Fiction
The Book of Ash (Excerpt)
Fiction
“Want a lick?” Leonard smiled broadly as he strolled up to Baldwin. He was holding the Book of Ash in one hand, a lemon wedge in the other. For a moment, Baldwin saw something attractive in his stepfather’s face, not a traditional masculine beauty, although he did have a firm jaw line, solid cheekbone structure, and symmetrical nose and eyes,…
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The Sickness Unto Tuesday
Fiction
According to Danish philosopher, Bernard Claw, gimcrack corncrake and give the dog a bone, the self is the self when the self is not being the self, assuming, of course, the self is entirely selfless when the self is selfsame or, at least, selflessly the self, all things being the self. Then again, this may be incorrect since this is,…
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Many Islands
Fiction
On our island, no woman may cook on a fire that was lit by a man. No one may touch the foot of a chief. “Who made these rules?” asked our chief’s son, while we sat cross-legged around the kava bowl, watching the green-bottomed clouds drift monotonously across the lagoon. “Why may I not sit with a woman who is…
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Radio Lima
Fiction
Alone in the house with his wife’s Peruvian maid, his emotions get the better of him. The sun is setting in the kitchen, its last rays illuminating the fading yellow wallpaper. She sits across him at the breakfast table, listening attentively as he discusses his upcoming divorce. “Is terrible,” she says, thoughtfully scratching her chin with her index finger, “is…
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Heaven Help Us, Heaven Forgive Us
Fiction
His wife suggested they trade-in for a shorter fat man. Of course, he’d already investigated that. “What,” she said, “now you’re not talking to me?” There would be a connection fee—the equivalent of about a year’s worth of heating bills—and as it turned out, their fat man was only 5’4”, not 5’6”, and since 5’2” was the smallest model, the…
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Columns
No Way Out: Jason Starr’s “Fake I.D.”
Columns
By now, fans of Hard Case Crime’s brand of pulp crime fiction already know Jason Starr. Along with the delightfully cynical crime writer Ken Bruen of Ireland, Starr co-authored Bust, Slide, and The Max—a wicked trilogy reveling in dark humor, gratuitous sex & violence, and…
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Christa Faust’s Money Shot Cashes In
Columns
Hard Case Crime recently turned 50. The independent publishing house dedicated to all things pulp has published over 50 titles since it opened for business in 2005. And what a business for lovers of crime fiction: HCC not only reissues out of print classics by…
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Doing It Right: Interview with Gregg Hurwitz
Columns
Los Angeles. The city of (fallen) angels has lured many crime fiction writers over the years, its truths often stranger than fiction. From Hollywood to Echo Park, L.A. is a siren song of corruption, racial tension, drugs, and silicone implants. Perfect grist for a writer’s…
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Easyreeder
Columns
WEEK 1 UNRELIABLE NARRATOR Do you want a reliable narrator? An unreliable narrator? If there is any first-person element to your narration, there’s one answer: all people lie to themselves, all people are unreliable. The question is of degree. While extremely unreliable narrators are fascinating…
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[CRIME CORNER] Lawrence Block: Romance of the Ordinary Life
Columns
Lawrence Block, Hit and Run 304 pages, $24.95 Published by William Morrow Keller is back. This spring, Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Lawrence Block rolled out the latest exploits of Keller, full-time assassin and amateur philatelist. Block’s newest novel in 3 years, Hit and…
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Interviews
KGB Interview: Howard Kogan
Interviews
KGB sat down with Howard Kogan, a social worker and psychoanalyst, who is directing his energies of late on poetry and creative writing. His new book of poems, Indian Summer, recently released by Square Circle Press, is garnering high praise. Without charging anything for the…
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KGB Interview: Jackie Corley
Interviews
Jackie Corley is on a literary roll – founder of a growing online journal and out with a short story collection (The Suburban Swindle) that has been compared to Denis Johnson’s iconic Jesus’ Son. KGB sat down with the busy writer and indie publisher to…
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Everything starts with voice. I spent the first few months just following it wherever it wanted to go, trying to pre-edit as little as possible.
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85A: An Interview with Kyle Thomas Smith
Interviews
If you did not grow up just like Seamus O’Grady- the self-immersed, angry and ultimately lovable hero of Kyle Smith’s novel 85A- then you must have known someone who did. He is the kid that everybody loves, at first, to hate. Lost somewhere deep inside…
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Book Reviews
LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO, LAMBERTO by Gianni Rodari
Book Reviews
There exists an old adage, or so we’re told in Gianni Rodari’s Lamberto, Lamberto, Lamberto (Melville House), “that the man whose name is spoken remains alive.”
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DUKLA by Andrzej Stasiuk
Book Reviews
You will be reading Dukla (Dalkey Archive Press), Andrzej Stasiuk’s meditation on the titular Polish resort town, and suddenly you will realize you haven’t been reading at all. You’ve been lost in a complicated daydream, entranced by a wash of above-ground light through a subway…
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LIGHTNING RODS by Helen DeWitt
Book Reviews
“It’s not for everyone,” explains Joe, proprietor of Lightning Rods, Inc., to a bewildered new applicant. “We’re looking for the kind of woman who is confident about herself. The kind of woman who has aims she wants to achieve. We’re looking for someone with maturity…
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CHILD WONDER by Roy Jacobsen
Book Reviews
Khaled Mattawa, a leading English translator of Arabic poetry, often raises the issue of how a book might travel out of one culture and into another. From thematic incongruities, to language barriers (idioms, tenses, slang), to unshared histories, not all books achieve what they are…
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THE LAKE by Banana Yoshimoto
Book Reviews
The mystery at the heart of The Lake lies in Nakajima's past--a traumatic childhood event that has left him "extremely frail." As Nakajima begins to heal, in part due to Chihiro's strength, and in part through visits to the titular lake, the tragic events of his past come to light.
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