What is Eryk Pruitt reading?

Featured at Writers Read: Eryk Pruitt, author of What We Reckon.

His entry begins:

I'm a big fan of Southern crime fiction. I've read every word published by Daniel Woodrell and William Gay and Tom Franklin…I love the grit in the words written by Jedidiah Ayres and Steve Weddle…I'm a big fan of the new guys coming up like Greg Barth, S.A. Cosby and Marietta Miles.

However, when someone asked if I was a fan of any African-American crime fiction from the South, I had to think long and hard about it. Most black Southern crime fiction writers like Chester Himes left the South to write about New York City. Walter Mosley took Easy Rawlins out of Texas and dropped him into LA. The only Richard Wright book which could count as crime (Native Son) takes place in Chicago, not his native Mississippi.

So I've been on a bit of a hunt to find crime fiction written by African-Americans from the South, which takes place in the South. That's why...[read on]

About What We Reckon, from the publisher:

He’s snuck into Lufkin, Texas, in the dead of night with little more than a beat-up Honda, a hollowed-out King James Bible full of cocaine, and enough emotional baggage to sink a steam ship. He’s charming, dedicated, and extremely paranoid.

Summer Ashton, his partner-in-crime. She’s stuck by him through thick and thin, but lately her mind has begun to slip. They’ve told their fair share of lies and she’s having a devil of a time remembering what’s the truth. And recently, she’s been hearing voices. Unfortunately for both of them, she’s the brains of the operation.

Furthermore, they have begun to tire of one another.

For these two career grifters, the sleepy East Texas countryside is but another pit stop on their rampage across the American South.

Will it be their last?

In WHAT WE RECKON, Eryk Pruitt explores themes of identity, loyalty, and purpose with psycho-delic, transgressive, chicken-fried twists that read like Trainspotting cut with a couple grams of Helter Skelter.

Visit Eryk Pruitt's website.

My Book, The Movie: What We Reckon.

The Page 69 Test: What We Reckon.

Writers Read: Eryk Pruitt.

--Marshal Zeringue