Soft-Boiled: An Investigation of Masculinity and The Writer’s Life

by Stephen J. West

New father wrestles with the masculinity question--shadows a private eye as experiment. SOFT-BOILED follows Stephen J. West as he shadows a private investigator by the name of Frank Streets. What starts out as a last-ditch effort to write West's first book--while juggling responsibilities as a husband and new father--becomes a critical reflection on art-making, storytelling, and masculinity in America. Blending memoir, reportage, criticism, and detective thriller into one capacious yet focused narrative, SOFT-BOILED is a lyrical and aching self-reflexive portrait of an artist that asks the questions so many men are afraid to ask. "A unique, wandering study with plenty of thought-provoking, endearing twists"--Kirkus "SOFT-BOILED is a magical genre remix that challenges received ideas of American Manhood and the Lone Artist, while simultaneously delivering a thrilling and comedic detective noir and moving family drama"--Torrey Peters "SOFT-BOILED leaves no stone unturned in its investigation of this unified myth of American manhood, and West is a smart, fun, kind-hearted investigator, willing--like Frank Streets, the enigma at the book's center--to let us ride along and see what happens next"--Lucas Mann Literary Nonfiction.

196 pages, Paperback

Published July 5, 2022

Reviews

[Sejal Shah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished Soft-Boiled. I loved the way in which West gathers other voices, critics, and perspectives in a way that's not heavy-handed--and instead adds to the individual narratives and contextualizes them. It's auto-ethnographic, but not in an academic, jargon-y way- but in the way of artist interrogating (and investigating) identity, family, and self. As a writer, I admired how West created and maintained the narrative tension and wove the different threads-- about place (West Virginia, Western New York, Oaxaca, explorations of region, rural, national identity), about gender roles, masculinity and about what it means to be an artist, to belong to a family, and to grapple with the choices we all make in living a life.

[Deena Lipomi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stephen has always wanted to write books, and he grapples with finding a story worth writing about while helping his wife with her vision loss, raising an infant son, and following a private investigator around West Virginia. The author's self-reflection interspersed is blended with the three main parts of his book: his experiences and worth as a husband and father, his literary references, and his time spent with Frank Streets, the PI who agrees to let him tag along on some cases. The first and third are the most intriguing, with the second being a nice tie-in to the author's English professor status. There is humor, heart, honesty, and more to ponder in this book.

[Jennifer Dines · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished this all in one day and enjoyed it very much. The writer is acutely self-conscious of his desire to be a writer/artist, and he is very self-deprecating in the way he describes the pathetic-ness of the process of research-for-research's-sake. What this book ultimately reveals, however, is a journey towards self-acceptance as well as acceptance of ambiguity and life-as-life-is, not the type of life one need for a neat narrative/memoir/revelation.

[Carole Duff · Rating 4 out of 5]

After hearing Mr. West read at HippoCamp 2022, I purchased his book. Although memoirs about masculinity or writing are not my usual read, I appreciated the author’s candor and reflections. Beyond the intriguing detective angle, what struck me was how common the conflict is between the demands of family versus our work lives, especially for artists. While families give us love, our professions can bring us success. Fearful is the seductive power of goodness.