“With Pelecanos’ longstanding care for the humanity, even among the most desperate and downtrodden, Owning Up is about the ripple effects and long-term ramifications of crime or tr
“Wherever he takes you—to the steamy summers of the Deep South, to dingy bars and squalid dwellings, or to fragrant cherry orchards by a lake near Bigfork—Burke makes everything come to lif
“every story in the collection is beautifully constructed, consisting of elegant, at times lyrical prose, is engaging, and is propelled by a compelling, astute narrative voice.”
This collection of nine stories features florid depictions of low life, vivid details about dysfunctional relationships spent in seedy strip motels, and an unusual number of descriptions of toilets
“Joyce Carol Oates’ tales are unsettling, disquieting, some endings left hanging, leaving readers with questions that implicate more horror yet to come to
The Partition is a wide-ranging collection of nine short stories focusing on aging, loneliness, sexual identity, the brutal competition in the movie industry (“Late in the Day” and “Les ho
“Hyperbole and exaggeration are the definition of camp, an air of performance also part of the package, and Walker’s characters obligingly give the impression of always being always in desp
“At times uproariously funny, uncannily accurate, and glaringly insightful, David Butler’s Fugitive is a collective exposé on human nature delivered in entertaining snippets with s
“Medusa’s Ankles opens with a haunting and strangely gentle ghost story (‘A July Ghost’) and ends with a terse contemporary fable about our feckless destruction of the planet (‘Sea