RaveLibrary JournalStine (The Protectors) blends a rural thriller and speculative realism into what could be called dystopian noir. The author’s vision is profoundly moving, as distressing as Daniel Woodrell’s Winter’s Bone but liable to inspire real-world action ... Readers searching for a novel fueled by fierce intelligence and empathy will find here a celebration of humanity, and a warning against its loss.
Chuck Palahniuk
RaveLibrary JournalPalahniuk mines our free-floating anxiety, horror of the ever-accelerating Real, and returns with literary artifacts ... this volume stands apart from similar writing-life books via Palahniuk’s integral fidelity: no hand-holding allowed. Psychology tells us that shock—among other emotions—imprints on memory, for good or ill. But Palahniuk, maintaining forensic-strength attention, is no mere outrage-monger ... Palahniuk readers--and writers at any career level--likely will devour this vivid and instructive behind-the-scenes tour.
Will Self
RaveLibrary JournalSelf charges his first-ever memoir with harrowing—and, occasionally, humorous—accounts of drug addiction ... While the author readily name-checks Big Bill Burroughs, his adventures and suffering crackle with absurdity absent from that Beat Generation bible ... Much to his credit, Self shows us everything (emphasis on every), thus defusing any chance of readers romanticizing his buying-and-selling days as an extended hedonistic vacation ... The horrors of withdrawal cannot be understood by the uninitiated, but Self conveys their affect with existential brutality ... A comparison of heroin’s erasure of fear and tension to that of the author as a child, safe in his warm bed, reminds readers that loss plays a profound role here ... Readers of William S. Burroughs and Beat literature, as well as experiential journals from Djuna Barnes, Paul Bowles, and Hunter S. Thompson will find here much to endure and enjoy.
Lydia Davis
RaveLibrary JournalDavis...does for the essay what one of her subjects—Rimbaud—did for the prose poem: fires language with emotive, radiant wisdom. Her inherent generosity...shows us that process ... Lucid observations, and the curiosity—probing, restless—behind them thread through 34 short- and long-form pieces, closing with the haunting, and haunted, \'Remember the Van Wagenens.\' Perhaps Davis\'s finest gift is to remind us we\'re each only temporary manifestations of life ... Those familiar with Davis\'s work, and even new readers, will find much to ponder—even love—in these wholly enthralling explorations across time, place, and people.
Jess Row
PositiveLibrary Journal... Row\'s lucid explorations of writing by James Baldwin, Dorothy Allison, Toni Morrison, James Alan McPherson, and others venture beyond criticism, citing Albert Murray\'s counternarrative that \'[t]he practice of improvisatory freedom in black culture is the essence of American culture itself\' ... For readers fascinated by race and reparative writing, now and in American history, and the transformative potential of literature to change minds and emphasize our common humanity.
Seth Fried
RaveLibrary Journal\"Fried\'s debut explores issues likely to affect everyone—and pokes predatory capitalism with a sharp stick, attracting readers of darkly absurd science fiction à la Philip K. Dick, Charlie Jane Anders, and Warren Ellis.\
Philip Pullman
PositiveLibrary JournalFew contemporary writers of imaginative fiction are able to explore large ethical and moral issues authoritatively, accommodating both intellect and emotion ... Introduced by author Simon Mason, this wide-ranging excursion maintains impressive coherence and is bound to satisfy devoted Pullman readers curious about his illuminating observations and why the appetite for—and value of—fiction is universal, from fire-lit cave to seminar room.
Dietmar Dath, Trans. by Samuel P. Willcocks
RaveLibrary JournalThe novel of big ideas isn’t dead, and German author Dath proves few things are more satisfying in sf with a literary bent than mingling high-brow cultural speculation with low-brow humor, cautioning the reader to remember that humanity (at least for now) is dominator of the only game in town ... Readers who favor the sensual detail and daring brilliance of Brian Aldiss, Samuel R. Delany, Carol Emshwiller, George R.R. Martin, and Frank Herbert will find much to enjoy in this dazzling translation of a writer little known in North America
