Wit in Brevity By Gregory J. Wolos Insomnia 11 by Michael C. Keith (Cambridge, MA, Mad Hat Press, 2020; ~200 pages; $21.95). Each of Michael C. Keith’s pieces in his latest collection of micro–fictions, Insomnia 11, lingers like an amuse-bouche on the palate of the intellect. While some among his readers might find solace in…
Tag: book review
A Collage of Broken Realms
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and Their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Driftwood by Marie Brennan (San Francisco: Tachyon, August 14, 2020; 224 pages; $15.95 trade paperback: ISBN 978-1-61696-346-0; $9.99 digital formats: ISBN 978-1-61696-347-7). “Thus sang Úlfr Uggason: ‘….With old tales the hall was painted.’” —Snorri Sturlson, The…
Description Brings the Past to Life
“Simple Things Beautifully Described” By WTP Guest Reviewer Philip Lawton Telling Sonny: A Novel by Elizabeth Gauffreau (New York, NY: Adelaide Books, December 1, 2018; 340 pages; $22.30). In Telling Sonny: A Novel, Elizabeth Gauffreau brings her extraordinary gift of observation to the insular world of inland America in the mid-1920s. Faby Gauthier, the central character,…
The Town of Whispering Dolls
Finding Reality in Fiction By Dan Wakefield, WTP Guest Writer The Town of Whispering Dolls by Susan Neville (Tuscalossa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, March 2020; 216 pages; $17.95). Winner of FC2’s Catherine Doctorow Innovative Fiction Prize. We always hear that “truth is stranger than fiction.” Sometimes fiction conveys a deeper truth. That’s what happens…
A Novel as Riddle
Book Review: Sleepless Night By Lisa Zeiger, WTP Guest Writer SLEEPLESS NIGHT By Margriet de Moor, translated from the Dutch by David Doherty (New Vessel Press, 2019, $15.95, ISBN 9781939931696). Margriet de Moor’s novel, Sleepless Night, has triggered my relapse. When I say I used to read novels, I mean it in the way Proust…
CHIMERICA by Anita Felicelli
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and Their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Chimerica by Anita Felicelli (Santa Rosa, CA: WTAW Press, September 5, 2019. 296 pages; $18.95; paperback ISBN 978-1-73298-201-7). “The Lemur People are older than Homo Sap, much older.” —William S. Burroughs, Ghost of Chance Anita Felicelli’s…
DAD'S MAYBE BOOK by Tim O'Brien
On Fatherhood, and Lessons for Sons By DeWitt Henry, Prose Editor Dad’s Maybe Book by Tim O’Brien (Houghton Mifflin, 2019. 382 pages, $28.00 hard cover, ISBN 978-0-618-03970-8.) Tim O’Brien is back in top form. His last novel, July, July, appeared when the author was fifty-nine. This new book, a nonfiction hybrid, is part journal about…
Indigenous Literature
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and Their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Indigenous Literatures from Micronesia, edited by Evelyn Flores and Emelihter Kihleng (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2019. 384 pages; $90.00 hardback, ISBN 9780824875411; $30.00 paperback, ISBN 9780824877460). New Oceania Literary Series editor: Craig Santos Perez “Even…
DOTTORESSA by Susan Levenstein
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and Their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Dottoressa: An American Doctor in Rome by Susan Levenstein, MD (Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, May 21, 2019. 270 pages; $16.95; paperback original ISBN 978-1-58988-139-6.) Paese che vai, usanze che trovi. (When in Rome, do as the…
TERMINATION SHOCKS by Janice Margolis
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Termination Shocks by Janice Margolis (Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press, April 14, 2019). 192 pages; $19.95, paperback original ISBN 978-1-62534-420-5. “But how is it That this lives in thy mind? What see’st thou else In…
PHANTOMS by Christian Kiefer
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Phantoms by Christian Kiefer (New York: Liveright Publishing, April 9, 2019). 288 pages; $26.95, hardcover ISBN 9780871404817. “These faces in the mirrors Are but the shadows and phantoms of myself….” —Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Masque of Pandora…
BRIGHT by Duanwad Pimwana
Eye on the Indies: A Look at Indie Authors and their Publishers By Lanie Tankard, Indie Book Review Editor Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, translated by Mui Poopoksakul (San Francisco: Two Lines Press, April 9, 2019). 184 pages; $16.95, paperback ISBN 9781931883801; $8.99, e-book ISBN 9781931883825. Melbourne, Australia: Brow Books, Forthcoming June 2019. First published in…