This is labeled as an epistolary novel, but that's not entirely right. There are entries that could not possibly have been written, from the narrative; and most of the "entries" are in fact more like transcripts of audio (with weirdly knowing descriptions of what body language and expression mean, insight into what people are literally thinking). Honestly, this reads more like a script, for the most part, than a novel--and I think the format makes what I've seen called the "fictive dream" more elusive than actual straight prose. The fact none of the characters are particularly likeable, or come across as anything like as intelligent (or brave, or driven, or ...) as they seem to think they are doesn't help much, either--though there's a hint that one of the characters might have survived in a more meaningful manner than the one who was subsumed into the Bad Place.
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American Rust by Philpp Meyer
This was a really blunt and kinda obvious novel, all about Rust Belt despair and depression and all the other bad things that were coming ...
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A beautiful novel about life as a mobster (in 1940s Tampa) and all the contradictions and complications of it. Lehane clearly has an ear f...
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This is early Vachss, all taut and violent, more than a little murky to my mind. It is not good to be a sexual offender in a Vachss novel....
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A beautiful novel of violence, vengeance and pain, set against a backdrop of small-town bigotry. If you see this, or *Razorblade Tears*, t...

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