by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Oct 22, 2010 | first novels, place |
The Wake of Forgiveness, the debut novel by Bruce Machart–officially out as of yesterday from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt–has a big storyteller narrator who knows how to describe sweeping panoramas and then move seamlessly in for a close-up. We follow an owl...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Sep 22, 2010 | first novels, my writing, reviews, time |
The new issue of Contrary Magazine is online with my review of Susanna Daniel’s first novel, Stiltsville. Here’s the first paragraph of the review: A stilt house off the shore of Miami is a wondrous and fragile thing, built against all odds of survival. As...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jul 20, 2010 | first novels, mfa, reviews |
Robin Oliveira was a graduate assistant during my first residency at Vermont College. I met her only months before her first book would be published by Viking. Mary Sutter is a midwife, and what she wants is clearly stated in dialogue in the first chapter: “I want to...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 24, 2010 | first novels |
Edinburgh, the first novel by Alexander Chee, is the best book I’ve read so far this year. The subject matter is difficult, but the writing–with its repetitions, its wondrous quality, its innocence–lures the reader forward. “Blue. Blue because...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Apr 9, 2010 | first novels, my writing, reviews |
The new issue of Contrary Magazine is online with my review of Kim Wright’s first novel, Love in Mid Air. Here’s the first paragraph of the review: As a plane heads down a runway, a stranger reaches for the Narrator’s hand. “Here comes the dangerous part,”...
by Cynthia Newberry Martin | Jan 11, 2010 | first novels, my writing, reviews |
An Equal Stillness, the debut novel by Francesca Kay, who grew up in South-east Asia and India and now lives in Oxford, was one of the best books I read in 2009. My review of this book is now online in Contrary Magazine’s Winter Issue. An Equal Stillness also...
