Nine Below Zero

I love Kevin Canty's work. He is my favorite author and I can't wait for him to write another book (of course his new collection is due out very soon!). This book, however, isn't for everyone. There are twists and turns of plot, but the main topic of this novel is the struggle within the main characters. Canty has a way with manipulating the psyches of depressed and lonely people; he has a unique ability to show the deepness and complexity of human emotion like no other writer that is alive today. If you have never read Kevin before I suggest you read his other novel first (Into The Great Wide Open, or evenn better, read his short story collection, A Stranger In This World, that is the best book I own!!), simply because this book is a lot to handle if you don't know what to expect. You should expect long narrative sequences that dive into the minds of the characters. No thought is left out, EVERYTHING is thought about and with complete honesty, something that is hard to find nowadays. I am at a loss for words to describe this book. Usually in modern fiction there is no more to learn than a moral lesson or a cleverly disguised metaphor, but by reading Canty I have again seen the core of human emotion; I have relearned how people see each other and how they think. BEST BOOK YOU WILL READ by a modern American author. BUY IT!!!

Oh, Kevin Canty is sad. At least his books are sad and I like them that way. In this book his characters cannot get out of their own heads. Although they try, although they are suffering, they cannot help themselves. This is why the elements of cold--nine below zero in Montana--are so striking. The physical reality of the book is in sharp contrast to the inner workings of the characters. This book is like needles and ice and all that is stupid and beautiful at the same time. If you haven't read Canty before, read him. You will love it, I think.

Kevin Canty has a gift for developing complex characters. This book is in many ways an expansion of his remarkable short stories in A Stranger in This World. Seemingly simple characters become more and more complex with every wrong decision that is made, involving the reader in their increasingly desperate situations.