Ten novels set in Pennsylvania:
- Richard Russo, Straight Man
- Jason Cherry, Bloody Circles of War
- Jennifer Haigh, Baker Towers
- Karen Rile, Winter Music
- Tamar Myers, Crepes of Wrath
- John Updike, Rabbit Run
- R. Troyan Krause, The Works of the Flesh
- Norma Peterson, Rhonda the Rubber Woman
- Denise Dennis and Gregory Miller, Becoming His Father’s Son
- Bud Shuster, Double Buckeyes
Straight Man is my favorite book by one of my favorite authors. I was thinking about Richard Russon this morning, because I just finished One Mississippi, a new book by Mark Childress, the promotional text for which described it as being "in the spirit of Richard Russo and Tom Perrotta," which in my opinion is a hell of a good spirit in which to be. (Having now read it, I'm not sure I wholeheartedly agree with the comparison, but it was a good read, if somewhat unsurprising in its narrative climax.)
On the other end of the scale is Double Buckeyes, which is a dreadful novel. I didn't expect it to be very good — it's a children's book written by a former U.S. Representative Bud Shuster of Pennsylvania — but it failed even to meet my low expectations of it. I wouldn't say it's the worst book I've ever read — I think Jack Valenti's Protect and Defend still has it beat, but it might be the worst children's book I've ever read.
