Beaut: A Novel

by Donald Morrill

The spare, poetic prose of Raymond Carver meets Jenny Offiill's Department of Speculation and Elizabeth Strout's My Name Is Lucy Barton. In a period when many families in the heartland are shattered by drug addiction, this timely novel chronicles one woman's attempts to understand and survive her blended family, including her meth-addicted son. BEAUT, the winner of the 2018 Lee Smith Novel Prize, is the first novel of acclaimed poet Donald Morrill. It has garnered early, lavish praise from Wiley Cash (The Last Ballad) and Taylor Brown (The River of Kings). Morrill, former board member of AWP, will attract attention in the literary market and has already created a buzz with his reading at SIBA, which should result in some early bookseller reviews. Morrill's prose is gorgeous, but not at the expense of this novel's layered narrative and dead-on characterizations.
Sweetgirl by Travis Mulhauser Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill All the News I Need by Joan Frank

151 pages, Kindle Edition

Published May 1, 2018

Reviews

[Caleb Michael Sarvis · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's plenty of good in here, but it all suffers from the book's construction. Each chapter is essentially an entry into a diary, which makes the "narrative" feel flat and without any sense of urgency. Our narrator, for lack of a better term, is just not interesting or compelling in anyway.

[Brad Huestis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading Beaut and was disappointed to learn that it’s success has been undermined by the author’s gender. At its heart, isn’t literature about empathy? Why on earth should a male author be disqualified from writing from a female protagonist’s point of view? Who in their right mind thinks Beaut would be a better book if written by Dawn rather than Don Morrill? In my humble opinion, the taboo against gender misappropriation is harmful nonsense. Art should stand on its own merits; after a book is published the author’s gender (or any other immutable characteristic) should be irrelevant. Bottom line, Beaut is a good book, and it is worth reading.

[Angela · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this slim story - a woman of a certain age dealing with grown children and a new relationship. But the more I read, the less I liked her because of the way she thought about her troubled son and possible obsession with her boyfriend's flatmates. I then realized I just didn't care and needed to move on.

[B K McIntire · Rating 5 out of 5]

Realistic reflection

Beaut, written by a male, is nonetheless a surprisingly accurate portrayal of a woman reflecting on her past. Donald Morrill created a woman who is trying to understand herself and her loved ones as she faces the end of life.