Brandon’s Reviews > If the River Was Whiskey > Status Update
Brandon
is on page 224 of 240
“If the River Was Whiskey,” title story, T.C. Boyle does Raymond Carver. Some families are boating accidents.
POV shifts break hearts: Tiller to Tiller’s father, my kind of pathetic family-melodrama-romance. So much medias res, so much implied consequence.
— Sep 18, 2024 06:21PM
POV shifts break hearts: Tiller to Tiller’s father, my kind of pathetic family-melodrama-romance. So much medias res, so much implied consequence.
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Brandon’s Previous Updates
Brandon
is on page 156 of 240
“Thawing Out” relies on rhymed action between scenes to show our narrator growing out of the 60s and into love.
As for the collection, “Thawing Out” contributes to both the water motif and male friendships of bad influence.
— Sep 19, 2024 12:29PM
As for the collection, “Thawing Out” contributes to both the water motif and male friendships of bad influence.
Brandon
is on page 19 of 240
“Sorry Fugu” is a near perfect comedy: good guy chef meets sedated critic and gets three visits with her. We are what we eat.
— Sep 02, 2024 04:26PM
Brandon
is on page 68 of 240
Meg & Muriel's perspectives on the lush loss of gardens in the suburbs and a SoCal denial of the dryness in the San Fernando Valley, the dry love of their marriages; these wives need their homes to sink.
— Dec 27, 2022 02:10AM
Brandon
is on page 55 of 240
Moment of husband's death makes for an intense opening; however, "Finklestein" sounds like a name for a comedy.
— Dec 27, 2022 01:42AM
Brandon
is on page 213 of 240
Beatrice Umbo gets to decide to go back to Africa. Her studies draw her back to work. She faces her death rather than retire.
— Sep 12, 2021 05:15AM
Brandon
is on page 213 of 240
“The Ape Lady in Retirement” ends with soft resolve. Put a wild thing in a human-made space and you instant plot.
— Sep 11, 2021 06:23PM
Brandon
is on page 192 of 240
“Zapatos” might be a short story because its character get all they want. Cynicism without irony might be the most pathetic tone of all.
— Sep 10, 2021 11:30AM
Brandon
is on page 186 of 240
“Miracle at Ballinspittle” is an Irish-American Inferno in a flash.
— Sep 10, 2021 09:46AM
Brandon
is on page 186 of 240
“Miracle at Ballinspittle” is transgressive Catholic masterpiece, a ceremony of euphony and misdirection (175-185).
— Sep 10, 2021 09:44AM
Brandon
is on page 174 of 240
Although “The Devil and Irv Cherniske” (published in Antioch Rev.) begins like a revisionist romp, the Reverend Jimmy gambit late in the story leads where the Faust myth always leads (174). That’s where to revise.
— Sep 08, 2021 12:51PM
