RaveLittle Village MagazineAlexander Maksik’s new novel The Long Corner skillfully explores the intersections of capitalism and dictatorship, cliché and originality, art and life...By the end, the reader is left to question if these things are opposites at all, or if they are more entwined than we ever imagined...Filled with colorful characters, dry humor and unsettling situations, The Long Corner is a Rorshach test for a reader’s own views on government, nobility and the self...Much like the paintings Sol experiences in the book, the longer you look, the more you learn about the chaotic yet familiar world Maksik has built here...As heavy as the topics are, I cannot overstate how funny this book is...Maksik has found the key to an effective thought-provoker: Don’t let them go too long without cracking a smile...Through Sol’s dry commentary on the absurdity happening around him, we are able to find light in the very dark pockets Maksik allows us to peek into...And frankly, it’s necessary...A less talented writer would have emitted the humor so as not to distract from the point, but in novels as in life, we must find something good to break up the cruelty and randomness.
