The Rumpus just posted a great review of The Wilding, by Benjamin Percy, a book that’s also on our radar, because it is set in Bend, Oregon. The review, by Joseph Michael Owens, an MFA student at the University of Nebraska, is a true rave, in the best sense. Here is just one paragraph from the review:
“While it might be a bit premature, I personally get the feeling people of the more literary ilk will soon be — if they haven’t been already — tossing Percy’s name around with that of the gritty, iconic frontiers writer, Cormac McCarthy, as well as writerly contemporary in the genre of ‘real man’s men,’ Wells Tower, not to mention James Dickey. Few writers under forty are doing what Percy is doing stylistically, which is producing a silky prosaic style blended seemingly effortlessly with the rugged and savage ways of the wild, especially instances where man intrudes into said wild — nature inevitably exacts a swift and hefty toll.”
Read the review. Then we fully expect you will buy the book. It’s available from Graywolf Press and at fine independent bookstores throughout the Northwest.
The Rumpus.net is an online magazine focused on culture, as opposed to “pop culture.” We check it regularly because they have lots of good, out of the norm book talk.