Author Picks

Five Stateside Novels You Likely Missed

Daniel Woodrell

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Royo County

By Robert Roper

I like this one from 1973 so much that when I push it on people to read, I don’t give a damn whether they like it or lump it, they’ve been enriched. It’s a wonderfully compact hunk of Americana, mysterious, shrewdly folksy, very dark at times, beautifully composed. Roper has several other works of fiction I could’ve just as easily selected, On Spider Creek, Cuervo Tales, and more. I went with the one that hit me first.
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A Time of Soldiers

By Andrew Jolly

War, love, the American Southwest, big sweep, lovely prose. Published in 1976 to good reviews, nobody seems to know this novel anymore. Where Mr Jolly went, I have no idea. I grab every copy I see at flea markets and try to find them worthy homes.

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The Woods

By David Plante

People seem to know who Mr. Plante is, but have they read The Woods? It’s the third rung of The Francouer Trilogy, and in it Plante embraces what Hemingway bequeathed and runs it elsewhere, evokes big feelings with sentences you want to quote. Don’t forget the other two rungs.
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The Fire Sermon

By Wright Morris

Could’ve picked any of a dozen others. The doyen of the High Plains, ran lit from out of that world for years and years, but is seldom mentioned now. A goddam shame, he’s got surprise angles and attitudes, wrote something or other suited to anybody. Pick up anything he did and give the man a look-see.

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The True Life Story of Jody McKeegan

By Don Carpenter

George Pelecanos and others helped get his first novel back into print, but Carpenter wrote several others that are, in their fashion, just as good. Loved this cat since the 70’s, man, and chose this novel because it has a nice reach—showbiz, streets, the ups and downs; as is so often the case with Carpenter, he seems most closely related to Nathaniel West, only West isn’t forgotten.