Author Archives: admin

Hit Lit

I just finished reading James Hall's excellent little book on the craft of the novel, Hit Lit. He describes the many elements that bestselling novels share, with the coda that they are not enough, by themselves, to make a book a bestseller. What is needed, in addition, is the passion of the writer for his subject matter and his characters. I particularly enjoyed his enlightening opening chapter, in which he writes about the historical function of the novel as one of the main forms of popular entertainment. Read more [...]

New Story Posted – The Fly Show

Dante had no circle in hell for aspiring creative hacks, but on Eddie’s journey across scorched Earth, he encountered one after another of them… Thus begins the tale of Eddie’s adventure with the Indian impressario Mayour Choudari and his remarkable fly show, in which flies fulfill their destiny as warriors. 

Post Financial Crisis Novel

Banana Republican Blues is a financial crisis novel concerning to travails and travels of a penniless former hedge fund maven, crossing the country in search of work as a road house chef. Having fallen to his level of incompetence, Eddie is out of his element in the blue collar world he now inhabits, and his cluelessness is plainly apparent to all he comes into contact with, but his humbling brings out the best in him as he sees the world from the downside up. A climactic chili duel with the world Read more [...]

Do We Need Stories, You Ask?

  Tim Parks in the New York Review of Books, asks Do We Need Stories? If one starts with the assumption that we read novels merely to see our lives reflected in them, then the purpose of reading is solipsistic and pointless. But if you wish to enlarge your experience, by way of vicarious adventures, then stories are useful and wonderful tools. To me, it is all about contemplating life and culture from different points of view, enjoying the original use of language, experiencing rare emotions, Read more [...]

Rewriting Again.

One of the issues that prompted my decision to rewrite BRB again was my short story, Karma, which used the characters from the novel. I adapted it for inclusion in the novel, which altered the whole dynamic, by changing the story and revealing the principal characters as more complex beings than they originally were. The blithe spirit, Eddie, whose youthful loss of faith in himself led him to join the family firm and commit all manner of financial crimes on the way to blowing up their hedge fund, Read more [...]

De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke – NYTimes.com

De Niro Says Meant No Offense With First Lady Joke - NYTimes.com. Good on De Niro for telling the joke. To me, what it says is that Michelle has been such an admirable first lady that people might find an elitist Republican, like Romney's wife, who doesn't think of herself as rich with 240 million in the bank and four luxurious houses, a little harder to take. I don't know much about Santorum's wife, but she seems a bit of a nullity.  I don't see it as something he should have to apologize for. Read more [...]

Pandering Political Correctness

Great American Losers by Elaine Blair | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books. An excellent article on male novelists and how they write for female readers. As Jacob comments: "With Franzen and Wallace, despite their brilliance there does often seem to be a kind of pandering political correctness, one that perhaps means well but often makes me feel they're too self-consciously trying to differentiate themselves from less enlightened men. I'm glad this essay takes the time to try to tease this Read more [...]

New Story Posted – Karma

Until Eddie Conover lost his stake, you’d never get a guy like him to believe claptrap like Karma. Watching his old portfolio charts crash as quick as lightning bolts was punishment enough, but everything that occurred since then seemed like penance and retribution piled on top of comeuppance. The woman he was with, for instance. She called herself Cheyenne. He’d picked her up near Baton Rouge, after some disabused trucker fobbed her off on him. She was glacially white, like him, doubled down Read more [...]

The Novelist Interviews the Blogger on Lars Iyer

You've written a lot about Lars Iyer. What attracted you to his work, and why did you respond to his manifesto? It's so hard to find worthwhile fiction anymore. There's Richard Powers and then what? Literary Fiction? Franzen? DeLillo? To me, they're soporific. Steve Erickson writes interesting novelties that at least don't put me to sleep.  Tom Robbins wrote some fabulous stuff but, because of his popularity, he doesn't get critical recognition.  I came across a review of Dogma on an aggregator's Read more [...]

Interview with Tim Chambers Author of Banana Republican Blues

Where did you get the idea for it? I wanted to write a sort of blues, a story of loss and disappointment that would, nonetheless, be a joy to read. I visualized a former President, broke and on the road, attempting to live in the world he'd wrought, just like the rest of us. The character stands for a class of people in need of a real comeuppance. Once he gets it, though, it leads to something positive.  What influenced you?  My years in Italy, when I was in my twenties, were probably my formative Read more [...]