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When the story focuses on our young status-seeker, we know we have a banger.

All those quirks you thought were cute will become the things you dread, the things that wake you up and make you sweat.

Beware the girlish women who can't cook.

Mexico City in the 50s. Ruins and rituals. This book does not wait. It reads like a short tale. Vignettes, but something tectonic to connect it all.

In antiquity or modern times, darkness looms.

Some folks are doomed from the get-go.

The water melon incident is reminiscent of the scenes in The Hamlet by Faulkner of the bovine-loving member of the Snopes family.

Nothing has really happened; the writing is the story.

This book will have you rooting against your own nation.

The War of 1812 from a British perspective.

A quintessential Western like this is pure gold.

Wrapping up a great book means you'll miss some of the characters, even if most of them are at least somewhat detestable.

Even when the writer is describing something disgusting it's entertaining. There's more under the surface if the reader examines things a bit.

Alternative title: Competing

This is realism, dirty and stinky, and it's great.

Continues to interest me. But Patty is more entertaining than Richard.

I want this guy to write a full detective novel set in the early part of the 20th century with all his cosmic horror mixed in.

Franzen's use of the protagonist's "autobiography" is a nice touch.

This guy really exposes human frailty in a unique way.