Dollarapalooza

Sapp, Gregg. Dollarapalooza: or the Day Peace Broke out in Columbus. DeKalb, Illinois: Switchgrass Books, 2011.   “When the sun rises over Ohio, it casts a the whole nation’s shadow.” “Say what?” “What I’m saying is that you can take the boy out of Ohio…” “But you can’t take Ohio out of the boy. Oh, [...]

In the Fullness of Time

Nicolosi, Vincent.  In the Fullness of Time.  New York; Fonthill Press, 2009.  You stayed home, so you don’t know what it’s like out there, do you? Amongst all those wolves. You don’t know how they are or what we’re up against. The only thing you know is Marion. Out there, they’ll take any little thing [...]

The Green Bay Tree

Bromfield, Louis. The Green Bay Tree.  Wooster, Ohio; The Wooster Book Company, 2001 (Originally published in 1924). Every time I pass the Malabar Farm sign on I-71 near Mansfield I think, “One day I will visit there.”  Instead, I finally got around to reading a work of the farm’s one-time operator, Louis Bromfield. Though known [...]

Knockemstiff

Pollock, Donald Ray. Knockemstiff.  New York; Doubleday, 2008. Knockemstiff is a really ray of sunshine.  Pollock’s collection of inter-related short stories of desperate people living desperate lives is some how able to relate a more depressing human condition with each tale.  From the first story, “Real Life,” which involves a father brutally beating a man [...]