His entry begins:I just finished reading The Acme Novelty Date Book, Volume One: 1986-1995, by Chris Ware. It's an extraordinary document of ten years of a graphic novelist's daily struggles, drafting processes, notes, studies, and stray thoughts. I was struck first by the beauty of the drawings and watercolor paintings, second by the thoughtfulness of the author as he tries with all his effort to nail down the subjects he's circling, and third by how hard Ware can be on himself, an occupational hazard, I suppose. Above a beautifully drawn graphite streetscape, Ware writes, in red...[read on]About Praying Drunk, from the publisher:
The characters in Praying Drunk speak in tongues, torture their classmates, fall in love, hunt for immortality, abandon their children, keep machetes beneath passenger seats, and collect porcelain figurines. A man crushes pills on the bathroom counter while his son watchesLearn more about Kyle Minor and his work at his website and Facebook page.from the hallway; missionaries clumsily navigate an uprising with barbed wire and broken glass; a boy disparages memorized scripture, facedown on the asphalt, as he fails to fend off his bully. From Kentucky to Florida to Haiti, these seemingly disparate lives are woven together within a series of nested repetitions, enacting the struggle to remain physically and spiritually alive throughout the untamable turbulence of their worlds. In a masterful blend of fiction, autobiography, and surrealism, Kyle Minor shows us that the space between fearlessness and terror is often very small. Long before Praying Drunk reaches its plaintive, pitch-perfect end, Minor establishes himself again and again as one of the most talented younger writers in America.
Writers Read: Kyle Minor.
--Marshal Zeringue
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