Mark Stevens's Blog, page 9

Eli Cranor, “Ozark Dogs”

All the ingredients are all there from the get-go. First, the full text of plaintive letter from “Jo” that appears to be addressed to a state prison inmate, wondering about a shooting that left an eighteen-year-old dead. Next, a man … Continue reading →

David Grann, “The Wager”

When it comes to writing history, it never hurts to be first. And if there was murder, mutiny and desperation in the story being told, and if the public can’t get enough of all the salacious details, getting your version … Continue reading →

Don Winslow, “City of Dreams”

Aeneas wandered and so Danny will, too. Aeneas was sent to found a new city. His wife disappeared. Danny Ryan flees the mayhem in Rhode Island. His wife died of cancer. Danny is a hunted animal, looking for a new … Continue reading →

John Doe and Tom DeSavia, “Under the Big Black Sun”

I lived in Los Angeles from 1978 to 1980. I saw X on the roof of a UCLA dorm before they broke big. I knew that they were good and wild and intense. I saw The Plimsouls. I saw The … Continue reading →

James Sallis, “Black Hornet”

Black Hornet was first published in 1994, seven years before James Sallis published the biography Chester Himes: A Life. But Sallis was already into Himes’ work. In 1993, Sallis published Difficult Lives Hitching Rides, a series of essays about Jim … Continue reading →

S.A. Cosby, “All The Sinners Bleed”

In the opening of All The Sinners Bleed, Charon County Sheriff Titus Crown wakes up, drinks coffee, chats with his father, dons his uniform, and gets a call from his dispatcher. Sheriff Crown hears “sheer hopelessness” on the other end … Continue reading →

Kevin Fedarko, “The Emerald Mile”

The Emerald Mile is about so much more than a daring ride through the Grand Canyon on high, fast water. Much more. It’s about managing water in the arid west, it’s about Edward Abbey, the Bureau of Reclamation, Lake Powell, … Continue reading →

Kristin Hersh, “Rat Girl”

“Betty grew up in the golden age of Hollywood, back when movies were Broadway on film, so her idea of music is ‘singing as entertainment,’ and you can’t call what I do singing or entertainment. I hiss and yell and … Continue reading →

David Markson, “Vanishing Point”

The author (of this review) is stalling. The author (again, of this review) doesn’t quite know what to write. When reading Vanishing Point, the author (of this review) would occasionally hear his wife say, “are you still reading that quirky … Continue reading →

Don DeLillo, “Underworld”

Easily a Great American Novel and also one of the greatest baseball novels ever because, of course, it’s not a novel about baseball. Except when it is. Ambitious, outsized, Underworld touches on the major events of the second half of … Continue reading →