Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond by Denis Johnson. With the essays in this book, Johnson takes you from war-torn Liberia to gold prospecting in Alaska to a Christian bike rally. I like this book as much as I liked his novel Jesus' Son. Johnson's voice is one that is familiar, luring you into the situations he covers—whether fiction or non.


Chump Change by Dan Fante. Fante's (the son of novelist John Fante of Los Angeles) first book published in the States is the first part of a trilogy about on-again-off-again drunk Bruno Dante. It seems like a lightly veiled autobiography as this book begins with Bruno's father in a coma and not expected to live. Fighting (well, sort of) his alcoholism he tries to deal with his screenwriting father's state. The story is balances brutality and tenderness with skill and daring.


Mooch by Dan Fante. The second part of the trilogy picks up ten months after the death of Bruno's father. He's "cleaned himself up, straightened out, and is back on the wagon." With a new job selling computer supplies comes along it seems he's back in the game until (wait for it) he meets a Mexican femme fatale and his world once again begins to crumble. This is actually really good.


The Michigan Assassin: The Saga of Stanley Ketchel by Nat Fleischer. A book on boxing great Staney Ketchel (1886-1910)(considered by boxing collectors as one of 15 rare boxing books to possess). I don't expect anyone to have read it or be able to find it. Either way, I have a copy and have read it a couple of times this year and found it enlightening. Fleischer was long-time editor of The Ring Magazine and knew the Middleweight champ. His book mixes hearsay with fact and then adds a dash of myth creating a soupy Frankenstein's monster. It's fun and about all there is available on Ketchel aside from a mountain of newspaper clippings (which I also have).

Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography by Michael Holroyd. Reknowned historian Holroyd turns his attention to the art of biographies and autobiographies. Beginning with a case against biographic writing he moves on to those who have chosen the life and the lives they've told. Absolutely fascinating read.


I'm Gone by Jean Echenoz. Winner of the 1999 Prix Goncourt. Quite an entertaining novel, I often wish that I could read the original French version of novels to see how the translator (Mark Polizzotti in this case) did. The story finds the narrator Ferrer leaving his girlfriend and finding himself in a "'man against nature' tale, heist caper, art world satire, and love story" all rolled into one.


Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America by Charles Bowden. I've often agreed with the term 'incandescent' when used to describe Bowden's writing. As with Blues for Cannibals, this book is an eye-opening experience of everything under the Sororan desert sky from narcotrafficantes to the treatment of the Native Americans. He rants like no other, with wit and brutal honesty. Be warned though, his soapbox has a turret and lots of ammunition.

Welcome to the book section. A mixture of reviews, beefs and lists. I considered separating them into topics (non-fiction, fiction, et al) but since that isn't how I read them I listed them as is. This year has been a good year for books. I'd been eagerly awaiting new books by Zadie Smith (Autograph Man), Chuck Palahniuk (Lullaby), Dave Eggers (You Shall Know Our Velocity) and Dan Fante (Spitting Off Tall Buildings) and now that I've got them all and have finished reading them I can say that it was worth the wait (in gold). I was surprised to read that the critics were unsatisfied with Smith's book, I found the book more controlled than White Teeth which in my opinion had a poorly resolved ending. The critics have been a lot more friendly to Palahniuk whose book saw a return to the brilliance of his earlier works. Frankly I was disappointed with his last endeavor, Choke, which seemed to lack the balance between the 'facts' and story needed for his style of 'dangerous writing' to coalesce into a believable story. Suspension of belief is needed to enjoy any book, especially so for Chuck's, but a foundation of reality has to be fabricated for his work to shine and in this Choke failed. The reviews for Eggers is mixed and extreme; personally I'm enjoying the book even with the copy-editing mistakes. He is a good writer, there's no denying it. There are some really strong passages in this book that I happily reread a couple of times but in general it's not a masterpiece (and neither was A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, no matter who told you heard otherwise).

Enjoy,
Paul