Hearing Voices


Surprising Stories from Unexpected Quarters


Nick Petrulakis

SOUTHERN BELLE


    Arlene Fleet has a problem. She’d made three promises to God: never to lie again, or fornicate again or ever return to Possett, Ala. Unfortunately, Alabama has come back to her—shown up in Chicago in the guise of Rose Mae Lolley. What’s a girl to do? Especially when those promises were made to ensure that a body was never found. See, Arlene’s other problem is that she killed her high school’s star quarterback—bashed in his head with a tequila bottle and didn’t (doesn’t) regret it one whit (nor will you regret it, once you find out why she did it). But now, nine years later, Rose arrives, determined to rake up the past.
    Oh, and Aunt Florence is certain that Arlene’s going to hell, not for murder, but for any number of lesser reasons, like not calling home often enough. First-time novelists rarely make it look this easy, but Joshilyn Jackson’s Gods in Alabama does just that. It’s funny, wrenching and so steeped in the sound of the South you’ll swear you’ve been to Alabama and back by the time you’re done.
Gods in Alabama, by Joshilyn Jackson (Warner Books, 2005, 275 pgs. $19.95)

LIFE ON THE ROCK


    When you realize that Moose Flanagan is narrating Al Capone Does My Shirts, you might think you’ve stumbled across a book self-published by some graying guard from Alcatraz.
    Of course, if you thought that, you’d be wonderfully, splendidly wrong. It’s 1935, and Moose Flanagan is 12 years old. He’s taken up residence on Alcatraz because, well, his mother said he had to (besides the fact that his dad just got a job there). And that’s how Tiburon’s Gennifer Choldenko begins her award-winning story for young adults. You’ll watch Moose make sense of his surroundings—while dodging traps laid by Piper, the warden’s daughter—and follow him as he tries to protect his sister, Natalie, from any new and nosey neighbors. The reader recognizes that Natalie is autistic, something Moose can’t do since autism wasn’t even labeled until 1943. Moose’s tender relationship with Natalie gives the novel heft, making a supremely funny book gentle in the most unexpected places.
Al Capone Does My Shirts, by Gennifer Choldenko (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2004,
228 pgs. $15.99)

TEARS OF A CLOWN


    Daniel Alarcón comes to Oakland via Lima, Peru, but he grew up in Alabama and studied in New York. These travels may have encouraged Alarcón’s ability to effortlessly slip into the many voices that populate his collection of stories, War
by Candlelight.
    Alarcón’s Lima is a capital inundated with the millions of migrants who in recent decades have answered the city’s siren call. The result is a familiar, chaotic refrain: too many people, not enough jobs, the threat of violence everywhere. And while these people and their circumstances are expertly exposed, Alarcón also pulls off that rare trick—making quiet moments ignite with beauty.
    The image of a sodden clown selling mints on a bus, trying to ignore the fact that his dripping clown suit clings to his body—this clown, the victim of a carnival prank, ambushed by children armed not with grenades but water balloons, is one of the many arresting, unforgettable images Alarcón crafts in his debut.    War by Candlelight, by Daniel Alarcón (Harper Collins, 2005, 189 pgs. $23.95)