Book Notes: McManus to read from Bo Tully series
When you think of Patrick F. McManus, assuming you think anything at all, the name Rancid Crabtree probably comes to mind. Or Melba Peachbottom. Or Crazy Eddie.
But for the second time now, the name McManus brings up visions of Blight County, Idaho, and its irascible sheriff, Bo Tully.
“Avalanche,” from which McManus will read Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. at Auntie’s Bookstore, is the second in his Bo Tully series. The first, “The Blight Way,” came out last April (the paperback edition came out in January).
Writing for the Seattle Times, Adam Woog praised “The Blight Way” as a “good-natured comic mystery” and “good, goofy fun.”
“Avalanche” finds Sheriff Tully stranded in a mountain lodge. In the process of investigating a missing-person case, he quickly becomes entangled both in a murder mystery and an old girlfriend who is staying at the lodge – without her husband.
“The first one I just kind of went from one thing to the other,” McManus said in a recent interview. “You know, ‘What shall I have the character do next?’ On ‘Avalanche,’ I actually did have an idea.”
McManus built a reputation for humor writing through short magazine pieces that were later published under titles such as “They Shoot Canoes, Don’t They?” and “A Fine and Pleasant Misery.”
“I wanted to still combine the humor in these mystery stories,” McManus said. “The humor is a little different than in the short pieces where you have a fairly small comic idea.
“With the mysteries you have what I think of as comic characters. And they banter back and forth, get in predicaments of one kind or another. So there’s no really big comic idea working in the mystery stories, just a lot of little comic things.”
For example, in a sequence early on in “Avalanche,” Tully’s mother tells him that it’s time to get over his late wife.
“I know you think you can never replace Ginger, but you should start seeing other women,” she says.
“I do see other women,” Tully replies.
“I mean women who aren’t already married!” his mother exclaims.
As Woog wrote, “good, goofy fun.”
Strayed not staid
Ken Olsen, a former Spokesman-Review writer and author in his own right (“Lasting Valor,” written with Vernon J. Baker), would like people to know that another upcoming Auntie’s event should be worth checking out: the 7:30 p.m. reading Wednesday by Cheryl Strayed of her novel “Torch,” the paperback edition of which was released in January (Mariner Books, 330 pages, $13.95).
Strayed’s novel, Olsen says, “has been compared to Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking.’ And while Strayed is deft at bringing grief to the page, her take on life – family life and rural life in particular – enrich her work in ways that such a comparison might not readily bring to mind.”
Awards galore
“Whitworth College English professor/poet Laurie Lamon (“Fork Without Hunger: Poems”) has been awarded a Witter Bynner Fellowship, which includes a $10,000 cash prize and a reading on Thursday at the Library of Congress (the award’s sponsor) in Washington, D.C.
Lamon was a co-winner with former Philadelphia Inquirer editor David Tucker (“Late for Work”).
“Post Falls author Nikki Arana’s novel “In the Shade of the Jacaranda” (Revell, 336 pages, $12.99 paper) was named a winner of the 2007 Silver Angel award for print, which is awarded annually by the California-based nonprofit group Excellence in Media (EIM).
For more information about Arana, go online at www.nikkiarana.com.
Writing young
The intricacies of competing in a poetry slam will be the central focus of the sixth-annual Young Writers of the Lost Horse youth writing conference, a four-day event at both Sandpoint’s middle and high schools beginning April 9.
Missoula poet/teachers Mark Gibbons and Robert Lee will lead the conference to prepare students from grades five through 12 to participate in the inaugural Sandpoint Poetry Slam on April 12. No registration is necessary.
For more information about the conference, go online at www.losthorsepress.org/events.html or call Lost Horse Press at (208) 255-4410.
Unless otherwise noted, all events are free and open to the public.
Book talk
“Friends of the Cheney Community Library Book Discussion Group (“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,” by Carson McCullers), 7 p.m. Tuesday, Cheney Community Library, 610 First St., Cheney. Discussion leader: Jean Bruntlett. Call (509) 893-8280.
The reader board
“Poet/artist Tom Gribble (“Interest Free Karma”), slide-show lecture titled “Purity of Intent,” tonight at 7, Area 58, 3036 N. Monroe St. Call (509) 327-0427.
“Patrick F. McManus (“Avalanche”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Auntie’s Bookstore, Main and Washington. Call (509) 838-0206.
“Sam Ligon (“Safe in Heaven Dead: A Novel”), 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Wolff Auditorium, Gonzaga University. Call (509) 328-4220.
“Cheryl Strayed (“Torch”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Auntie’s Bookstore’s Liberty Cafe.
“Claire Davis (“Season of the Snake”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, University of Idaho College of Law Courtroom, Moscow. Call (208) 885-6291.
“Sandra Major and Louise Padia (“Walking on High Places: Keys to Kingdom Living”), reading, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Auntie’s Bookstore Liberty Café.