Reviews

My latest review comes from Prof. Stephen Holder, past Chair of English Language and Literature at Central Michigan University:

"I enjoyed reading Marva's book. American local color writing has always been a favorite genre, and she handles this very well. She creates characters colorfully and effectively. She was smart, I think, to avoid having the boy make any thematic conclusions on his own, and leave them for the reader to think about. The book is a very nice snapshot of one kind of life. I tell students that the chief reason for reading literature is to gain insight into the possibilities of the human experience, and that certainly would be true in this case. Overall, my compliments!"

My husband happens to be an old friend of Steve's and he wrote telling him I was pleased to get the kind words. Professor Holder responded:

"Glad I could make Marva's day, but it wasn't just polite praise: I really liked the book. I think in genre it is somewhere between what we call Regional Realism (e.g., Garland, Jewett, Harte, Kirkland, et al.) and Creative Nonfiction (e.g., E.B.White, Roger Angell, et al.)."

To be compared to Bret Harte is fabulous. Now, I'll have to look up the rest of those people and see who the heck they are. It's amazing how much I've forgotten about American literature since college. As you might know, I attended Bedrock U. with Fred Flintstone so most American Lit of the time was limited to some wall decor created by the Anasazi. I graduated Magma cum Lava, of course.