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Set in the town of Gruel, South Carolina, this first novel by George Singleton, master of the comic short story, is the tale of a young man named Novel (his brother's name is James; his sister's is Joyce), a professional snake handler who stumbles across strange doings while he sits in a motel room writing his autobiography. As he struggles to recount his life story, he uncovers-and finds himself starring in-a decades-old town secret, one that can blow him and his fellow citizens sky-high. Funny as only George Singleton can be, full of Southern mischief and wit, Novel is a crazed and crazy fictional whirlwind of drinking, motel-living, art-forgery-committing, pool-playing redneck charm.
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; First Edition (January 1, 2005)
Language : English
Hardcover : 335 pages
ISBN-10 : 0151011281
ISBN-13 : 978-0151011285
Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1 x 9 inches
Reviewer: M. J. Milner
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: If John Stienbeck ,Robert McCammon and John Irving had been roomates they might have produced this.
Review: The thing I enjoyed most about this book-besides the new take on humor-was that it actually moves along at a fine reading pace. So often nowadays writers are overly in love with their own writing and their editors seem to lack the stuff to make them stop. A good novel is always about the writer and the reader sitting down together and getting a story told. It was a real joy to get into this book and my only regret was that it could have been longer. Singleton is mistakenly branded a Southern writer but in the same context is John Irving a New York writer or Robert Parker a Boston writer? Many of the passing references to southern idioms seem genuine and add flavor,like tabasco to the chili,but chili is still chili. I would say this is a unique voice telling a good story without dragging it out or overly embellishing it. Like the best stories it is spoken in the first person familar. First and foremost almost every page has a unique spin offered on something ordinary-and like a homespun tapestry-there is a larger purpose but those stitches are important. There are a number of fresh images-like sneezing to lose weight-or the hilarious image of a cheetah allergy-that keep the work and the reader on the mark. This is the effort of a talented writer who wants to tell you a story and he will not give you something conventional,filtered and regurgitated so you can relax. Unlike so many other books the reader is pulled into the details of the telling so the story becomes your own. There is always a subtext of the funny going on that is not canned or spammed-this alone merits critical review. I found myself wanting to remember certain images and idioms for they had unique value. Add it all up and the book is a good solid,fresh read and an even finer job of unique story telling. I don't buy that many books but I enjoyed this enough to write a review of it and buy a copy for a friend.
Reviewer: CUSTOMER
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: ... review for Work Shirts for Mad Men which I enjoyed more.
Review: See review for Work Shirts for Mad Men which I enjoyed more.
Reviewer: Kindle Customer
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Filthy cover
Review: The cover was filthy. It is still in the table where I unwrapped it. I'm thinking about throwing it away.
Reviewer: Jerry
Rating: 1.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Aimless can be good, but not this time.
Review: According to the back cover of the book, George Singleton is a `master of the comic short story'. He has been published in some pretty impressive places, and I like humorous prose, so I thought I might be in for a treat.Novel is written in the first person, narrated by a man named Novel who spends a significant chunk of the story trying to write a novel. Because of a divorce surrounded by an odd series of events, he finds himself in the backwater South Carolina town of Gruel. Gruel is populated by an odd assortment of characters, but it is a dying town. The locals are convinced that Novel's novel will put them on the map, and rekindle the economy of the town.The book is written in a rambling, meandering style that took me along with it. The opening two-thirds of the book is about our narrator bumbling along, becoming increasingly paranoid, and telling and retelling his history -- which changes, evolving in a very interesting way. There's a lot of foreshadowing in the opening 75%, which is to say we haven't really got to the plot yet.Mr. Singleton's humor shows through, as do his short-story leanings. In a short story he wouldn't have had time to beat some of the jokes into the ground with such force. (For instance, his adoptive older siblings are named James and Joyce, and "James, Joyce, Novel" is worked pretty hard.) Other parts seem like they're in there to set up some sort of comic payoff, but never come through.One of the jokes Singleton beats on quite often is "Books about writing novels say never to do..." and then in the next sentence he breaks that rule. He breaks a lot of rules in this book, and seems to think that pointing out that he knows he is breaking the rule makes it all right. Usually what he accomplishes is to demonstrate by counterexample that the rules exist for a reason. Rules are made to be broken, but not just so you can point at the rule like a proud three-year-old who just broke a vase.The town has secrets, lots of secrets. As we learn more about the people of Gruel, we discover that they are not the simple, naïve country bumpkins we first thought. Oh, no, not at all. That's pretty cool. But wait -- their plans for Novel is woefully simple-minded. How do these savvy people ever buy into it? The contradiction is never resolved; in fact, Singleton is caught in his own trap. All the characters he introduces are against the grand scheme for Novel. He can't show us any of the people who think the plot is a good idea, because they would betray the inherent contradiction.At the end, lots of things happen. Everything comes to a head, people are coming out of nowhere (James and Joyce? But why?), and our boy Novel is in the thick of it. Then a Huge Coincidence occurs, and everyone shrugs and goes home again, nothing changed, nothing resolved, and a lot unexplained; humor pistols loaded in the first act lie undischarged in the third.The book grinds to a stop leaving a big a pile of unresolved events that we had passed, events I assumed would have some sort of significance. Just why the hell did the owner of the surplus store want Novel to find the knives buried behind the hotel? As I closed the book, I felt like there was some big explanation I'd missed (other than the big explanation that's in there, that just added to my questions). I suspect it never left the author's head and found its way to the page.Just because an author is writing a farce doesn't mean he can just throw out a new coincidence or oddity whenever he loses momentum; everything still has to hang together and make sense in that farcical context. I don't think Mr. Singleton has learned that lesson yet. I do look forward to reading some of his short stories.