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| First Place in the 2002 American Writers Contest Finalist for the 2001 Peter Taylor Prize for the Novel |
Brilliant and full of dread... In very contemporary
terms, it turns One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
on its head. This is an author with talent and an
electrical rush of events.
--Doris Betts (author of The Sharp Teeth of Love
and Souls Raised from the Dead)
terms, it turns One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
on its head. This is an author with talent and an
electrical rush of events.
--Doris Betts (author of The Sharp Teeth of Love
and Souls Raised from the Dead)
This book is quick and hip and it actually bothers to be
entertaining, a rarity, it seems to me, in the literary world
these days. It's smart. It's character rich. It's one of the
funniest books I've read in a long time. All that and it never
abandons its heart.
--Michael Knight (author of Dog Fight and Divining Rod)
entertaining, a rarity, it seems to me, in the literary world
these days. It's smart. It's character rich. It's one of the
funniest books I've read in a long time. All that and it never
abandons its heart.
--Michael Knight (author of Dog Fight and Divining Rod)
excerpt from the review by Mike Smith:
It could easily be said that "Typical Pigs" is one of the greatest books to ever be set in
New Mexico. Easily.
Its setting, however, should not result in this book being typecast as another piece of
regional fiction, because "Typical Pigs" is a great book, period.
Sure, the book makes New Mexico sound really cool---a strange state of dusty
weirdness, strewn with dying cottonwoods, oily riverside muck, and nearly perpetual
sunlight, a place that "has a foreign feel to it in the sense that locals make you feel welcome
to stay no longer than two weeks"---and sure, the book makes Albuquerque (the story's
primary setting) sound amazing and apocalyptic---a city on the edge of infinite deserts,
with houses shadowed by now-dormant volcanoes, with a War Zone and a Little Saigon
and a gangland West Side---but ultimately those are all just the story's setting.
The expertly depicted setting sets Stephen Ausherman aside as a master of descriptive
prose, but it's the story itself that really drives the book, that really makes it compelling.
"It was so disturbing I couldn't put it down," my housemate told me, after spending almost
all of two consecutive days reading it from cover to cover, and my experience was similar.
...
Written in a unique and modern style that is sharp, barbed, and cuttingly funny, and that is
nothing if not readable, "Typical Pigs" is the sort of book that any fan of Chuck Palahniuk
or Quentin Tarantino could enjoy, but it's also a book with heart. "Typical Pigs" is a great
book: one that offers dark pleasures and unbelievable surprises, one that you will almost
undoubtedly recommend to your friends, and one that you owe it to yourself to read.
It could easily be said that "Typical Pigs" is one of the greatest books to ever be set in
New Mexico. Easily.
Its setting, however, should not result in this book being typecast as another piece of
regional fiction, because "Typical Pigs" is a great book, period.
Sure, the book makes New Mexico sound really cool---a strange state of dusty
weirdness, strewn with dying cottonwoods, oily riverside muck, and nearly perpetual
sunlight, a place that "has a foreign feel to it in the sense that locals make you feel welcome
to stay no longer than two weeks"---and sure, the book makes Albuquerque (the story's
primary setting) sound amazing and apocalyptic---a city on the edge of infinite deserts,
with houses shadowed by now-dormant volcanoes, with a War Zone and a Little Saigon
and a gangland West Side---but ultimately those are all just the story's setting.
The expertly depicted setting sets Stephen Ausherman aside as a master of descriptive
prose, but it's the story itself that really drives the book, that really makes it compelling.
"It was so disturbing I couldn't put it down," my housemate told me, after spending almost
all of two consecutive days reading it from cover to cover, and my experience was similar.
...
Written in a unique and modern style that is sharp, barbed, and cuttingly funny, and that is
nothing if not readable, "Typical Pigs" is the sort of book that any fan of Chuck Palahniuk
or Quentin Tarantino could enjoy, but it's also a book with heart. "Typical Pigs" is a great
book: one that offers dark pleasures and unbelievable surprises, one that you will almost
undoubtedly recommend to your friends, and one that you owe it to yourself to read.
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