On Light Boxes


I feel it's hard today to find a work of art that is earnest, that is compassionate. (Michael Kimball's Dear Everybody comes to mind). I was startled by Shane Jones's novel because it is so painfully both; it bleeds itself, and bleeds for others.

Light Boxes is a story about a community, about a man's quest to rid his community of February, a bitter and long spell of cold that haunts the the town and its people. I don't want to speak explicitly of the 'narrative' here, only because I think there is magic in discovery; it's a sensual work. Many of the images affected me viscerally, and will stay with me for a long time. Dead bees pour from the sky, a broken father sits in the middle of a snow-covered street, a body surfaces in a river covered in text... I could list all the beautiful, and often tragic, images contained within for awhile.

To go deeper: The characters, the people, in Light Boxes breathe true. I really felt them living, and felt them dying. They seem warm, hot & cold all at once, much like the seasons that surround them. The story also functions on a level outside its own prison, outside the printed page, but, again: I'd like to keep quiet. I'd like you to discover the layers yourself.

Shane has crafted a fine myth, one I hope lasts for a very long time.

Buy and read Light Boxes.

On Ever


I'm going to begin and end this review with this recommendation: Buy and read EVER by Blake Butler.

Here is why, and briefly:

EVER is a story of mud and light and houses and metaphysical shifts in conscious, shifts in body and being and time. EVER is a story that leaves you feeling bruised and emotional and larger than you were before.

Blake Butler's sentences are often better and more pleasing than those of Lutz, McCarthy & to those of Williams and Lish. I feel Butler's sentences have a more aggressive sonic imperative. As you read, you really are (to use one of EVER's frequent words) slushed along by sentences heavily marked by S's. And when Butler reverts to a sonically dull sentence, often containing the most poignant/banal remark, the words hit you that much harder, because of the impact of all contained behind that sentence slamming forward into you. And when the tone and composition of the sentences and paragraphs shifts, you feel it. It's a visceral change.

The ideas contained in EVER expanded my thought on words, on lyricism and style, on literature. EVER is affective and brutal and beautiful. EVER is a highly creative work that truly feels original, feels new.

Buy and read EVER by Blake Butler.