Articles tagged "Matt Young"
PW’s Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2018
Publishers Weekly‘s “Most Anticipated Books of Spring 2018” include these 8 Macmillan titles:
Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror
THE MERRY SPINSTER by Mallory Ortberg
Ortberg’s twisted variations on popular fairy tales and children’s books are daring and skillful, and this outstanding collection of them brims with satirical horror.
WITCHMARK by C.L. Polk
This stellar debut, set in an alternate early 20th century, is an innovative mix of class struggle, magic, and war that marks Polk as a writer to watch.
Poetry
WADE IN THE WATER by Tracy K. Smith
The current U.S. poet laureate challenges the nature of citizenship, motherhood, and what it means to be an artist in a culture mediated by wealth, men, and violence.
Comics/Graphic Novels
BLAME THIS ON THE BOOGIE by Rina Ayuyang
Ayuyang chronicles the real-life adventures of a Filipino-American girl born in the decade of disco who escapes life’s hardships and mundanity through the genre’s feel-good song-and-dance numbers.
Memoir
EAT THE APPLE by Matt Young
This bold memoir explores “how war transformed [Young] from a confused teenager into a dangerous and damaged man.”
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey
The former FBI director shares for the first time the details of his career in government during the past two decades. readmoreremove
Stars for EAT THE APPLE
Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age eighteen after a drunken night culminating in wrapping his car around a fire hydrant, and deployed to Iraq three times. Now a creative-writing professor at Centralia College, Young shares his experiences through a broad range of narrative approaches (second person, third person, first-person plural, screenplay, crude drawings, invented dialogue between various selves) in his memoir, EAT THE APPLE, which has THREE starred reviews:
“Young’s visceral prose, honed in college and writing programs after his tours of duty, confronts shame, guilt, and pain without flinching yet is beyond sympathetic to its subject; it is another act of service.” — Booklist, starred review
“[A] bold memoir… with raw honesty, humor, and pathos. Comparisons to Michael Herr’s DISPATCHES, about the Vietnam War, are apt, but where Herr searched for thrills and headlines as a journalist, Young writes from a grunt’s perspective that has changed little since Roman legionnaires yawned through night watch on Hadrian’s Wall: endless tedium interrupted by moments of terror and hilarity, all under a strict regime of blind obedience and foolish machismo.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review
“This honest war memoir will shock and horrify, will cause readers to tear up, and will make them wish they could tell a 19-year-old marine that everything will be okay. Highly recommended for all collections.” — Library Journal, starred review readmoreremove