Jeff says:I like the idea of outsider artists that still create their art no matter if they become famous or wealthy from it. Nik even mentions Henry Darger who was a Chicago janitor who was found, after his death, to have written and painted a great deal of work. Nik is this type of character. I...
A Rock/Lit story which reminded me of "A Visit From the Goon Squad". Spiotta tells a story about sibling relationships, obsession, memory, and the urge to create. "Stone Arabia" is built around Denise and Nik Kranis, a pair of cool Southern California kids now closing in on the gloom of midlif...
This is a perfectly mediocre book, reasonably entertaining, but absolutely wonderful for understanding today's literature. Its successes and its flaws are all so widespread, it's as if I'd found the Platonic form of the Contemporary Novel. Which means this review got a little out of hand. **I per...
At least that was the family legend, repeated and burnished into a shared over-memory. But she did really think it was true: he changed in one identifiable moment. Up until that point, Nik’s main occupations had been reading Mad magazine and making elaborate ink drawings of dogs and cats behaving...
All spring Meadow had risen at five every day, not for any practical reason but for the feeling of immersion. She needed to feel the pain of her devotion. She drove the old Subaru down to Route 5s, which runs parallel to the Mohawk River. She knew it was a horse trail once, the one narrow pass be...