Category: underappreciated books
“I know it seems like a contradiction in terms for a book to be an underappreciated award winner, but that is exactly the case for Break Any Woman Down by Dana Johnson,” Jones says. “This gorgeous short collection gives Dana Johnson the distinction of being the first African American woman to win the Flannery O’Connor Prize. (In 2001, can you believe it took so long?) The dozen or so stories in this collection show Johnson’s incredible range– the characters span from a twelve year old trying to sort out what it means to be the only black kid in her suburban school to a Los Angeles stripper struggling to convince her porn-star boyfriend that she is a good person. Dana Johnson gives us wit, social commentary, and a lot of heart. I love these stories, every single one of them.”
Tayari Jones is the author of Leaving Atlanta, winner of the 2003 Hurston Wright Award. Her new novel, The Untelling will be published in April.
“I first read Moghul Buffet by Cheryl Benard eight years ago and I have yet to come across a novel that has made me laugh so hard,” Kamal says. “It’s part detective story, part social satire, and part bildungsroman. There’s a lusty Muslim cleric and a gay Indian actor, there’s an American businessman convinced he’s out to be murdered and an American woman married to a Pakistani feudal lord, there’s a bunch of future Talibans involved at the moment in doing good and a policeman who constantly misinterprets clues: how all these characters come together is ingenious and delightful. I read this at least once a year simply because it’s one of the best stories around.”
Soniah Kamal‘s short stories have been published in literary magazines and anthologized in the US, Canada, Pakistan and India. Her debut novel An Isolated Incident is scheduled for release with Penguin in the fall. She also blogs at drunkonink.
“While many authors have been touted as the next David Sedaris, only Susan Gilman deserves the mantle,” Acito says. “Gilman’s new book, Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless is both laugh out loud funny and touchingly poignant. Whether she’s describing an encounter with a Maharishi who looks like “a lawn troll in drag,” or her teen obsession with Mick Jagger (“Where were the magazines for 15 year old girls in love with British bi-sexual coke-heads, thank you?”), Gilman’s delightfully warped perspective abounds. An unapologetic sexual hedonist (“Being told to ‘wait until marriage’ was like being ordered to hold our breath for twelve years”) she weaves hilarious tales of a youth misspent “staggering around bars in lace stockings and leather jackets, then coming home with toilet paper stuck to our shoes,” as well as working in a series of dead-end jobs (“like terminal illnesses”) that make you wince with recognition. Ultimately, however, it is Gilman’s razor-sharp intelligence and smart-mouth feminism that leaves you thinking well after the laughter fades.”
Marc Acito’s first novel, How I Paid for College, A Novel of Sex, Theft, Friendship and Musical Theater was named an Editor’s Choice by both the New York Times and Advocate Magazine. A film adaptation of his teenage tale of disorganized crime is in the works at Columbia Pictures.
Karl recommends The Royal Physician’s Visit, by Per Olov Enquist. He says, “Enquist is a Swedish writer who isn’t very well known in the U.S., which is a shame–his novels are strange and excellent. The Royal Physician’s Visit is his best. It takes place in the 1760s in Denmark, and follows the intellectual, political, and emotional drama surrounding the mad King Christian and his courtiers. Enquist takes what could be a fairly dry set-up (there’s much discussion of Enlightenment philosophy) and turns it into something profoundly engrossing, through his idiosyncratically precise writing and his focus on the complexity of each character’s emotions. It’s one of those rare books that manages to create an entire world, completely foreign yet utterly recognizable. It’s also one of those books that makes you reevaluate what a novel can say, and how it can say it. It’s just absolutely great–elegant and intelligent and moving. A great novel.”
Karl Iagnemma is the author of On the Nature of Human Romantic Interaction, a collection of short stories published by the Dial Press. His writing has been anthologized in the Best American Short Stories and Pushcart Prize collections. He is currently at work on a novel.
Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona.” Tramble adds, ” I was initially drawn to the evocative title. This is a beautifully written short story collection, and Harty pays careful attention to the nuances of language. Set mostly in the Arizona desert region, Bring Me Your Saddest Arizona focuses mainly on the small pauses and missteps in relationships. The interactions are textured and grow stronger with each story.”
Nichelle D. Tramble is the author of The Dying Ground and The Last King. A recipient of Writer-in-Residence Fellowships from both the Edward J. Albee Foundation and the Ucross Foundation, Tramble currently resides in southern California where she’s at work on a third Maceo Redfield novel. You can visit her author blog here.
“I’ve waited and waited for Marc Estrin’s Insect Dreams to become a cult classic on college campuses, but it hasn’t happened – yet,” Charles says. “In this touching, weirdly funny historical novel, poor Gregor – the human-cockroach from Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis – witnesses the great developments and tragedies of the first half of the 20th century. After escaping the Nazis, he scurries from the Scopes trial to Los Alamos, from the Japanese internment camps to the White House. Everywhere, he’s omnivorously attentive, his antennae sensitive to the pheromones of beauty and cruelty passing around him. It’s the kind of book from which one wakes clutching surreal scenes, desperate to tell others, delighted and baffled and horrified.”
Ron Charles is the book editor for the Christian Science Monitor and a board member of the National Book Critics Circle.