Review – The Devil All the Time

Okay, I'll admit it. I loved Donald Ray Pollock's superb collection of short Stories Knockemstiff.

If you've read them you'll know what to expect from The Devil All the Time. If you haven't then shame on you!

Donald Ray touches on some familiar ground; occasionally flirting with one or two of the characters we met in the tar paper shacks of Knockemstiff, Ohio. But the brutal, deranged and down right dangerous people he introduces us to in 'Devil' are something else entirely.

The story weaves twisted strands of hard lives into a powerful tapestry of desperation, violence and sadness. Perhaps you might also find a little hope hidden in there too.

This is defiantly not a book for the faint hearted. It's a gut-punch in the underbelly of rural, post war American society. Hard, immoral and unsettlingly. What makes it not only tolerable but instantly enjoyable is the quite brilliant voice of the author.

Donald Ray Pollock writes wonderful, tight prose and humming dialogue. He carries you effortlessly through some of the most disturbing facets of the human condition and leaves you hunched over and breathless; tasting blood and craving more. This is a book that will stay with you after long after you're done reading it and for some, that may not be a good thing!

It seems to me that every new American author with a distinctive voice is instantly hailed as a new 'someone', be it Steinbeck or Bukowski. Donald Ray Pollock is not a new anyone. He is his own man and thank god for it.

If you read only one book this year, then make it The Devil All the Time.

For more information about Don, check out his website: Donald Ray Pollock

Postcards from the edge

Many thanks to Richard and the review team at Postcard Shorts for publishing
my very short – short story End Game.
It's a dark little number, but it's the kind of thing that comes to us all sooner or later.
Why not wander over and take a look?
Postcard Shorts

Downbound Train

I had a job, I had a girl, had something going mister in this world...

Dark dreams and darker realities can be found over at SYWzine!

Many thanks to Laurance Kitts for taking a ride on my new story 'Downbound Train.'
We're getting ready to leave from platform number nine, so go get your ticket and climb aboard: SYWzine!

Review - Please Don't Shoot Anyone Tonight

I came across Dave Newman's first novel more by accident than design and what a happy accident it turned out to be. Please Don't Shoot Anyone Tonight is a gritty story of teenage troubles, where innocence is dipped in a sea of alcohol and hung out to dry in a haze of half-baked adolescent dreams and pot smoke.

Dave Newman shows us the darker side of growing up in small town USA as his characters teeter on the edge of an abyss, some by choice and others by necessity.

The writing is tight and well paced. The dialogue, real and believable. Dave Newman hits hard, sometimes the blows land a little below the belt but that's okay, there are no rules in this kind of fight. It's not all about girls, cars and beer; well, okay mostly it is but it's certainly well worth picking up a six pack and going along for the ride!

You can read an interview with Dave here: http://wewhoareabouttodie.com/2011/04/28/please-dont-shoot-anyone-tonight-an-interview-with-dave-newman/

Review - Modern Ranch Living

Writers write; that’s what the screen saver on my computer says, it keeps me honest. But to write you have to read. I chew through a fair number of books mainly because I just love to read but also to take a peek in the kitchen and see how other guys cook the stew. So now and again I’ll let you know about the ones that floated my boat (or torpedoed it).

Mark Poirier writes about the loners, losers and drifters that hover on the fringes of American society; detached but not quite removed from the lives most of us lead.
He does it with a wonderful laid back and languid style that’s rarely pulsating but rolls along at the easy pace dictated by the heat of an Arizona Summer.

Modern Ranch living lifts the lid on the disparate and bizarre inhabitants of a small community on the outskirts of Tucson Arizona.
The story follows them through one long hot desert summer and centres on the disappearance of a local teenage stoner. Though the narrative rarely gets much past second gear the characters are well drawn and immediately engaging. Kendra the sixteen year old body builder and her dazed brother Thomas; Merv the thirty something pool attendant still living at home with his slightly unhinged mother. Their stories run in parallel, slowly draw together and take you along on a gentle ride through the weirdness of the mundane.

This is no raging page turner, if you want to see the hard ragged edges of America's underbelly at a pace to make your eyes water, then look elsewhere.
Instead Poirier takes a peek behind the drapes of American suburbia and examines the damaged goods he finds there with a wry humor and no mean talent.

 You could do a lot worse than spending a week or so in his company.

Something in the Night

Another tale from the darker side of the Strip can now be found strutting its stuff amoungst the explosive mix of flash fiction at Josh Goller's The Molotov Cocktail Maybe there is something in the night but the only way you'll ever know for sure is to visit this great site.                  

   

Reno

George Orwell once said 'happiness can only exist in acceptance'.

Well he could be right! A big shout going out to Daz at one of my favorite gritty  hangouts - Near to the Knuckle. My flash Story 'Reno' has been accepted for publication and should appear at N To The K  in a few days. Dig deep into your scared money and lay your bets. There's only winners and losers, so don't get caught on the wrong side of that line.

Some comments about Reno posted at Near to the Knuckle.

Graham says:

Great sense of place and a cracking last sentence.
Bravo

Rob says:
Kind of a nice fatalism to this one. The house always wins, I guess. Good stuff

Luca says:
Loved the last line. Great story.