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Recent Reviews
Ashleigh Bell Pedersen
Rave The Star Tribune Nothing happens in Fingertip. Yet as the novel progresses, everything depends on this humid backwater rich with stories and secrets ... In addition to the novel\'s literal and figurative meanings, Pedersen adds these historical, ecological and mythological elements. I thought of William Faulkner\'s southern landscapes, his mythmaking, and of Maine writer Sarah Orne Jewett\'s wonderful nature story A White Heron with its brave, if naïve, heroine ... Finally, in a novel so rich, so evocative of a place and its people, readers might need to pause occasionally to sort out who is who. I suspect some readers will be put off by the references to bodily functions ... This said, The Crocodile Bride marks an impressive first novel filled with hope, understanding and, ultimately, a tempered forgiveness for the secret things that have happened here.
Allan Gurganus
Rave The Star Tribune ... wise and funny tales ... If sentiments seem easily derived in a few stories, in the best ones, mysteries...illuminate larger truths about love, loyalty and the persistence of memory. Most of Gurganus\' stories are filled with hope ... One hilarious observation or action follows another.
Mary South
Positive The Star Tribune South’s inventive stories are funny and sad ... Most of the 10 stories follow a pattern. An irreverent narrator jokes about humanoids or about goings-on in the Butternut Wing. Complications arise. Then, finally, the heartbreaking end to the story ... South’s hip narrators are sometimes overly interested in sex and bodily functions ... Ghosts of loss and sorrow appear in almost every story.
Kate McQuade
Rave The Minneapolis Star Tribune ...captivating stories ... My one concern centers on the final piece, \'In the Hollow,\' where the allegory of Lilith and the tree seems a bit far-fetched. On the other hand, Tell Me Who We Were is such an insightful, compassionate book—a truly wonderful collection—that readers may cherish the last story as much as the first seven.
Alison Moore
Mixed Star Tribune The characters in Moore’s stories are often trapped in houses. Sometimes doors are left unlocked and windows open, allowing something evil to enter ... It’s difficult to dwell for long in a world of loss and regret, depravity and madness. Because many stories are told in present tense by a third person or omniscient narrator, they also sometimes blend together stylistically, another reason to step away for a few hours from the house of Moore’s fiction. For me, it was impossible to stay away long, however.
Emily Fridlund
Positive The Minneapolis Star Tribune Although Minnesota locations — the Twin Cities, the North Shore — appear in these 11 stories, Catapult mainly deals with the dark, interior places of the heart. Fridlund’s unsettled characters aren’t always easy to like. Contemptuous of others, they need to control lovers, husbands and friends in order to feel better about themselves. Her dramas spring from this need ... As praiseworthy as these stories are, and they are very good, I have reservations about them. Fridlund must know that these days even Polish Americans shouldn’t be stereotyped ... Fridlund might also want to brighten her future stories a bit ... As I read her often dreamlike work, Fridlund’s narrative twists, arresting images and seductive prose began controlling me. It’s that difficult to resist her stories ...a remarkable writer...thoroughly enthralled by her book.
Kyung-Sook Shin
Mixed The Minneapolis Star Tribune “Although the translation is sometimes awkward, Shin’s novel provides a powerful record of the time.”