Rick Moody’s latest novel, Purple America, is the story of a stuttering son, Hex Raitliffe, who is home to care for his mother, a long sick invalid, after she is abandoned by his stepfather. Over the course of a single weekend Hex sees his good …
Jeanette Winterson’s The Passion mixes the cosmic and the carnal into a Napoleonic era, surrealistic romance. The plot and subject matter are nothing new. Winterson’s ideas about language are. The Passion creates, not so much a psychological identification with the main characters, Henri and Villanelle, …
Voice is the key to Powell’s first novel, Edisto. “You say it ‘Simmons.’ I’m a rare one-m Simons,” says Powell’s 12-year-old narrator and child genius, Simons Manigault. Simons is a real kid, a young pillar of sanity in the midst adult absurdity, whose voice is …
The 1990 Pulitzer Prize winner The World Doesn’t End is the only prose poetry collection to date to win that prestigious award. At the time the outcry and protests of prosaic poets and stuffy reviewers could be heard everywhere. The controversy itself was the only …
Aliens of Affection is the perfect title for Padgett Powell’s most recent collection of short stories because it is at once alienating and endearing. Powell’s stories precisely reflect his characters’ mental stations and instability, underlining the extremes people go to for sanity. Despite the delirium …
Ms. Wesselmann grabs her readers in Trutor & The Balloonist by taking them on a breathtaking ride with her through the mountains of New Hampshire into the center of Derbysville. It is in Derbysville, a small town away from Boston, that the Balloonist and Trutor …
Johnny Cash’s singing career spans four decades. Known as “The Man in Black”, at sixty-six years old, Johnny Cash has become a living legend, an icon. He is one of country music most beloved entertainers. Yet, he sings and masters a variety of musical styles: …
LL Cool J is known for his unique style of rap. He widened his appeal by gaining the lead role in the television series, In The House. His acting skills make him look like a natural. One would think LL Cool J (his real name …
If you’re wondering where the future of modern fiction lies, well, look no further than Generation X ... this is the ruler against which all future novels will be measured.
The Uncertainty Principle could best be described by saying it’s a “geek love-story.” The main character is a student at MIT whose developing a model for predicting weather patterns. When he’s not breaking into his mentor’s lab to steal information from the guru’s hard-drive concerning …