, 2012

Remember those 'What If' comics that Marvel used to put out? There was the one that asked what would have happened if the black costume had possessed Spider-Man, and another that posited what things would have been like if Dr. Doom was viewed as a hero. I couldn't help but be reminded of these while reading Matt Ruff's new novel 'The Mirage,' considering the story plays off that same 'what if' premise. What if America was a third world country?

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'Raylan' by Elmore Leonard

January 30th, 2012

U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens is back, juggling three cases with his laconic ease and typical shoot-first-ask-questions-never approach to law-making. Elmore Leonard’s in fine form here, with a breezy novel that effortlessly weaves together three plot lines originally planned as separate short stories for his beloved character.

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'As a Machine and Parts' by Caleb J. Ross

January 17th, 2012

Caleb J. Ross’ newest novella As a Machine and Parts is one part Max Barry and one part typography experiment a la Mark Z. Danielewski.

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"Wild Abandon" by Joe Dunthorne

January 10th, 2012

After the success of Submarine as both a book and a movie, Welsh author Joe Dunthorne continues to carve out a niche for himself in whimsical relationship comedy with his sophomore effort, Wild Abandon.  It’s very much a novel of our times, addressing dinner party chattering points from wind power to recycling to legalizing dope to education.  Even the briefest plot summary establishes its quirky, here-and-now credentials: in essence, it charts the progress of a spring awakening at a Welsh commune.  How very twenty-teens.

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'Distrust That Particular Flavor' by William Gibson

January 4th, 2012

William Gibson is a man out of time.

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'This is a Call: The Life and Times of Dave Grohl' by Paul Brannigan

December 13th, 2011

2011 could easily be called “The Year of Dave Grohl" because these 365 days have been all his. The founder and frontman of arena rock titans the Foo Fighters, Grohl began the year watching his band’s seventh studio album, Wasting Light, easily saunter into the number one slot of the Billboard 200 chart. That tends to happen when you sell over two hundred thousand copies in the first week.

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