…me, each imbued with the powerful and memorable writing for which he has become so well known. In “The Ahab Complex,” Caputo recalls a life-and-death struggle off the coast of Florida with a majestic giant blue marlin whose quarter-ton body “lit up as if a gigantic light had flashed in the water.” He recounts his travels in Kenya’s largest national park among the only lions to have a natural tendency to stalk and eat human beings, and where the ac…
…r (1977). The first and longest story, “Standing In,” traces the emotional course travelled by Dante Panetta, a young barber who, while returning by Amtrak to Connecticut for his mother’s funeral, meets an older married couple—Greer and Julian Rhodes—to whom he finds himself helplessly bound by an “incredible accident of genetics.” The ways in which Dante’s eerie physical resemblance to their dead son affects both him and them are explored with br…
…I hope mine will earn a place on the shelf with the best of them. And, of course, I hope you’ll enjoy reading The Longest Road, vicariously traveling with me from subtropical Florida to the northernmost reaches of Alaska. You’ll meet the people I did, and I think you’ll come away with the same impression: that quite often, the most ordinary men and women have extraordinary stories to tell. Visit my page on this site about The Longest Road for cho…
…rinking, but I failed.” As a citizen of our great republic, Aaron, you are free to use this verb, but not with me. Henceforth, I beg of you, if someone is going to contact me by any means, be it phone, e-mail, letter, or carrier pigeon, please say in future communications that they will “contact” me. It’s a good, strong, concrete sort of word. I do give you leave, however, to employ alternatives, such as “get in touch with you,” or “get a hold of…
…type of insect also impelled by the urge to merge: Plecia nearctica Hardy, commonly known as the Love Bug, the Honeymoon Fly, or the Double-Headed Bug. They mate in mid-air—backwards, the male facing one direction, the female the other (hence, the double-headed nickname). She is the larger of the two, and tows the male along—a kind of insect dominatrix. These creatures boil out of swamps and roadside ditches in such numbers that driving through th…
…ation as incriminating evidence begins to indicate the possibility of an accomplice. Caputo (A Rumor of War, LJ 5/15/77) combines elements of a psychological thriller and police procedural in a novel that explores the issue of racial violence in considerable depth. The result is another riveting novel by one of America’s master storytellers. Recommended for most libraries. —Thomas L. Kilpatrick, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale Copyright 1…
…of general nonfiction, and ten novels. Arcade Publishing will release his latest effort, MEMORY AND DESIRE, in fall 2023. It’s a story about love and the persistence of love, about desire and desire remembered, and the reunion of a fifty-year-old man with a son he fathered out of wedlock in his youth. The three central characters, Luke Blackburn, his brilliant but troubled wife, Maureen, and Luke’s former lover, Corinne Terrebonne, take the reade…
(Arcade Publishing, Fall 2023) Note from Phil: My latest novel, Memory and Desire, which Arcade Publishing will bring out in September 2023, is a story about love and the persistence of love, about desire and desire remembered, and the reunion of a fifty-year-old man with a son he fathered out of wedlock in his youth. The three central characters, Luke Blackburn, his brilliant but troubled wife, Maureen, and Luke’s former lover, Corinne Terrebonn…
…p-caputo. It sums up the book quite well. “Crossers” attempts to present a complex portrait, a mosaic in words, if you will, of what life is like “on the line:” the frontier between the U.S. and Mexico, between two cultures. It’s also story about the moral and emotional crossings people make, prodded by circumstances and their own characters. Immigration and border issues have returned to the front burner in Washington, and to the front pages, but…
…Please note: Due to time constraints, my policy is that I do not read or comment on manuscripts nor books in galleys. I also no longer give endorsements in any context. Requests for lectures or speaking engagements Contact my agent Aaron M. Priest at apriest (at) aaronpriest (dot) com…
RECENT COMMENTS