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My college drinking buddy, Chang-Rae Lee, has become one of the premier writers of my generation. His novels, including Native Speaker, A Gesture Life, and most recently The Surrendered, are exquisitely told stories that explore not just cultural divisions, but also the divisions within ourselves. Chang-Rae now teaches writing at Princeton University, which produced this video:
I envy the students in his writing workshops.
This is the big one. The Poacher's Son has already received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Library Journal. But as humbling as these reviews have been, nothing in publishing matches a positive notice in the New York Times Sunday Book Review: our literary journal of record. Tens of thousands of new books are published each year in this country; the Times reviews very few of these titles. Fewer still come from debut authors like me.
Today, I beat the odds. This afternoon, Minotaur received an advance copy of Marilyn Stasio's next "Crime" column, which will appear in the Sunday, May 9, 2010 issue of the Times. Here's part of what Stasio has to say about The Poacher's Son:
The novel’s eye-popping scenes, idyllic and otherwise, are conveyed by Doiron’s narrator, Mike Bowditch, a rookie game warden who loves the ‘solitary and morbid profession’ that is threatened when his father, Jack, a notorious poacher, is accused of murder. ‘He was a bar brawler, not a terrorist,’ Mike insists, swearing loyalty to a man who may not be worth his son’s faith in him. Jack is still a flamboyant character, one of the best sights in a book that has plenty of natural wonders.
The rest of the review is just as enthusiastic and deftly written. When it comes online later next week, I'll be sure to post a link. In the meantime I'm feeling as happy as I've felt in a long, long time.
Good things came in four for me this week. Michael F. Hennessey, who writes the "I Love a Mystery" newsletter reviewed The Poacher's Son and has this to say:
Debut novels often show weaknesses in characterization, in dialogue, in plotting. But Paul Doiron has written a seamless thriller in The Poacher's Son... This is a debut novel that never takes a wrong turn.
The reviews are coming fast and furious now as the publication date for The Poacher's Son draws near. Bill Ott, writing in Booklist, has just made my day with this one.
I had the opportunity to talk with reviewer Clayton Moore when he was writing for Kirkus Reviews. Now he's writing about mysteries for Bookslut (his sobriquet is Mystery Strumpet). I enjoyed our conversation and I'm glad he enjoyed my book:
I’ve never been one for the outdoorsy sub-genre, although I certainly understand the attraction of CJ Box and his ilk. Yet somehow Paul Doiron’s debut novel The Poacher’s Sontranscends its setting, lending a bleak austerity to its milieu while simultaneously infusing its main character with Steinbeckian humanity.
Any reviewer who mentions Steinbeck and me in the same sentence has earned a lifelong place on my Christmas card list.
