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I've been looking forward to reading this novel ever since I first came across Fred Venturini's short story "Gasoline" in the Chuck Palahniuk anthology "Burnt Tongues." What starts out as the story of a high school misfit quickly shifts gears into overdrive and becomes the tale of a man who discovers his unique and unexplained ability to regenerate lost body parts and organs. Despite the somewhat misleading synopsis on the back cover of this book, the story is far more complex, heart wrenching, and unique. The back cover states that "every superhero needs to start somewhere" and gives the impression you'll be reading a sort of "Batman Begins" of a nobody. This novel is so much more. In an interview Fred Venturini mentioned that Stephen King and Chuck Palahniuk are two of his biggest influences, and it's those two names that immediately spring to mind. Venturini has King's grasp of small town politics, body horror, dialogue, and command of a fairly large cast of characters. Combined with Palahniuk's visceral writing and page turning plots, THDNGB is a stunning achievement that is one hundred percent Venturini. Fiction does not get much better than this. The plot moves head long in directions you never see coming with an emotionally charged core that affected me more than I care to admit. Themes of loss, forgiveness, and coming to terms with yourself as a human being all weave together. This is a fast and fun read, entertainment at its absolute best, but more than that it is a mature and accomplished work that sets the wheels in your head turning, and keeps them spinning long after the final page. There's not much else to say. I went into this book virtually blind and I think it's best experienced this way. So, I will leave it at this: "The Heart Does Not Grow Back" by Fred Venturini should be read immediately by anyone who loves fiction that pushes the boundaries. Fiction that is complex, challenging, and unique, written in an unforgettable voice.

There is something fascinating and frightening about the way that Don DeLillo sees the world. It’s not that he sees it differently than you or I, he sees it more clearly, he makes connections most of us don’t dream of. For this reason he has been called “weirdly prophetic” about the millennial decades. For example, the World Trade Center Towers featured prominently as the site for terrorists attacks in more than one novel. How did he know that they would be a target almost 30 years prior to the events of 9/11? He looked at those Towers and saw something so monumental that they would have to come down, one way or another. These stories span almost over 30 years of time, and DeLillo’s writing has under gone many evolutions since then. I’ve read every single one of his books and many of these stories fit well into the spaces between novels. I prefer not to summarize plots in my reviews, simply because I go into book and stories completely blind and discover it. I would hate to rob anyone of anything. So, I will say that one of the things I’ve always loved about DeLillo is the way he takes everyday events and infuses them with a sense of dread. We all get flat tires, or miss flights, or call a wrong number ��" but in the DeLillo world these things are signs of something much larger at work, even if it’s never revealed the fear is felt. DeLillo recently wrote a short story that was published in the New Yorker called “Midnight In Dostoyevsky,” in which two young men follow a man in a strange coat. The act itself is fairly innocent, but the way Delillo writes it makes you wonder if the two boys are going to rob or murder the man in the coat. The sentences are astonishing, as well as the words he uses, which aren’t necessarily big and unpronounceable, but uncannily perfect for whatever he is describing. My only complaints are I wish this book would have collected more of his stories and “The Angel Esmerelda” will be recognized by those of you who have read “Underworld,” although it is a bit different, it still felt familiar. This is excellent reading for anyone who appreciates intelligent fiction, but in the end it just makes me want to go back and read his novels.

Chuck Palahniuk’s books just keep getting weirder and weirder. I read and enjoy all of his novels, some more than others. “Pygmy” was a strange experiment, but unique and compelling nonetheless. “Tell-All” was a fun and enjoyable romp through the golden age of Hollywood, although it never quite became what it could have been. And now, here is “Damned,” a journey through hell (literally) with a sharp tongued and lovable young woman named Madison who died from…you’ll have to read to find out, and it’s not a marijuana overdose. Frankly, this book is about as strange and bizarre as they come. The underworld is depicted as a place of grotesque monsters with lakes of sperm and mountains of toenail clippings. There were times when I thought this book was completely unclassifiable in any genre, forcing a new one to be invented. Afterlife Black Comedy. “Damned,” at its core, is a satire, and Chuck is at his best in skewering the affluent Hollywood lifestyle. Madison’s parents are a movie star and a real estate mogul/business man who adopt children from war torn countries for the PR. More importantly, in my opinion, is the writing, and Chuck breaks free from whatever has bound him over the last couple years and writes with an eloquence not seen since…well, maybe ever. Palahniuk has a very distinctive voice in his writing, all of his fans have gotten used to it, and look forward to it with each new book. But with “Damned,” there is something more, a careful attention paid to craft more than story. The sentences flow artfully in Madison’s voice and bring her to life with all her hopefulness and intelligence. “Damned,” is not a great book in the sense that it’s a new classic, but I think it is a step in the right direction for Chuck. The story is just weird, but the way he tells it is what makes it such a fun read. It’s okay for books to be both fun and well written.

Philip Roth reimagines history like no other author alive. He takes true events and displaces them, adding his own blend of imagination and plausibility. Though "Nemesis" is placed in the same category in Roth's bibliography as "Everyman", "Indignation", and "The Humbling", it actually falls closer to "The Plot Against America" in terms of plot and style. There was no polio epidemic in New Jersey in 1945, but Roth imagines one, and then proceeds to tell us of its devastating effects, not just on those stricken with the disease, but also a young man who witnesses these events. Bucky Cantor is a twenty-three year Physical Education teacher, and unlike some of Roth's other heros, is not a tormented intellectual, but rather a solid individual, truly injured at what is happening to the children around him. Gradually, as the epidemic spreads, Bucky begins asking himself questions for which there are no answers. This is one of the first books in which some of Philip Roth's infamous outrage is directed at the divine. In past novels, it is almost always men and women (usually women) who are the source of the protagonist's crises. But this time, the nemesis is a disease, a germ which cannot be killed at this point in history. It is nameless, faceless, and silent. Roth recognizes that we as human beings require an enemy, someone to blame for the inexplicable happenings in our lives. Who better than God to point the finger at when young children, not old enough to yet be stained by guilt, are ravaged by pain and then die? There is an extremely powerful passage that takes place at a funeral in which Bucky begins to harbor his doubt of the Almighty. Rather than summarize the plot, I will say that Fate in this novel is a blood hound on the scent of our young hero. A sensitive man who cannot understand why God would allow such suffering. In the later short novels, Roth has been a writer obsessed with Death and its various forms, both self inflicted and random. How we view life through the lens of impending Death is the subject of "Nemesis" - an apt title considering the hero is uncertain who the enemy is. Is it God, Fate, himself, the disease? Or is it simply Life, that chews us up and spits us out, mindful of no one? The prose, as always, is some of the most precise in the English language. Roth is an author sure of himself and his abilities and "Nemesis" is a worthy addition to the Roth cannon.

Dave Eggers first novel after the explosion of "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" is a rambling, long winded story of two friends traveling around the world to give away a large sum of money left to them by a dead friend. Eggers is a talented writer, of that there is no doubt. However, his ambition seems to outweigh his abilities, perhaps success came too fast for him to develop his craft. Either way, "YSHKOV!" is probably about more than the story, although the themes are lost somewhere in the narrative. These two friends travel, encounter people, give some money to them, talk amongst themselves, and sometimes even philosophize about how worthy they are to eat a piece of pizza. What Eggers specializes in is the self-awareness of young men, feeling that life is something more than surface...but they have a hard time figuring out just what that meaning is. They feel different, they are intelligent and articulate but ultimately aimless and wandering the world without any ambition. The diasffected young male has been a staple of literature for decades, but now, there is more emotion to these characters than previous hereoes, like Salinger's and Kerouac's. Today's young man reaches 30 and is suddenly slapped in the face by the reality of life, and it stings. The problem, is that Eggers' heroes speak esoterically of the meaning of everything but focus on nothing of real importance. In short, Eggers bites off more than he can chew. He sounds smart, but it's misplaced intelligence, it's a focus on aspects of life that true intellectuals see as minor parts of the major whole. It's these mundane aspects he spends most of his time writing about and it's unfortunate. Thankfully, he grew as a writer much later, "What is the What" is evidence of a man who has seen more of the world at large and all the other people who inhabit it. People who can't take the time to wonder about how worthy one must be to eat a pizza becuase they're too busy trying to survive...and that is the bigger picture he misses in this novel.

The novel is a thing of great power and beauty, not limited to the works that populate the "best seller" list. Unfortunately, in America, we have been conditioned to expect instant gratification and understanding, whereas truly great works of art require the attention and concentration of a great reader. Ratner's Star is, according to Mr. Delillo himself, his favorite of all his novels. The reason for this, I can only imagine, is a true sense of pride in having finished it and accomplished something so dense and difficult...and difficult it is. This is not easy reading. The language is a conglomeration of mathematics and science, of speculation and spiritual dimension. This is a novel by a relatively "new" writer (at the time) wishing to flex his intellectual muscles and perhaps prove to the world at large that he is a voice to be reckoned with in the future of American writing. Cormac Mccarthy also did this with his incredible novel "Suttree." Many reviews I read seem to expect something from a novel: a very specific and easy to understand plot, wonderful characters, and maybe even some twists and turns. But true literature challenges the reader to step beyond these confines and give himself over to ideas and turns of phrase. This novel is like a dream in which all is understood while in the midst of it, step away for too long and you will lose all sense of time and place. Of course, anyone reading Delillo is already aware of how he writes, his work is not tailor made for the ADD generation. His work takes time and patience to appreciate, just like great paintings hanging in a museum, to truly recognize the genius at work you can't just walk through the room. You have to stand there, motionless, and study the brush strokes, the amount of skill and effort that went into creating what you're looking at. For this reason alone Ratner's Star stands out and above, a novel of vast ideas and ingenious philosophy. It is a firm demonstartion of Mr. Delillo's power with words and his grasp on what a novel was meant to be...a tool to shape modern thought through one means or another. Granted, they are just words on a page, but they are also so much more than that, just like a sunset is much more than colors in the sky.

Paul Auster is not a writer who reinvents himself with each book, rather he continues to build a world with his novels, some of which share characters, themes, and style. Auster has created a universe populated with the characters of his imagination – a universe of randomness and coincidence, heartbreak and redemption. Sunset Park is a worthy addition to the Auster cannon, a very human and emotionally driven story of the young and the aging, and the similar difficulties we face. Auster presents us with a cast of characters, all very real and well drawn, whose lives intersect – not in random ways necessarily, but in the common ways that we as humans enter one another’s lives. I will not repeat the plot summary, as you can read that on whatever site you happen to view. I will say however, that I love the way Auster draws parallels between the younger characters and their older counterparts. We see Miles Heller struggle with guilt and self doubt, only to witness both his father and mother experience the same feelings and emotions. Or the way that Ellen discovers who she is and how she needs to be loved, then we see Miles’ step mother in need of the same reassurance. Auster seems to be saying, “We are all human and essentially need the same things, maybe in different ways and styles, but we all need to be loved.” That is a central theme of this novel, that we are all distinctly different, but we are still very much the same. I find Auster to be a brave writer in that he never shies away from love and all its manifestations. He gives the same time and attention to each character until we feel that we can see them clearly and understand all their various predicaments and hardships. “Sunset Park” is a more straight forward narrative then we’ve seen from him in the past few years. Written in the present tense, it lends a quality of urgency to the story, as though everything is happening now, not in the distant past. As with most Auster novels, I look forward to reading it again and picking up on the subtle nuances I may have missed the first time around. And on a side note, his vivid description of William Wyler’s 1946 film “The Best Years of Our Lives” was so impacting that I went and bought the DVD the next day. *This review is based on an ARC (Advanced Reading Copy)*

"Ablutions" is a sparse elegant novel set mostly in a dark, dim lit Hollywood bar. It mines similar terrority as Bukowski and Denis Johnson without ever feeling like a rehash. deWitt's dead pan voice is flawlessly maintained throughout the work, making even the worst of circumstances seem normal, ordinary even. Despite the lack of a "hero" we find ourselves cheering on the luckless bartender whose life is slowly (or quickly) coming apart. There is no plot to speak of, but one is not really necessary. The writing is rendered so beautifully that we don't miss anything in the way of drama or development. The grim setting and haphazard characters are simply a landscape for deWitt to explore the human condition. His voice is an intelligent counterpoint to the events he describes. This book is a bretah of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant pool of young "literary" authors. I can't recommend it highly enough.

A filmmaker tracks down one of the architects of the Iraq war in an attempt to convince him to be involved in a documentary about his role. Rather than take this thin idea of a plot and politicize it, use it as a pedastal to rant on about how wrong the war was/is, Mr. Delillo has written a very powerful meditation on time and death. Out in the desert, under the vast expanse of sky, surrounded by geology and nature, the young filmmaker becomes enamored with the philosophical ramblings of the old man. He begins to understand that there is more to be seen than what is obvious. The war itself may be a metaphor for something even larger, more looming, but it is only suggested and whispered. Mr. Delillo's writing, as always, is stunning. His descriptions are atomic, carefully constructed phrases that linger long after you've moved on. This brief novel is a mystery because it is myseterious, it requires involvement. You cannot read it for the sheer pleasure of escapism, Mr. Delillo asks something of you in return. Listen, pay attention. See. I feel strongly that Mr. Delillo is the seminal writer of our time, however his last book, "Falling Man," felt cold and distant. Perhaps it was because 911 is still so fresh in our minds that it didn't enlighten as much as it simply reminded us of the tragedy, which is still difficult to make sense of. Delillo is at his best when writing coldly of cold people. Men and women who regard their own lives from a distance. If pure story is what you want, look elsewhere. If you appreciate intelligent and insightful writing, Point Omega is a book that demands to be read and re-read.

A beautiful and haunting story about a young college student, innocent and obedient, who gets caught up in the tides of love and history. Similar in theme to some of Roth's other work, Indignation stands out because of the wide eyed wonder and fear of the narrator (and because of one literary trick I will not give away here.) The book is brief but Mr. Roth manages to create a life in only a few short pages, he gives the narrator a very vivid past and an unclear future. As always, Mr. Roth has an uncanny way of evoking the time periods he writes about and this book is no different. Perhaps a minor work in Mr. Roth's cannon, but a very effective one, and how many authors working today can write a minor work that's worth reading?

Is Anne Frank alive and and working as an assistant to a well known author. Young Nathan Zuckerman thinks so and he can't stop his imagination from running wild. The premise is simple: based on the success of a short story he wrote, Zuckerman is invited to stay with his idol/hero, the famous author Lonoff. Also at the house, Lonoff's wife and Anne Frank. Thus begins the saga of Nathan Zuckerman and the development of themes and obsessions we see later on in his life. This is a fantastic start to one of literature great alter-egos. The book is mesmerizing in its simplicity and somewhat ghostly in it handling of the inner workings of the mind.

History reimagined, or rather, deconstructed - put back together - and told as though it had happened. Philip Roth writes convincingly of what never occurred, using himself as the main character and narrator he tells the story of when Charles Lindbergh was elected president of the United States. Unfortunately Mr. Lindbergh is anti-Semitic and sympathetic to the Nazi cause. Rather than follow this set up on a grand scale, Mr. Roth chooses to focus on the impact this administration has on a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey. Understandbly fearful, the Roth family endures all kinds of paranoia - real and imagined. Using real events infused with plausible guessing, Mr. Roth has written a mammoth book (if not in size than idea) of how history has a way of catching even the most cautious off guard.

Although Benioff is a Hollywood screenwriter, this novel does not come across as a treatment for a film. It is accessible yes, but also extremely compelling and exciting. Mr. Benioff sets a simple human story against the backdrop of the seige of Leningrad, leaving the war behind to focus instead on the plight of two young men, one worldly and the other innocent. Like his debut novel "The 25th Hour" Benioff has succeeded in creating a fascinating portrait of strength in times of suffering.

Patrick deWitt has written a stark and severe portrait of Hollywood's forgotten men and women. He scrapes all away the glitz and glitter and exposes the lives of everyday people, sitting at the same bar at the end of the same day. It's like deja vu in hell. The unusual use of a second person narrative lends this work a sense of urgency rarely found in novels today. We follow a pathetic bartender through his struggles with alcoholism, self pity, fear, and loathing. We find ourselves somehow rooting for him even though we know that his journey cannot end well. The writing is gritty and beautiful, moments of clarity shine through the liquored haze and reveal a sharp eye for detail and characterization. Although the book is short it never feels as though deWitt is attempting to get away with giving the reader less than what is bargained for. I strongly feel that this book is a contender for best novel written by an author under 35. deWitt also gets major points for fleeing Hollywood and now living in Portland, Oregon.