Auntiepam's review
Give us some feedback on this, will you, Auntie Pam?
I can't do justice to the stories in this book. The characters and situations reminded me a bit of stories I've read by Larry Brown and William Gay. Except that Brown can get kinda snide and judgmental sometimes, and with Gay, I feel like I'm watching -- there's some distance between me and his characters.
But with Pollock, I was right inside these people's heads. I felt like I understood them, even when I didn't sympathize -- but mostly I did sympathize.
I need to read the book again. The first read was rushed because the stories were so compelling. I could stop and appreciate the writing (which is perfect -- not a false note anywhere, and some really funny stuff) but I didn't want to stop.
Seriously, this book will knock your socks off.
Cool beans! I will move it up some notches on my `to read' list. Thanks!
Huh. I just went to OSU's home page to look for something and the featured story is about the author of these short stories, who is apparently in the MFA program there. Here's the story: http://www.osu.edu/features/20....
There's a video interview, too. The whole thing is pretty slicked up to be a PR piece, but I think the author himself comes through pretty well in the interview.
Auntiepam's review
Give us some feedback on this, will you, Auntie Pam?
I can't do justice to the stories in this book. The characters and situations reminded me a bit of stories I've read by Larry Brown and William Gay. Except that Brown can get kinda snide and judgmental sometimes, and with Gay, I feel like I'm watching -- there's some distance between me and his characters.
But with Pollock, I was right inside these people's heads. I felt like I understood them, even when I didn't sympathize -- but mostly I did sympathize.
I need to read the book again. The first read was rushed because the stories were so compelling. I could stop and appreciate the writing (which is perfect -- not a false note anywhere, and some really funny stuff) but I didn't want to stop.
Seriously, this book will knock your socks off.
Cool beans! I will move it up some notches on my `to read' list. Thanks!
Huh. I just went to OSU's home page to look for something and the featured story is about the author of these short stories, who is apparently in the MFA program there. Here's the story: http://www.osu.edu/features/20....There's a video interview, too. The whole thing is pretty slicked up to be a PR piece, but I think the author himself comes through pretty well in the interview.