Littlefoot recently wrote a song that was inspired by Nelly Reifler’s forthcoming novel Elect H. Mouse State Judge.  The result is a song called “Vessels.” It is streaming on her website here.  We here at the Littlefoot camp are thrilled about how it came out.  Big thanks go out to Katie Hammon (Bear Grass) for lending her vocals, and Richard Nolan (local Kit-Kat enthusiast/the Boston Celtics) for producing the track and making it sound outstanding.
Elect H. Mouse State Judge will be out in August, but until then you can check out …

Richard Ford’s new novel, Canada, is an epic tale of how the individual life of several family members can all hinge on one defining moment.  In this case, that moment happens to be an ill-fated bank robbery for $2,500.  Despite the enormous importance of this crime, and a few other tense moments of violence and depravity, the action in the novel remains secondary to the psychological and emotional impact these moments have on the characters.  Some may find that Ford’s dense prose creates a plodding pace, while others will claim that …

With Battleborn, Claire Vaye Watkins’ first collection of short stories, readers are given a lesson on how one writer’s voice can change to tell a wide variety of stories.  From a hardened hermit, to prospecting brothers, to teenage girls looking for love and attachment on the Vegas Strip, Watkins’ stories are alternately stark and expansive.  She has created a range of powerful stories that mimic their settings in the American Southwest.
The collection opens with “Ghosts, Cowboys,” a bizarre story that includes several interesting notes on the history of Nevada while also …

Peter Carey is a very famous author.  Some claim he’s one of the best in the English language.  He has won two Booker Prizes.  And at this point he’s written twelve novels.  The Chemistry of Tears is his newest, and it certainly impresses at times.  But the idea behind the novel is so ambitious that, even for a writer as skilled as Carey, it’s difficult to pull off.
The book switches settings between modern England and 19th century Germany.  The perspective also switches from Catherine, a horologist at the Swinburne museum, and Henry Brandling, …

I’ve always found it difficult to get through any work with a main character that can’t get out of his own way.  Whether it’s Holden Caulfield or Greg Focker, these characters have an uncanny knack for making mistakes, thereby filling me with rage (or at least discomfort) for the entirety of the novel/movie/whatever.  But the closer to reality these characters are drawn, the more tolerable they tend to be.  This explains why Thad Ziolkowski’s Wichita works so well.  Seth, the character who brings chaos and destruction into all of the characters’ lives, …

Lauren Groff does family dramas like few other writers can.  She is particularly adept at delving into the wild range of emotions and tumult associated with dysfunctional families.  And the entire cast of characters in Arcadia is essentially that: a collective of people who choose to live in a commune, free of ownership and traditional family bounds.  Their radical idealism leads to predictable problems, though Groff does throw in a few turns and plenty of interesting characters to make the inevitable downfall as interesting as possible.
The novel follows Bit from his childhood …

Kevin Barry’s The City of Bohane is populated by some of the most engaging literary characters in recent memory.  They also happen to be some of the coolest.  And the most insane.  The book primarily follows the exploits of protagonist Logan Hartnett, the unflappable, sociopathic leader of a gang called the Fancy.  The Fancy’s violent temperament belies their name (and their sharp fashion sense.  Before this book, I didn’t know what a crombie was.  Now anytime I see a crombie I’ll be reminded of stabbings and curb stompings).  They use fear and …

Though This Will Be Difficult To Explain is her first book of short stories, Johanna Skibsrud has already received a great deal of praise in her young writing career.  She has already published two books of poetry and one novel, The Sentamentalists, which won the Scotia-Bank Giller Prize.  (It’s a big deal in Canada.) The stories in the new collection are all vaguely connected.  Several share characters, though the effect is negligible.  This device does build character depth, but the effect is negligible.  If the characters in each story were different it would …