Charles Dickinson is an American writer known for his literary novels that mix heartbreak and humor with action and well-developed characters. His books include, in the order of their publication: Waltz in Marathon, Crows, With or Without (a short story collection), The Widows' Adventures, Rumor Has It, A Shortcut in Time, and its sequel, A Family in Time. His short stories have appeared in Atlantic Monthly, Esquire, and The New Yorker.
It took me a while to get into Charlie Dickinson's* second novel. I fell quickly for Waltz in Marathon, his first book, but Crows played coy with me. Robert Cigar — or Rob or Rob-O — is a lost soul. Or an ass. Hard to tell at the outset, and he didn't do a lot to make me get to like him for awhile, but Charlie really can write, and I kept going on the strength of Waltz and the crow fables told by Ben, a biology professor whose death is at the heart of the story. I'm glad I did. The characters in Crows don't become more likable as the story progresses but because I've spent more time with them, my empathy deepened. People are like that, I think, but it is hard to pull it off in a book because the threat of people putting it down and never returning is great. This is a wonderful exploration of loss, grieving, and finding your way in the world.
* I had the pleasure of working with Charlie for many years at the Chicago Tribune.
Like another reviewer here, I was a little slow to warm to Crows but wound up liking it a lot. At the time I read it, I had no first-hand experience of small-town Wisconsin, but I obtained a lot later! I have a strong bias in favor of regional and small-town novels; just by writing one, an author is halfway home with me.