Transcending the ‘Good Old Days’

Transcending the ‘Good Old Days’

Last Summer Boys: A Novel by Bill Rivers Lake Union Publishing, 2022 Paperback, 285 pages, $14.95 Reviewed by Ashlee Cowles Nostalgia is a word often used in reference to works of fiction like Ray Bradbury’s Dandelion Wine and Stephen King’s novella “The Body,” which...
In Moods Both Wild and Quiet

In Moods Both Wild and Quiet

Strange Gods of the Prairie edited by Jason Ryberg and John Dorsey. Spartan Press, 2021. Paperback, 250 pages, $15. Reviewed by Christopher Landrum Strange Gods of the Prairie is an anthology by the Gasconade Review of Bell, Missouri, comprising 150 poetic works...
Balzac: The Man for My Thirties?

Balzac: The Man for My Thirties?

By Jeffrey Wald I  have come to realize that a writer has indelibly marked each decade of my life. In my first decade of life, that author was Franklin Dixon. All right, I understand that “Franklin W. Dixon,” the author of Hardy Boys, was a pen name used by multiple...
The Odyssey of ‘The Godfather’

The Odyssey of ‘The Godfather’

Leave The Gun, Take the Cannoli: The Epic Story of the Making of the Godfather By Mark Seal. Gallery Books, 2021. Hardback, 448 pages, $29. Reviewed by Paul Krause I believe in the Godfather. Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather is, possibly, my favorite film. I say...
Theroux and the Pleasure of Reading

Theroux and the Pleasure of Reading

Alexander Theroux: A Fan’s Notes By Steven Moore. Zerogram Press, 2020. Paperback, 264 pages, $19.95. Reviewed by Jeffrey Wald Writing about a writer writing about another writer … Does this create the potential for an infinite regress? Perhaps. With such a risk in...