Shriver
Chris Beldens Shriver is a hoot, a farce about mistaken identity set at a writers conference where facile poets and pompous novelists declaim, carouse and, possibly, commit murder. In a style somewhere between Evelyn Waugh and Mel Brooks, Beldens satire lampoons all things literary but also, amazingly, convinces us to care about the fools that these mortals be. ----Alan Davis, author of So Bravely Vegetative and Rumors from the Lost WorldWhen I started reading Shriver, I thought, Uh-oh another writer writing about writers writing. But, no, not this novel. The character Shriver in Beldens novel is a writer who is not a writer. (You will have to read it to find out.) This picaresque and piquant satire of writers, academics, their quirky characters and content-lacking conferences is reminiscent of David Lodges satiric spins on academe. Darkly comic, Shriver also reminded me of Martin Scorseses inversion of The Wizard of Oz in the movie After Hours the obstacles, the quirky characters, the plot turns and pivots. But Beldens world is rural rather than urban. Despite its ability to laugh at the writing world and its daffy denizens, Shriver nonetheless ultimately affirms the essential importance of the word. ----Joan Connor, author of History Lessons and The World Before Mirrors