“From Dana Spiotta, author of the excellent Eat the Document, comes Stone Arabia. In this slim novel, middle-aged Los Angeleno Denise evaluates the last six months (and, at times, forty-plus years) of her life so far. Paramount on her mind is her brother, Nik, a reclusive musician who’s recorded dozens of albums in his garage and maintains an exhaustive (and often fictive) chronicle of his career. Denise is also worried about her deteriorating mother, her college-age daughter, and herself. Spiotta avoids the dramatic implosions and ‘devastating secrets’ of so many dysfunctional family dramas. Instead, she relies on fully-realized characters, lived-in scenes, keen cultural observations and crisp, purposeful prose to tell her tale. I read this book compulsively to the end and have missed the characters ever since.”—Michael, Annie Bloom’s Books, Portland. Buy Stone Arabia at Annie Bloom’s.
Face Out
Stone Arabia by Dana Spiotta
August 18, 2011