Author Archives: Jim
Surreal South 2011
SURREAL SOUTH 2011 is out, with my story “Pig Hole.” Get it from Press53! Get it from Barnes & Noble or Amazon! It will mess with your head. Pig Hole is a heart-warming tale of caving and violence I wrote … Continue reading
Safe From the Neighbors – Steve Yarbrough (a 100-word review)
“Everything comes back at you one day.” A black man enrolls at Ole Miss in 1962 and sparks riots on the night a man shoots his unfaithful wife in a town not far away. A generation later a local … Continue reading
Last Night at the Lobster – Stewart O’Nan (a 100-word review)
“She makes it sound like he’s supposed to save her, doubly unfair, since she knows that’s something he can’t resist. In the dark he can’t see the box, and imagines she’s passing him a loaded gun. His hand closes around … Continue reading
Zero History – William Gibson (a 100-word review)
“Inchmale’s spirit-beast, the narcoleptic stuffed ferret, still frozen in nightmarish dream- waltz amid the game birds, was waiting near Cabinet’s grumbling lift.” Gibson was science fiction, but now the exact same work is contemporary. We’ve caught up. He sees life … Continue reading
Why 100-word reviews?
Why are my book reviews only one hundred words long? I don’t really know what I’m doing. Brevity masks ignorance. I have a short attention span. Smartphone screens. Profit. All of the above. Any reasons I’ve missed?
The Wilding – Benjamin Percy (a 100-word review)
“The basalt walls are pitted with holes from wind erosion or from the bubbling of gases long ago. These holes catch the shadows and look like the eye sockets of the earth.” Read this book. Benjamin Percy writes with authority … Continue reading
Unsupervised play
This is going to end badly. I can tell. We’ll get together, sure. We’ll have a few laughs while we tilt at windmills, drink car bombs, dance and pick out drapes, commit a few petty crimes. Eventually the tears and … Continue reading