Spurred by what one critic said of Dagoberto Gilb's The Flowers (that its narrator Sonny Bravo could be Holden Caulfield), I read The Flowers then reread Salinger's Catcher in the Rye. The narrators do share the word "phony," it's true. Rather than interchange them, I'd like to see them meet.
Finished a novel that debuted in 2005, The Professor's Daughter by Emily Raboteau. Lyrical and exacting, the author hits a lot of nerves, one that especially twangs: growing up gray in a black and white United States.
In the middle of Voltaire's Candide. What took me so long? It's hilarious. No wonder it's been around since 1759.
On my to-do list: Sharp Teeth by Toby Barlow. And another by authors that hail from or otherwise beholden to the Motor City: Detroit Noir, an anthology of edited by E.J. Olsen and John C. Hocking.
Following that will be Joshua Ferris' Then We Came to the End, one of those books that hasn't stopped talking since it was released.
Next time, a slew of women and one man.
-Stacy Muszynski, copy editor