Reviewed by Philip K. Jason “Last chance for what?” the eager reader might ask. To make it to the majors? To score big at anything? In this debut novel, it’s this sorry fellow’s last chance to get out from under the debts incurred over a decade or two of minor league hustling and losing. Not […]
“Secondhand Sister,” by Rhett DeVane
December 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Donna Meredith In Rhett’s DeVane’s latest novel, Secondhand Sister, Mary-Esther Sloat may be down on her luck, but that’s about to change when she flees hurricane-ravaged New Orleans for a new life and sanctuary in North Florida. The hospitality of newfound friends and family soon envelops her—and this sixth novel in the beloved […]
“Jacob Jump,” by Eric Morris
December 23, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Daniel James Sundahl Pat Conroy prefaces Eric Morris’s first novel by placing him in a pantheon of southern writers whose theme is darkness: Cormac McCarthy, Ron Rush, and Flannery O’Connor. One could be “tripped up” by arguing such. It’s equally likely that Morris’s first novel could be placed in a larger context: any […]
“A Clear View of the Southern Sky: Stories,” by Mary Hood
December 10, 2015 by 1 Comment
Reviewed by Dan Sundahl I once had a student who wrote a poem about a farmer coming home mid-afternoon. In the farm-house kitchen, refreshed by some icey-sweet tea, he listened to muffled voices in an upstairs room. Carefully and quietly he mounted the steps and then down the darkened hallway to a room with a […]
December Read of the Month: “Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County,” by Amy Susan Wilson
December 3, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by William Bernhardt Just when the cynics begin to wonder if the short story as a literary form is lost, moribund, or permanently encased in amber, Third Lung Press presents a collection that reminds us how rich, how enriching, and how truly American this form is. Want v. Need: Stories from Pottawatomie County is […]
“Soon,” by Pam Durban
November 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Reviewed by Dan Sundahl Came a time I drove into old man Engebretson’s farm yard, late 1950s, southern Minnesota. It was a good bright day with a light sugary coating of snow on the ground. The old man had a 40-acre duck pond on his farm and corn rows to walk, ducks and pheasants in […]