His entry begins:I just finished reading Jess Walter's novel Beautiful Ruins, which I loved: it has the feel of a summer beach book but is actually a wonderfully written and often wrenching love story, one that spans a youthful, nostalgia-laden moment in 1962 when a tiny Italian fishing port has a brush with Hollywood glamor, part of the fall-out of the making of the Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton epic Cleopatra in Rome. The consequences of that collision of worlds, driven in large part by the brilliantly evoked seamier side of Hollywood, echo down the decades and the book is divided between the past – with flashbacks even further into World War II – and the present. What I really liked about this was the blend of evocative literary fiction with a highly irreverent sense of humor, so the writing can veer rapidly between the touching tale of war, missed opportunities and love and hilarious descriptions of...[read on]About Cronix:
Recreational suicide bombings are on the rise, revelers in fancy dress are throwing themselves from the heights of the Empire State Building in increasing numbers.Visit James Hider's website and Twitter perch, and the Cronix Facebook page.
When scientists break the final frontier of Death and find a way for the soul to live incarnate forever, humanity leaves Earth with a bang, bound for a man-made paradise. On the Orbiters, supercomputers riding beyond the edge of Earth's atmosphere, these Eternalslive out their wildest dreams or build fantastic idylls, free at last from the tyranny of Evolution.
Back on Earth, however, the man known to history simply as the Missing Link, has been hiding out in the woods. Luis Oriente was the product of an experiment to capture and synthesize the human mind. In ultra human form, he has spent centuries fleeing his past, living a quiet life away from prying eyes.
But when a giant wolf disrupts the rhythm of his forest to deliver a cryptic message, Oriente is dragged back into the turbulent currents of the history he has tried so hard to avoid. Something is broken in paradise, and Evolution is not quite done with Humanity yet.
Writers Read: James Hider.
--Marshal Zeringue
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