Archive for August 2006
Worlds Enough & Time
Dan Simmons is a fan of the novella. I am, too. The novella is an intriguing literary form in that it straddles the distance between a short story and a full novel. This tenuous length requires an author to commit to the character depth and detail of a longer form and scrupulously apply an unapologetic […]
The Colorado Kid
Stephen King writes a 1940s-style pulp fiction crime novel. That’s what the book jacket declares, anyway. Reviews are less-favorable and King, himself, opines that readers will either love it or hate it. There will be no middle ground. That sounds like my kind of challenge.
On a Subtitle
What’s the deal with the trend of naming books? I am talking particularly about appending the subtitle: A Novel. This is often combined with using a single noun for the main title. Here are some examples: Stonehenge: A Novel, Raiders: A Novel, March: A Novel. I do not know anything about these three books. I […]
The Culture of Fear
I have written about fear before, but it was only in the last week that I discovered this book at my local bookstore. Barry Glassner originally wrote it in 1999. I am curious to see how it stands up to the last seven years in America—seven years in which I often feel bombed not so […]
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs
Chuck Klosterman proudly wears the label and stereotype of “Generation X”: disaffected slacker, discontented cultural charlatan. When my fellow Gen-Xer, Johnny Smokes, recommended this book—a survey of popular culture mixed with personal memoirs of the same—I picked it up. It is important to remember that I am talking about a book based on a section […]
The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven
Sherman Alexie’s critically celebrated first collection of short stories vividly weaves memory, fantasy and stark reality to paint a portrait of life in and around the Spokane Indian reservation. Several of the stories have been adapted as the basis of the award-winning motion picture Smoke Signals— a favorite of mine.
Tilting At Windmills
My child bride, Whirl, has begun to identify certain quirks of my characters as “windmills.” She compares my behavior to that of an errant knight, de cuyo nombre no quiero acordarme. And I must give her her due. She has a point. I have taken up particular causes—some may say particular frivolous causes—and attempted to […]
