{"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>
Photo: Spencer Ainsley\/Poughkeepsie Journal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than anything, we writers want readers\u2014particularly discerning readers and critics\u2014to\u00a0get<\/em> our work. We want readers to see the parallels to other literature and to make the comparisons\u00a0without<\/em> our having to point these things out. We want readers to appreciate the long hours that we put into making\u00a0our books\u00a0as close to perfect as our talent allows us.<\/p>\n

Recently\u00a0Kirkus Reviews<\/em> gave my new novel\u00a0One Hundred Miles from Manhattan<\/em> a stellar review<\/a>. But beyond any praise that they give the book, what I most like about the review is that the reviewer saw the parallels between my novel and\u00a0Winesburg, Ohio<\/em> by Sherwood Anderson,<\/em> as well as the stories of John Cheever. I’m pleased by this because, although I have never said as much outright, I was absolutely influenced by those works in the writing of 100 Miles<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the last sentence of the review, the reviewer writes, “Though not quite as sensitive an observer or exceptional a writer as Cheever, Orcutt lies satisfyingly in his shadow.”<\/em><\/p>\n

While I’m incredibly flattered to be compared with one of my heroes,\u00a0I do wish that last sentence read as follows:<\/p>\n

“Though not quite as sensitive an observer or exceptional a writer as Cheever yet<\/strong>, Orcutt shows promise of reaching Cheever’s level in time, and for now\u00a0lies satisfyingly in his shadow.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Below\u00a0is the Kirkus Review in its entirety. My thanks go out to the anonymous reviewer who took the time to read my work with care\u00a0and to craft a\u00a0well-written review.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

KIRKUS REVIEW of\u00a0One Hundred Miles from Manhattan<\/em><\/p>\n

Welcome to Wellington, New York, where, in this loose novel, readers can eavesdrop on the lives of the uber-rich and those who cater to them.<\/p>\n

\nThink of a very, very upscale Winesburg, Ohio\u2014with no inhabitant nearly so innocent as young George Willard. Or think John Cheever, for this is certainly Cheever country. Wellington is about a hundred miles north of Manhattan, populated by such as the well-named Hamilton Highgate and his trophy wife, Caprice, and Carlton Hale, M.D., the wives\u2019 favorite doctor. And there\u2019s Jimmy Tatko, the studly contractor who decides to make a circuit on foxhunt day, apologizing to all the rich wives he\u2019s schtupped and then forsaken. Things don\u2019t turn out well for Jimmy, considering his stomach cancer. The most Cheever-esque story of all may be \u201cGarbage Feud,\u201d in which after the unnamed narrator throws his trash, innocently, into the wrong dumpster, now the feud is on and there\u2019s no backing down. Things escalate until Crawford, the narrator\u2019s nemesis, flips his truck with a disastrous outcome\u2014but in a twist for our times, a literary agent sees the newspaper account, so there\u2019s likely a million-dollar book and movie deal in the offing. Unlike some framed stories, main characters in one chapter will reappear, often as cameos or just references, in another. Readers do get a sense of Wellington as a real place where lives intertwine. Jimmy, for instance, may pleasure a fellow\u2019s wife in one chapter, then turn up in another to give an estimate for his kitchen remodel. For all their wealth, most of these people are not happy\u2014an old trope, of course, but one that Orcutt slightly twists. There are random acts of kindness, and in a heartening episode, someone steals an abused dog. Sometimes, even for those characters who are disagreeable or worse, there are hints that even they deserve our pity.<\/p>\n

\nThough not quite as sensitive an observer or exceptional a writer as Cheever, Orcutt lies satisfyingly in his shadow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

More than anything, we writers want readers\u2014particularly discerning readers and critics\u2014to\u00a0get our work. We want readers to see the parallels to other literature and to make the comparisons\u00a0without our having to point these things out. We want readers to appreciate the long hours that we put into making\u00a0our books\u00a0as close to perfect as our talent … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"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}]}}