Through the narrator’s reflections we accumulate an unusually exact understanding of his aims and character. His life is not pretty and he may waver and wobble but he is grounded in honesty. He waves illusion away and sees life with…
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A review of The Italian Secretary by Caleb Carr
Carr is a fine writer and his pastiche of Conan Doyle’s prose perfectly captures the voice of Holmes and Watson. One might say (entering into the spirit of things a little) that the particular singularities of Carr’s mimesis are most…
A review of My Arthritic Heart by Liz Hall Downs
But this is just the beginning of what most of us don’t want to hear. A good part of this collection is about the poet’s struggle with debilitating rheumatoid arthritis that when coupled with poverty and inhumanity is a hard…
A review of New Beginnings
The clear bent is literary fiction, and that makes this a moving collection full of provocative and evocative work from some of the most well known and respected writers working today. This is a wonderful marketing idea, and one which…
A review of Emma Strunk by Tony Nesca
This is an approach that has peculiar qualities. It never becomes poetry of the quotable and pretty sort but it avoids the pitfalls of a prose that needs connective tissue that is simply functional. It is not conventional narrative but…
A review of The Barbarian Parade by Kirby Gann
This is a stance with true commitment. It is evident in Our Napoleon in Rags and it flowers beautifully in The Barbarian Parade. There is indeed about the latter some virtuosity for its own sake, not at all a bad…
A review of The Rose Notes by Andrea Mayes
Although the story is fast moving and satisfying, with all of the ends cleanly tied up, it isn’t the plot which will stay with the reader once the book is finished. Instead, it is the marvellous passages within the characterisation…
Interview with Andrea Mayes
The author of The Rose Notestalks about the genesis of her first novel, the character she struggled most with, her unusual narrative voice, on being labelled “rural gothic,” the “luck factor” in fiction publishing, the future of fiction, the way in which a published novel has changed her, her key themes, and lots more.
A review of Our Napoleon in Rags by Kirby Gann
This is a short book with few chapters and narrative modes that vary occasionally. Gann pins a situation to the story with an epigrammatically precise choice of words. This is a lively response to the question of what kind of…
Interview with Kirby Gann
The author of Our Napoleon in Rags talks about Montreux, his imaginary city, his well adjusted past, his own publishing company Sarabande Books, the reason why he didn’t publish his own book, the positives and negatives of teaching, his influences and favorites, why he complains a lot, and lots more.