{"id":6196,"date":"2014-09-23T00:41:39","date_gmt":"2014-09-23T00:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/?p=6196"},"modified":"2014-12-20T01:42:24","modified_gmt":"2014-12-20T01:42:24","slug":"kirkus-reviews-gives-100-miles-a-rave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/kirkus-reviews-gives-100-miles-a-rave\/","title":{"rendered":"Kirkus Reviews Gives 100 Miles a Rave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo:<\/a>

Pho\u00adto: Spencer Ainsley\/Poughkeepsie Jour\u00adnal<\/p><\/div>\n

More than any\u00adthing, we writ\u00aders want readers\u2014particularly dis\u00adcern\u00ading read\u00aders and critics\u2014to get<\/em> our work. We want read\u00aders to see the par\u00adal\u00adlels to oth\u00ader lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture and to make the com\u00adpar\u00adisons with\u00adout<\/em> our hav\u00ading to point these things out. We want read\u00aders to appre\u00adci\u00adate the long hours that we put into mak\u00ading our books as close to per\u00adfect as our tal\u00adent allows us.<\/p>\n

Recent\u00adly Kirkus Reviews<\/em> gave my new nov\u00adel One Hun\u00addred Miles from Man\u00adhat\u00adtan<\/em> a stel\u00adlar review<\/a>. But beyond any praise that they give the book, what I most like about the review is that the review\u00ader saw the par\u00adal\u00adlels between my nov\u00adel and Wines\u00adburg, Ohio<\/em> by Sher\u00adwood Ander\u00adson,<\/em> as well as the sto\u00adries of John Cheev\u00ader. I\u2019m pleased by this because, although I have nev\u00ader said as much out\u00adright, I was absolute\u00adly influ\u00adenced by those works in the writ\u00ading of 100 Miles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the last sen\u00adtence of the review, the review\u00ader writes, \u201cThough not quite as sen\u00adsi\u00adtive an observ\u00ader or excep\u00adtion\u00adal a writer as Cheev\u00ader, Orcutt lies sat\u00adis\u00adfy\u00ading\u00adly in his shad\u00adow.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

While I\u2019m incred\u00adi\u00adbly flat\u00adtered to be com\u00adpared with one of my heroes, I do wish that last sen\u00adtence read as fol\u00adlows:<\/p>\n

\u201cThough not quite as sen\u00adsi\u00adtive an observ\u00ader or excep\u00adtion\u00adal a writer as Cheev\u00ader yet<\/strong>, Orcutt shows promise of reach\u00ading Cheev\u00ader\u2019s lev\u00adel in time, and for now lies sat\u00adis\u00adfy\u00ading\u00adly in his shad\u00adow.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Below is the Kirkus Review in its entire\u00adty. My thanks go out to the anony\u00admous review\u00ader who took the time to read my work with care and to craft a well-writ\u00adten review.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KIRKUS REVIEW of One Hun\u00addred Miles from Man\u00adhat\u00adtan<\/em><\/p>\n

Wel\u00adcome to Welling\u00adton, New York, where, in this loose nov\u00adel, read\u00aders can eaves\u00addrop on the lives of the uber-rich and those who cater to them.<\/p>\n

\nThink of a very, very upscale Wines\u00adburg, Ohio\u2014with no inhab\u00adi\u00adtant near\u00adly so inno\u00adcent as young George Willard. Or think John Cheev\u00ader, for this is cer\u00adtain\u00adly Cheev\u00ader coun\u00adtry. Welling\u00adton is about a hun\u00addred miles north of Man\u00adhat\u00adtan, pop\u00adu\u00adlat\u00aded by such as the well-named Hamil\u00adton High\u00adgate and his tro\u00adphy wife, Caprice, and Carl\u00adton Hale, M.D., the wives\u2019 favorite doc\u00adtor. And there\u2019s Jim\u00admy Tatko, the studly con\u00adtrac\u00adtor who decides to make a cir\u00adcuit on fox\u00adhunt day, apol\u00ado\u00adgiz\u00ading to all the rich wives he\u2019s schtupped and then for\u00adsak\u00aden. Things don\u2019t turn out well for Jim\u00admy, con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00ading his stom\u00adach can\u00adcer. The most Cheev\u00ader-esque sto\u00adry of all may be \u201cGarbage Feud,\u201d in which after the unnamed nar\u00adra\u00adtor throws his trash, inno\u00adcent\u00adly, into the wrong dump\u00adster, now the feud is on and there\u2019s no back\u00ading down. Things esca\u00adlate until Craw\u00adford, the narrator\u2019s neme\u00adsis, flips his truck with a dis\u00adas\u00adtrous outcome\u2014but in a twist for our times, a lit\u00ader\u00adary agent sees the news\u00adpa\u00adper account, so there\u2019s like\u00adly a mil\u00adlion-dol\u00adlar book and movie deal in the off\u00ading. Unlike some framed sto\u00adries, main char\u00adac\u00adters in one chap\u00adter will reap\u00adpear, often as cameos or just ref\u00ader\u00adences, in anoth\u00ader. Read\u00aders do get a sense of Welling\u00adton as a real place where lives inter\u00adtwine. Jim\u00admy, for instance, may plea\u00adsure a fellow\u2019s wife in one chap\u00adter, then turn up in anoth\u00ader to give an esti\u00admate for his kitchen remod\u00adel. For all their wealth, most of these peo\u00adple are not happy\u2014an old trope, of course, but one that Orcutt slight\u00adly twists. There are ran\u00addom acts of kind\u00adness, and in a heart\u00aden\u00ading episode, some\u00adone steals an abused dog. Some\u00adtimes, even for those char\u00adac\u00adters who are dis\u00adagree\u00adable or worse, there are hints that even they deserve our pity.<\/p>\n

\nThough not quite as sen\u00adsi\u00adtive an observ\u00ader or excep\u00adtion\u00adal a writer as Cheev\u00ader, Orcutt lies sat\u00adis\u00adfy\u00ading\u00adly in his shad\u00adow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than any\u00adthing, we writ\u00aders want readers\u2014particularly dis\u00adcern\u00ading read\u00aders and critics\u2014to get our work. We want read\u00aders to see the par\u00adal\u00adlels to oth\u00ader lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture and to\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,30,19,77,78,8,37,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards-honors","category-chris-orcutt-books","category-fiction","category-novels","category-one-hundred-miles-from-manhattan","category-publishingandthemarket","category-reviews","category-writingexperiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6196"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6322,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6196\/revisions\/6322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/orcutt.net\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}