The Book of Sorrows (Southern Arizona Press 2023), by professor, author, and playwright Kenneth Robbins, is a brave and sometimes acerbic retelling of portions of the Old Testament in verse form. Brave, because it must have been a difficult undertaking to recast Old Testament stories as poems with modern sensibilities. Brave also because some readers […]
“Between the Sound and Sea” by Amanda Cox
October 8, 2024 by Leave a Comment
How does one deal with crushing regret and unresolved grief? How do broken families heal? And what is required for personal fears to be overcome? These and other questions thread their way through Amanda Cox’s Between the Sound and Sea (Revel, 2024), a narrative of mystery and romance. The story centers around Josephina Harris, who goes […]
“Say Hello to My Little Friend” by Jennine Capo Crucet
October 2, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Readers might never want to visit attractions featuring trained, captive orca whales after reading Say Hello to My Little Friend (Simon & Schuster 2024) by Jennine Capo Crucet, and this intense, haunting novel establishes why that would be a good thing. Which is to say, though the book focuses also on Cuban youths Ismael Reyes, […]
Bradley Sides Interviews Jen Fawkes, author of Daughters of Chaos
October 1, 2024 by Leave a Comment
For those readers who believe nothing original or new is being written these days, check out and marvel at Jen Fawkes’s Daughters of Chaos, a shapeshifting, powerhouse novel that balances explorations of history, myth, identity, and monsters. Fawkes’s novel, told in letters and a variety of forms, tells the story of Sylvie Swift as she […]
“Daughters of Chaos” by Jen Fawkes
October 1, 2024 by Leave a Comment
Daughters of Chaos (Overlook Press 2024) by Jen Fawkes begins at the end, in 1877, with Sylvie’s graveside promise to her longtime partner: “ ‘I’m going to write it all down, Hannah,’ I said as I knelt beside her grave, my fingertips piercing the cool earth. ‘Maybe I’ll give it to the girls. Maybe I […]
“Flags on the Bayou” by James Lee Burke
September 29, 2024 by Leave a Comment
James Lee Burke writes in his author’s notes that he considers his historical novel Flags on the Bayou (Atlantic Monthly Press 2023) to be his best work. That is saying a lot considering Burke’s long and brilliant career as a novelist in which he continues to garner both critical and commercial successes. Flags on the […]