River Bend Chronicle: The Junkification of a Boyhood Idyll amid the Curious Glory of Urban Iowa
Ben Miller seems not so much to write his sentences as dowse his way into them, following the subterranean logic of language and creating the amplitude of his completely unique America. His prose is, at once, fetchingly lyrical and deeply comic -- comic in a way that is eyes-open to the tragic sense of life. Reading his work, I feel disconcertingly -- but also relievedly--human. --Sven Birkerts, author ofThe Other WalkandThe Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic AgeBen Miller's writing has left a trail of clear and perfect images lasered permanently in my mind. His imagination is astounding in its breadth and detail, but it is the heart behind the words, the emotion he brings to the smallest moments, that makes me such an admirer of this writer and his work, and has me anxiously awaiting, and cheering for, the publication ofRiver Bend Chronicle. --Hannah Tinti, author ofThe Good ThiefBen Miller's prose is incandescent, bittersweet, and hilarious. Few writers have given more compelling voice to their memories of a particular place. The Great American Midwest will never look -- or feel -- the same. --Jackson Lears, author ofRebirth of a Nation--Jackson Lears, author ofRebirth of a NationFunny and beautifully crafted...Miller's affecting chronicle reveals the often messy ways that families fall apart and the way that writing acts both as remembrance and redemption. --Publishers WeeklyBen Miller's writing has left a trail of clear and perfect images lasered permanently in my mind. His imagination is astounding in its breadth and detail, but it is the heart behind the words, the emotion he brings to the smallest moments, that makes me such an admirer of this writer and his work, and has me anxiously awaiting, and cheering for, the publication ofRiver Bend Chronicle. --Hannah Tinti, author ofThe Good ThiefFunny and beautifully crafted...Miller's affecting chronicle reveals the often messy ways that families fall apart and the way that writing acts both as remembrance and redemption. --Publishers WeeklyBen Miller's writing has left a trail of clear and perfect images lasered permanently in my mind. His imagination is astounding in its breadth and detail, but it is the heart behind the words, the emotion he brings to the smallest moments, that makes me such an admirer of this writer and his work, and has me anxiously awaiting, and cheering for, the publication ofRiver Bend Chronicle. --Hannah Tinti, author ofThe Good Thief