While you are reading this statement, I am actually, at this very moment, IN YOUR HOUSE typing these words as you are reading them. Go on. Give me a call.

P.S. I am not wearing pants.

“The tree of liberty is nourished by the blood of patriots.”

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is a famous quote from, I believe, Thomas Paine. Maybe. NOT, however, the Tom Paine who wrote this novel.

This is a nice comic romp so far, although the author is a little too insistent, for my tastes, on using the phrase, “like” to connote … something … the superiority he feels towards the characters, or a sense of ‘authenticity’ or something. That’s, like, not quite working for me.

So far, reading this book feels like I’m reading the Old Testament book of Genesis: “Harold Ross begat Walter Winchell begat writer I don’t know begat other writer I’ve not heard of begat some other writer who I am sure is historically important but doesn’t even have a name as memorable as Shadrach begat World War I ‘Stars and Stripes’ begat Alqonquin Round Table.” I’m hoping things will pick up in Chapter Two, where I understand it’s Harold Ross Versus Predator (circa 1923). Now THAT should be kick @$$!

Hello young lovers! I beseech you in the bowels of Aquaman … I am about to begin reading this book. Nearly everything I have read by Howard Waldrop has been interesting. I’ve never read anything longer than a short story that he has written, though, so this should be interesting. ‘Course, I don’t think he has written much novel-length work. Anyhoo, this one is The 12 Labors of Hercules re-interpreted and set in Depression-era Mississippi.

I finished this book. Seemed to spend a lot of time building to things that were resolved very quickly, or not resolved, as the case may be. That’s a minor point, though, in what was otherwise a very, very satisfying read. Highly recommended.

I’m digging this book. I’m not sure WHY I’m digging this book but I’m digging this book.

To be perfectly honest, I picked it up because the title of the book is, after all, Monkey Beach. And who doesn’t like books about monkeys on the beach? But this book isn’t about monkeys on the beach at all.

Still, it has sasquatches in it. So you’ve got to dig that.

It’s set in the Pacific Northwest. I was up there last summer, kayaking off Vancouver Island and looking for orcas, so the setting resonated with me somewhat and made me reminisce about that trip.

This is a story about familial drama and growing up and life on the Pacific Northwest coast (of Canada). No monkeys on the beach so far, but did I meantion the Sasquatches?

This is the thing about books about “life on the con” or whatever the hip new term is for stories of hoboes and grifters nowadays—they end one of two ways: Either the con-men and -women get away with the con, or they don’t. This book is no exception. But you know that going into it.

The three main characters were engaging and, what’s more, seemed “real” to me. An intriguing writerly device to make the con artist least engaged in “the life” your narrator – you can gloss over the details you’re not sure of (as a writer) that way. It may be sounding like I didn’t like this book – far from it. I zipped right through it, because the novel kept me engaged and wanting to turn the pages or read the next chapter. If I was somewhat disappointed in how it all came together in the end, that’s probably a testament to how much I enjoyed everything that had come previously.

Nice work.

Not as good as I had hoped. It does make me want to read a historical account of Christopher Marlowe’s life and career. (This book is an imagined account of Marlowe’s final days.)

Vaguely interesting. Not as compelling as I had hoped. At least not so far …

A fun read.

Beat Poets vs. Cthulhu: Sounds like a pool party at my old apartment complex.