IT'S not often that a book of short stories as good as Jim Gavin's Middle Men rolls across our desk -- rarer still when a book of any kind captures Los Angeles, especially its overlooked, non-mythic aspects, quite so intelligently.And don't take our word for it: The galleys of Middle Men come with so many raves from execs, editors, and publicists at Simon & Schuster than I can picture dewy office … [Read more...]
Cool New California Novel
A fine new book with a perfect-pitch Southern California setting, has just dropped: Model Home, which starts out in an '80s gated community, is the first novel by Eric Puchner, whose Music Through the Floor provoked Charles Baxter to call it "the most auspicious debut of a short story collection that I have encountered in years." Model Home looks at a family that's driven by golden dreams, but … [Read more...]
New "Lost" Story by John Cheever
I'm pleased to direct my distinguished readers' attention to a story only recently unearthed called "Of Love: A Testimony." the story was part of cheever's first story collection, from 1943,fell out of print for decades, and it's now up on the site fivechapters.com, which is typically dedicated to work of contemporary authors.(this post is also the latest in my "WASP writers of the 20th c" … [Read more...]