Nathan Holic

Category: Books – Contemporary

  • “Roadwork”: King’s (Forgotten) Redemption

    So, after being massively disappointed by Stephen King’s attempt at serving notice as a “literary writer” with “Lisey’s Story” (on the heels of reading the modest disappointment “Duma Key”), I started to wonder about my own fascination with and defense of King as a writer. King was the first writer I truly loved, and I…

  • “Look at the Birdie”: The Vonnegut Boxed Set

    “Look at the Birdie” is the sort of quirky collection that feels more like the fulfillment of a curiosity than it does a meaningful and deliberate “collection.” It feels the same as an ultimate box set of Nirvana or Pearl Jam or even Rolling Stones material: some really good stuff, some polished songs, and then…

  • “The Road”

    Since I just saw the film, here’s the original review I wrote of “The Road” from several years ago: “The Road” is a damn-near perfect novel. I don’t know that there’s another American writer who can say so much by writing so little. Read through just a page of this book and analyze McCarthy’s prose:…

  • What Does Stephen King Need to Prove Anymore?

    I was expecting big things from “Lisey’s Story,” and maybe the let-down I suffered upon reading the novel has less to do with Stephen King’s storytelling and more to do with my own inflated expectations. After all, I read this novel five years after its initial release, and in that time, it’s been lauded and…

  • Best American Comics?

    Each new year, it seems, the genre of “literary comics” (my term of choice is “graphic narratives”) grows and matures just a little bit. Thirty years ago, when the comics medium was dominated mostly by teenage/escapist fare, the most important evolution in the comics medium was the rise of “comix,” a sort of indignant response…

  • Natural Disasters, Graphic Novels, Blogs, Bio-Comics!

    “A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge” is a graphic novel that demonstrates the underlying theory that made Art Speigelman’s “Maus” so haunting, memorable, and successful. In our current culture, saturated by televised images of destruction, we sometimes need to see major tragedies and disasters in a completely stylized way in order to avoid becoming desensitized.…

  • “Housekeeping vs. The Dirt”: Reader’s Guilt

    Hornby’s introductory essay for “Housekeeping vs. The Dirt” should be required reading for anyone who experiences any conflict in his/her reading life, and for any student or teacher of English/Literature. In the academic world, we are constantly made to feel bad if we don’t read a certain amount each month, if we haven’t read certain…

  • Mixed-Media Fiction: Sink or Swim?

    “The Raw Shark Texts” is an interesting concept that never really rises above “interesting concept.” It’s a breezy read, moves very quickly and sometimes develops real suspense, and the plot is well thought-out, but it still feels superficial by the very end. Perhaps this is because the characters feel as if they could have been…

  • Chabon as the (Long) Short Story Writer

    “Werewolves in Their Youth” is a refreshing short story collection, mostly because Chabon is an author who is unafraid of telling a long story and allowing you to truly sink into the story itself. Too often, American short fiction in the past 20 years seems to place its sole emphasis on concision, almost as if…

  • The Great Millennial Novel?

    Finally, I think we have a book worthy of being called the first “Millennial Generation Novel.” Finally! “Attention. Deficit. Disorder.” initially struck me as a gimmicky book, meant to capitalize on the popular Dave Eggers style of mixed-media, mixed-form, mixed-genre fiction. The sentences are short, choppy, and there are constant interruptions, introducing dictionary definitions and…