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Picks of the Week

  • Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen

    Harry Dolan: Bad Things Happen
    BAD THINGS HAPPEN is a nifty debut, cleverly told and unfurled from the very first line: "The shovel has to meet certain requirements" on through meeting "the man who calls himself David Loogan." There are reasons for concealment, just as there are reasons the editor of a mystery magazine bearing little resemblance to EQMM or AHMM might bring him into the fold, thus catalyzing a series of murderous events. The twists come quickly and the dialogue is sharp and if it falls apart slightly at the end, no matter - I want to read much more from Dolan from now on.

  • Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel

    Ian MacKenzie: City of Strangers: A Novel
    MacKenzie's debut novel reminded me a lot of Paul Auster's NEW YORK TRILOGY, whether it was intended or not, in terms of his choice of words, the thrust of the narrative and the existential nature of the main character (whose first name, incidentally, is Paul) caught up in a snowballing sequence of strange and violent events in and around New York City. MacKenzie straddles the line between thriller and internal examination of a man's failings, and his ability to do so establishes him as a young writer of serious talent and future.

  • Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep

    Megan Abbott: Bury Me Deep
    In a word: amazing. In more words: Megan Abbott, who has never delivered anything less than an excellent novel, exceeds expectations and takes a very bold and very necessary step forward both in the quality of the prose, the development of her characters and especially in portraying how obsession seeps into the very soul of people, transforming them into their worst nightmares all too easily. Just read this book. And then tell many others to do so as well.

  • Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit

    Ninni Holmqvist: The Unit
    Understandably, echoes of THE HANDMAID'S TALE are hard to ignore in this dystopic examination of a society where fertility is so high a priority that older, single, marginal women are shut away in secret locales to live out the rest of their lives in seemingly perfect harmony - at least, until the "donations" begin. But Holmqvist's marvelous book doesn't browbeat her thesis into the reader and smartly expands her ideas to look at the plight of all marginalized folk, women and men alike, and how the promise of comforts can be the most horrifying of all. Prepare to be disturbed, but prepare further to think about the ramifications.

  • Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde

    Paula Froelich: Mercury in Retrograde
    This is possibly the most perfect novel for today's economically challenged times. Why? Because it has plenty of glitz and glamor and blind items, as befitting a narrative by the deputy editor of Page Six, but Froelich isn't arch or snarky or acid-tongued in the slightest. Her trio of protagonists land in all manner of embarrassing situations but they aren't played for mean-spirited laughs. The New York here is something of a fantasy-land, but not so far off the mark that it's completely unbelievable. Most of all it's clear Froelich remains sincere and optimistic about her chosen city, and has retained her sense of fun. So no need to check your brain at the door, but sometimes it just needs to chill out and relax.

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March 23, 2006

Michael Collins is Extreme!

Irish-born, Bellingham-dwelling author Michael Collins is driven by stuff that most of us wouldn't even dream of attempting. And by that, I don't mean novels, I mean his penchant for marathons in far-flung places. He tells the Seattle Post-Intelligencer's John Marshall about his upcoming plans:

In the space of six weeks, this prize-winning novelist is dedicated to competing in two marathon events in diabolically different climes. First off, in late February, was the Sahara Sub-Marathon in the desert country of Algeria, which Collins won against world-class competition. Then, on April 8, he is scheduled to compete in the North Pole marathon, where an expected 70 racers will be delivered by helicopters to ice floes where the marathon course often will be less than 12 feet from the frigid waters of the Arctic Ocean.

"I like the competitiveness," he says, "but also having my mind and body totally focused on winning. It provides the one true feeling I have of well-being."

It should come as no surprise that he sees parallels between writing and running. "The intensity of training for a race is very similar to the intensity in writing a novel," he says. "With a novel, I give it four to five months. With running, I couldn't run 90 miles a week for an entire year, so I make a four-month commitment to that. I have that way of compartmentalizing my life: now I'm a writer, now I'm an athlete."

His next book is going to be published in the UK as THE SECRET LIFE OF ROBERT E. PENDLETON, but in the US as the more mundane DEATH OF A WRITER -- switching from Viking (which published his last book, LOST SOULS) to Bloomsbury. And let's just put a "here we go again" stamp on his next statement:

"I got trapped in the crime genre for a couple of novels, although I never wanted to master that genre," Collins relates. "I had to fight to do the book I want to write and had to go to a new publisher, Bloomsbury, which has been much more supportive. The new novel reads better. It is less of a procedural and more of a philosophical commentary on the human condition, which is what I am really interested in."

Funny, the write-up on Amazon UK sure makes this out to be a crime novel....

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Comments

I totally see a parallel between writing and running. The hours alone, the self-discipline required, the low pay.

I was a miler in HS, ran CC in college.

Great post, Sarah.

Stacey

I ran high school cross country, and I totally see the parallel with running too. The long warmup, followed by the hitting a pace when you realize that you're almost comfortable (but you can't stop). Also the kind of satisfaction that comes from being that focused for a period of time, and the sense that your real competition is always yourself. Also the tired but puzzled elation when it's over.

Hi! Thanks for picking up this piece on my running life. I just wanted to say in my "Quote", what I'd meant to say regarding the Crime Genre, was that "I was unable to really master the genre, and not that it is not a formidable and psychologically challenging genre. If I could have written with the deft suspense quality of the masters of the genre, I'd be a lot happier, but alas, I could not invest that intangible in my so-called crime writing. So what I've tried to do is distinguish my books as not 'Crime novels' since reader expectations are often aligned with a tigher, and faster-paced book than I write. So basically, I was not slamming the genre, as much as trying to establish some sort of definition for my own writing career." In fact, most of my favourite living writers are crime writers, Jason Starr, Ian Rankin and Michael Connelly to name a few.

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