Status Updates From The Stones of Summer

Slow

There is a living, breathing pathos that undergirds every page of this novel.

The chapter riding the rails with Travelin’ Tommy is another fine gem within this novel. These pages seem to be so full of truth that they breathe and sweat. The emotions of the characters swing wildly amid languid wandering, and Mossman continues to paint with as many colors of language that he can find.

This book is astonishing! The first sentence alone is immaculate and drops a reader straight into Mossman’s marvelous language. August, 1950, Iowa is far more compelling than we would expect. Influences abound from Proust, Faulkner, Joyce, and T. Wolfe, with Salinger as an echo, prefiguring Cormac McCarthy as well. The first third could be its own novel, and it would be a masterpiece of a debut.

I don’t care for the writing style. It is frenetic and hard to follow. I am not able to continue past page 30. There are just too many other books I want to to read .