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nicka's review
4.0
gonna give it another go...
With lines as humorous as 'May you dream of offered tits' as playful as 'They'd kiss her like they were in hell and she was iced tea' or as sweet and lyrical as 'Let's stay together till we die. I'll never tire of looking at you when the sun hits you through the window,' John Brandon packs this book with the kind of writing that would seemingly have a pretty wide appeal.
Even though the ending faltered, Arkansas was a thrilling, engaging read. I'm sure Brandon has read his fair share of Elmore Leonard but Arkansas is wholly his own, a great unique debut.
With lines as humorous as 'May you dream of offered tits' as playful as 'They'd kiss her like they were in hell and she was iced tea' or as sweet and lyrical as 'Let's stay together till we die. I'll never tire of looking at you when the sun hits you through the window,' John Brandon packs this book with the kind of writing that would seemingly have a pretty wide appeal.
Even though the ending faltered, Arkansas was a thrilling, engaging read. I'm sure Brandon has read his fair share of Elmore Leonard but Arkansas is wholly his own, a great unique debut.
quadruploni's review
3.0
Unpredictably, what I ultimately liked best about Arkansas was its plotting. Early on I couldn't generate much empathy for protagonists Swin and Kyle, so that they seemed to blur together in their motives even as the author took pains to distinguish them. The introduction of the character addressed as "you, Ken Hovan" only made matters worse. Things improved, on the contrary, with the introduction of Johnna. Soon I was drawn in by the turns the lives of these characters took and found convincing the arbitrariness of the events that put them in a new, worse, situation. As Brandon built up the backstories of those arrayed against them, I looked forward to the inevitable face-off between the parties. That I found the final section of the novel less enjoyable than I had hoped was I think primarily due to the increasing role played by a character whose mode of presentation I found so unsatisfactory: the use of the second-person in these chapters, while modestly motivated by the fact that "your" identity is a secret to the protagonists as well, would seem to be an otherwise pointless distraction from the story. (A concluding switch to the first-person for this character does nothing to salvage the experiment.) Finally, the book's prose--generally clipped short but occasionally sending up breathless periods with multiple subordinate clauses--is adequate but never seems to find quite the right register. Swin's bookworm-redneck conflicts color the entire book, and so at times dark humor shades into cynical callousness, or tenderness into sentimentality. I came to care about these characters--every one of them but, significantly, "you"--and occasionally wanted to get them out of this novel into the hands of a narrator with more control over his prose, or perhaps into those of a director, because Arkansas would make a great film.
jamiereadthis's review
4.0
Count me as a newly minted fan of John Brandon. There are the books you read, and then the books you read, and then the books that take up residence, that shoulder in with their noise and their luggage and eat and breathe and sleep under your roof. I read Arkansas in the grass, in the sand by the water, by the flat, empty hotel pool, all in the glass-eyed heat of the southern summer. It bristles with the same dark energy of boredom, cosmic and comic and criminal. The languid, lazy south; the placid domesticity of a wild life of crime.
Entirely coincidentally, the New York Times Book Review just came out to give Brandon’s newest novel some seriously high praise. Meaning I now get to shamelessly crib Daniel Handler, as he finds in Citrus County what I found in Arkansas:
“John Brandon joins the ranks of [writers] whose wild flights feel more likely than a heap of what we’ve come to expect from literature, by calmly reminding us that the world is far more startling than most fiction is. He subverts the expectations of an adolescent novel by staying true to the wild incongruities of adolescence, and subverts the expectations of a crime novel by giving us people who are more than criminals and victims. The result is a great story in great prose, a story that keeps you turning pages even as you want to slow to savor them, full of characters who are real because they are so unlikely.”
All that’s left is to change my review this much: withhold that last fifth star for John Brandon’s next.
First read July 2010
- - -
June 2011:
At this rate I’m making room for this book every summer. It’s maybe not even summer until Arkansas comes shouldering in. I guess what I’m saying is, this is just my thing and I loved it even more this time than last.
Entirely coincidentally, the New York Times Book Review just came out to give Brandon’s newest novel some seriously high praise. Meaning I now get to shamelessly crib Daniel Handler, as he finds in Citrus County what I found in Arkansas:
“John Brandon joins the ranks of [writers] whose wild flights feel more likely than a heap of what we’ve come to expect from literature, by calmly reminding us that the world is far more startling than most fiction is. He subverts the expectations of an adolescent novel by staying true to the wild incongruities of adolescence, and subverts the expectations of a crime novel by giving us people who are more than criminals and victims. The result is a great story in great prose, a story that keeps you turning pages even as you want to slow to savor them, full of characters who are real because they are so unlikely.”
All that’s left is to change my review this much: withhold that last fifth star for John Brandon’s next.
First read July 2010
- - -
June 2011:
At this rate I’m making room for this book every summer. It’s maybe not even summer until Arkansas comes shouldering in. I guess what I’m saying is, this is just my thing and I loved it even more this time than last.
erat's review
5.0
Lately, McSweeneys has been on a roll. First there was Bowl of Cherries by Millard Kaufman, now Arkansas by John Brandon. Two first novels, both mind blowingly awesome.
I could explain stuff about the book, but screw it, I'll just say "read it" and leave it at that. You won't be sorry.
I could explain stuff about the book, but screw it, I'll just say "read it" and leave it at that. You won't be sorry.
apermal2's review
3.0
I liked this book. It moved quickly and for the most part I thought the characters were well developed. My only complaint with the characters was near the end when a whole bunch of shit hits the fan and the deadpan writing starts to feel thin. I liked Johnna but felt that some of her reactions were a bit lacking and unrealistic.
I was annoyed by Swin's attitude though I thought he was better realized than Kyle. I never really clicked with Kyle, who I think entered a life of crime because it turned out he was god at it. You have to figure that some people just are, just as some people are really good at composing music. That was interesting, but Swin's case was more difficult. His hyper inflated sense of himself (while annoying at times) perhaps made him think that he was above everything. He felt a pull though towards the blue collar, towards the normal life. It was this conflict that made his story interesting.
Frog's story made for a fun interlude, but his breakdown at the end fell flat for me. Other than these complaints I liked the novel and finished it quite quickly. I almost didn't read it after reading the positive (but obnoxious) review in the SF Chronicle. It isn't really pertinent, but that review made me cringe.
I was annoyed by Swin's attitude though I thought he was better realized than Kyle. I never really clicked with Kyle, who I think entered a life of crime because it turned out he was god at it. You have to figure that some people just are, just as some people are really good at composing music. That was interesting, but Swin's case was more difficult. His hyper inflated sense of himself (while annoying at times) perhaps made him think that he was above everything. He felt a pull though towards the blue collar, towards the normal life. It was this conflict that made his story interesting.
Frog's story made for a fun interlude, but his breakdown at the end fell flat for me. Other than these complaints I liked the novel and finished it quite quickly. I almost didn't read it after reading the positive (but obnoxious) review in the SF Chronicle. It isn't really pertinent, but that review made me cringe.
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