Famine

Rating:
Summary: Crime fiction plus
Review: I'm a huge fan of straight ahead noir from Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett & David Goodis to contemporary writers like Andrew Vachss, Nicola Griffith & Colson Whitehead. This is, unbelievably, even darker but more deeply satisfying the way the best literay fiction is. Komarnicki's prose and storytelling is incredibly daring, risky and I guess "experimental" but also thrilling and uniquely effective. What sounds gimmicky when it's described really works when you're reading it, perhaps at least in part because it's so visual, cinematic. I look forward to reading what Komarnicki writes next.

Rating:
Summary: Quietly shattering.
Review: Indeed, the first 30 odd pages are a bit self-conciously angsty, but after that--fuggheddaboudit. Komarnicki knows and is able to boil down the most sad dark places--sans po-mo "hip" /"cool" hoohaw--into a few terse sentences that leave you, quite literally, stunned. And looking at your own life, and wondering. What higher praise is there for a book than that?

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic magical realism
Review: This book is great. It is not a linear detective story as many who are into the "mystery" genre might hope for, but a wonderful psychological story along the lines of Kundera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, or, more recently, Arundhati Roy. Part of the beauty of the book is that it is as maddening and enchanting as living itself can be. Kudos to the author.