He had to have known it was coming. There is no way that a competent publicist didn’t prepare Eric Gapstur for the eventuality that his graphic novel about 11-year-old Wyatt Flynn and his family coming to terms with his newly acquired superpowers in the wake of his mother’s disappearance would draw comparisons to the Netflix […]
Book Reviews
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Book Review: ‘Monarch’ by Candice Wuehle
Jessica is an ex-child pageant queen with an awful memory. In fact, she can’t remember her childhood nearly at all outside of the pageants she participated in. The daughter of Dr. Clink, chair of the Boredom Studies department at a nameless Midwestern university, and Grethe Clink, a Norwegian beauty who hosts not-quite-Tupperware parties, Jessica has […]
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Book Review: ‘The Soul of the Family Tree’ by Lori Erickson
One morning, in a fling of middle-age thrill-seeking, Lori Erickson filled a small glass vial with her spittle and mailed it to AncestryDNA. Given that Erickson’s last name is Erickson and that she hails from Decorah, Iowa, arguably the most Norwegian-American small town on the continent, the results of the DNA testing were not surprising: […]
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Book Review: ‘This American House’ by Jason Loper and Michael Schreiber
As a woman in her mid-20s who has dedicated her life to the arts, owning any sort of house feels like a fantasy, much less one with as much historical significance as the Meier House designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Monona, Iowa. But even for a person who doesn’t know much about architecture or […]
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Book Review: ‘The Family Chao’ by Lan Samantha Chang
Family can be a tricky balancing act. Lan Samantha Chang, in her newest novel, gives the central family the surname Chao, making them collectively, of course, the Chaos. There are a couple of sections early in the book where she really locks the reader into what seems like an obvious analogy: “‘We Chaos, who are […]
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Book Review: ‘Memento Vivere’ by Laura Johnson
In Memento Vivere (Cabin Bear Books), a tiny volume of rebellion against death, Cedar Rapids poet Laura Johnson creates a still life of delights and damages reminding both herself and the reader: Remember you must live. (For those missing the reference, “memento mori” is a commonly used phrase meaning “remember you must die.”) In the […]
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Book Review: ‘Midwinter Constellation’ ed. Becca Klaver
Midwinter Constellation (Black Lawrence Press) is the collaborative effort of 32 poets paying homage to Midwinter Day, by Bernadette Mayer, on the 40th anniversary of its creation. It is the brainchild of editor Becca Klaver who states in the afterword that she created this virtual space to be transparent and collaborative, following the “six-part structure […]
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Book Review: ‘Devil House’ by John Darnielle
America loves a good murder. Maybe we’ve always been this way, but sometime in the past few years, true crime evolved from guilty pleasure to passionate obsession. People discuss “blood spatter” and “Munchausen by proxy” with the same amateur enthusiasm once used to dissect Tarantino dialogue or the Cubs’ dubious playoff hopes. Once the lurid […]
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Book Review: ‘It Can’t Be Easy to Hang a Giraffe in a Cheap Hotel Room …’ by Caldwell Murchfield, illustrated by Bruce Lanning
When I first received this slim volume in the mail, I panicked. How can one get a ~500-word review out of a book of less than 40 pages? I had assigned it to a freelancer, but held back, not wanting someone else to have to grapple with that dilemma. A 40-page poetry book? Sure, golden! […]
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Book Review: ‘We Heard it When We Were Young’ by Chuy Renteria
We Heard It When We Were Young (University of Iowa Press) is a love letter to all of us who, like author Chuy Renteria, don’t know whether or not they had a happy childhood or whether or not they are good people. It is a love letter to those of us who feel guilty whichever […]
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Book Review: ‘Beyond Sacrifice’ by Alicia Dill
Cedar Rapids author Alicia Dill will be reading from her forthcoming novel, Beyond Sacrifice (Circuit Breaker Books), this month for Prairie Lights. The virtual event will also include a conversation with Sara Maniscalco Robinson, founder of Veterans’ Perspective. Beyond Sacrifice, Dill’s second novel, tells the story of Concepcion Chapa, a woman of many identities. Chapa […]
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Book Review: ‘Moon of the Snow Blind’ by Gary Kelley
As a Midwest interloper, I’d never heard the apparently ubiquitous story of the Spirit Lake massacre before encountering this new graphic novel. Of course, we had our own legends of “terrifying savages” back in New Jersey (look up the Jenny Jump House sometime if you’re interested in such things), so I know the drill: No […]
