Michael Mewshaw

Lying with the Dead is another very good novel by an author I have missed along the way. Michael Mewshaw has a wonderfully engaging style of writing that makes the reader look forward to every page. The story is as fascinating and timeless as Aeschylus' trilogy, The Oresteia. Themes of love and hate, envy and compassion, dominance and submissiveness, humor and pathos, and death and endurance unfold in lyrical sentences not unlike those of the author quoted in the novel, William Faulkner. show more

Three sibling narrators with very different points of view alternate describing with unique insight the action centered on their mother. My favorite was Maury, the ultimate survivor in his own world of self-protective rituals and limited understanding of the motives of others. Though he lacks the worldly sophistication of his brother and the religious confidence of his sister, Maury's understanding of life is more natural and existential than his siblings.

This is another fortunate selection of a novel (5 stars) that allows me to add the other 10 novels by this author to my reading list. Similar to Maury, I just need a palm-size house where I can look into the window and see where I sit in my chair to read. If you can just see clearly and concretely inside something, especially yourself, the lies of others can't defeat you or give you a legacy of poison in your blood. show less

Very uneven novel which I thought started out with a huge degree of promise but ultimately descended into a rather predictable conclusion. The protagonist narrator initially enthralled me, but halfway through the book I felt that he was someone different.
Still, it was worth reading.

This is out of my 'normal read' zone but fun. Frank Pritchard is still depressed about his wife's death a year ago. He's bored and depressed and living on a exclusive island resort community in Florida. It's a recipe for trouble and his main ingredient turns out to be the paraplegic who lives next door. Turns out he lost the use of his legs when a fellow inmate came at him with a homemade knife. He's living on the island in the witness protection program. This recipe cooks up some fun.

Sadly a book that need not have been written. The author takes advantage of a one-time friendship with a more successful, now deceased, author to sell a book and get revenge. "He had hurt me." Michael Mewshaw also uses this book to air complaints about his birth family and publishing history. I'm glad I was able to borrow this book from the library and not further enrich the author.