Jess Walter
Author of Beautiful Ruins
About the Author
Jess Walter was born on July 20, 1965. He graduated from Eastern Washington University. Before becoming an author, he worked as a journalist. His work has appeared in Newsweek, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and the Boston Globe. He has written one nonfiction book and several novels. show more His works include Every Knee Shall Bow, Over Tumbled Graves, The Zero, and Beautiful Ruins. His novel, Citizen Vince, won the 2005 Edgar Allan Poe Award for best novel. He was the co-author of Christopher Darden's 1996 bestseller In Contempt. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Jess Walter
Zo ver heen 4 copies
Associated Works
You and Me and the Devil Makes Three (Esquire's Fiction for Men, #1) (2012) — Contributor — 7 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1965-07-20
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Eastern Washington University
- Occupations
- reporter
novelist - Organizations
- The Spokesman-Review
- Awards and honors
- Edgar Allan Poe Award Best Novel, 2005: Citizen Vince
National Book Award Best Novel Finalist, 2006: The Zero
Washington State Book Award in Fiction Finalist, 2006: The Zero
Washington State Book Award in Fiction Finalist, 2007: Citizen Vince
Washington State Book Award in Fiction Finalist, 2011: The Financial Lives of the Poets
New York Times Notable Book, 2001: Over Tumbled Graves (show all 12)
PEN USA Literary Nonfiction Award, 1996: Every Knee Shall Bow
PEN USA Literary Award, 2007: The Zero
LA Times Book Prize, 2007: The Zero
Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, 2007: The Zero
Time Magazine's #2 Novel Of The Year, 2009: The Financial Lives of the Poets
New York Times Bestseller, 2012: Beautiful Ruins - Short biography
- Home page: http://www.jesswalter.com/index.htmFrom author's site: http://www.jesswalter.com/bio.htm : Jess Walter is the author of THE ZERO, a finalist for the 2006 National Book Award and CITIZEN VINCE, winner of the 2005 Edgar Award for best novel, as well as two other novels and a nonfiction book. He's won the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award and has been a finalist for the L.A. Times Book Prize, the PEN USA Literary Prize, in both fiction and nonfiction, the ITW Thriller of the Year and he was part of a team that was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in spot news journalism. His books have been New York Times, Washington Post and NPR best books of the year and have been published in twenty countries.
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Spokane, Washington, USA
- Places of residence
- Spokane, Washington, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Spokane, Washington, USA
Members
Reviews
Rhys Kinnick, after a fight with his idiot Son-in-Law, after being downsized out of the journalism job he loved, packs up and moves to the woods, to an abandoned cabin well outside of Spokane, Washington. His intention was to write a book and read and get away from the world and he's done a lot of reading, far away from civilization, but seven and a half years later, he's still there. Then a woman brings his grandchildren to him, children he hasn't seen in years, with the news his daughter show more has disappeared and left a note that he should take in the kids until she's back. Shane, the idiot Son-in-Law, replaced a drug addiction by joining ever more extreme religious groups, his current church is one with a militia in western Idaho. Rhys is not set up to care for a nine and a thirteen year old, but here they are.
"I'm a prodigy," the boy said.
Leah sought out her grandfather's eyes and gave him a small shake of the head meant to convey, No. He's not. Asher had, indeed, been the fifth-ranked eight-year-old in the Southern Oregon Chess Club. But that was among the seven eight-year-olds who had qualified for ranking.
"Dad and Pastor Gallen are praying about whether chess is a Godly endeavor," Asher said. "It comes from the Arabs, which Pastor Gallen says is bad, and Dad is worried the board represents the illuminati and has graven images. But Mom says I can keep playing while they're discerning."
What follows is a man who has not kept up with events, now thrust into the world as it is, trying to protect his grandchildren. Shane enlists his militia, called the Army Of the Lord (AOL for short), to get his children back and Rhys has his best friend and an ex-cop turned private detective on his side. What follows is both dead serious and funny. Walter knows this part of the world and the people who live there very well and his writing is always sharp and full of understanding. One of the best books I've read this year. show less
"I'm a prodigy," the boy said.
Leah sought out her grandfather's eyes and gave him a small shake of the head meant to convey, No. He's not. Asher had, indeed, been the fifth-ranked eight-year-old in the Southern Oregon Chess Club. But that was among the seven eight-year-olds who had qualified for ranking.
"Dad and Pastor Gallen are praying about whether chess is a Godly endeavor," Asher said. "It comes from the Arabs, which Pastor Gallen says is bad, and Dad is worried the board represents the illuminati and has graven images. But Mom says I can keep playing while they're discerning."
What follows is a man who has not kept up with events, now thrust into the world as it is, trying to protect his grandchildren. Shane enlists his militia, called the Army Of the Lord (AOL for short), to get his children back and Rhys has his best friend and an ex-cop turned private detective on his side. What follows is both dead serious and funny. Walter knows this part of the world and the people who live there very well and his writing is always sharp and full of understanding. One of the best books I've read this year. show less
A blowup at Thanksgiving between Rhys Kinnock, an environmental journalist, and his right-wing Christian son-in-law leads to a rupture in the family and Kinnock's retreat to a remote piece of land outside Spokane that he inherited from his father. He can no longer bear the country that he feels has gone stark raving mad. There he lives like a hermit among piles of books until one day a woman shows up at his door with two children who he doesn't recognize - his grandchildren. His daughter show more asked a neighbor to take them there after she left her husband, who has become deeply involved in an armed religious group that is preparing for the End Times.
When he takes the kids to a chess tournament at a church that the boy wants to compete in, though it turns out they have the wrong day, a couple of toughs take the children to be with their father, leaving Rhys with a broken cheekbone (tended to by the priest, who turns out to have a background in boxing). A former girlfriend and journalist introduces him to an ex-cop private investigator who has bipolar disorder, and he leads the charge to the compound where the kids and their father are staying. With the rescued kids in tow, Kinnock sets out to find their mother.
I loved this novel. It starts out appearing to be about the breakdown of normal society, overtaken by irrational conspiracy theories and religious fundamentalism, but it's really about the relationship between Kinnock and his daughter, as well as with the children who have grown up in a family that's much more complicated than the simple depiction of fundamentalist crazies. There's a kind of tender acknowledgement by the end that Kinnock's dismissal of his son-in-law's views overlooked his fundamental foolish innocuousness. The kids, too, are wonderfully portrayed in a way that refuses to divide the world into religious tomfoolery and rational liberalism. It's strangely generous and hopeful though there's no papering over the complexity of Kinnock's relationship with his daughter. It's also very funny, and while there's a dramatic and violent climax, the ending is much less reductionist about our present moment than it might seem to readers at the start. show less
When he takes the kids to a chess tournament at a church that the boy wants to compete in, though it turns out they have the wrong day, a couple of toughs take the children to be with their father, leaving Rhys with a broken cheekbone (tended to by the priest, who turns out to have a background in boxing). A former girlfriend and journalist introduces him to an ex-cop private investigator who has bipolar disorder, and he leads the charge to the compound where the kids and their father are staying. With the rescued kids in tow, Kinnock sets out to find their mother.
I loved this novel. It starts out appearing to be about the breakdown of normal society, overtaken by irrational conspiracy theories and religious fundamentalism, but it's really about the relationship between Kinnock and his daughter, as well as with the children who have grown up in a family that's much more complicated than the simple depiction of fundamentalist crazies. There's a kind of tender acknowledgement by the end that Kinnock's dismissal of his son-in-law's views overlooked his fundamental foolish innocuousness. The kids, too, are wonderfully portrayed in a way that refuses to divide the world into religious tomfoolery and rational liberalism. It's strangely generous and hopeful though there's no papering over the complexity of Kinnock's relationship with his daughter. It's also very funny, and while there's a dramatic and violent climax, the ending is much less reductionist about our present moment than it might seem to readers at the start. show less
Jess Walters' portrayal of his characters rivals Franzen for depth, but where Franzen can be pitiless, Walters forgives everyone who has a conscience. I read this book in three sittings, pulled along as much by the characters as by the plot, and for Walters' way with description, always incisive and illuminating, but never showy. There is also a moral dimension here that I appreciate. I imagine many people know they should be more understanding and give people the benefit of the doubt more show more often, and Walters' approach to his characters illustrates how you might go about that. Kirkus Reviews, who so often seem to miss the point, are spot on here when they say that the author is "a beacon of wit, decency, and style."
There is a story here, and it's a good one, but it's the characters who will live in your memory. show less
There is a story here, and it's a good one, but it's the characters who will live in your memory. show less
Matt Prior's life as he knew it is circling the drain the night he heads out to the 7-Eleven for some overpriced milk. He lost his job some months ago, the job he was forced to crawl back to after he risked it all on a website venture dedicated to financial advice written in mediocre poetry. It's starting to seem inevitable that he will lose his house if he doesn't come up with a significant sum of money before week's end. His wife is carrying on an affair of sorts with an old boyfriend via show more Facebook and text messages, and his dad's mental health is declining rapidly. When Matt, shuffling under the fluorescent lights of the 7-Eleven in his bedroom slippers, happens upon two of the sorts of guys that you'd rather not run into in a 7-Eleven he soon finds himself driving the two stoners to a party and smoking way better weed than he ever smoked in college. With a clarity that only weed can produce, Matt knows that this weed is the weed that can solve all his problems. He just needs to sell it.
The Financial Lives of the Poets drew an inevitable comparison to the TV show Weeds for me. Both are at once laugh out loud funny and sad in their biting satirization of what the American dream has become. Mercilessly does Jess Walter spear the new American family unit that builds its ambitious life on hard work and mountains of debt. He harpoons the people who seemingly without a second thought take out loans on houses and cars they never had any hope of affording sold to them by slick salesmen peddling an unrealistic way of life. Walter mocks the people who, once they've attained some semblance of security, throw it away on goofy dreams and online shopping binges all the while ignoring the important things in life like their spouses, their children, and their friends.
Hidden within Walter's laugh out loud satire, however, is a set of real, recognizable characters that draw readers' sympathies. There's Matt who got lost while he was trying to find his dreams, who can't sleep at night for worrying about what fate will befall his family now that he's failed as their provider. There's his wife, Lisa, who desperately misses the powerful, sexy career woman she used to be before she gave it up for kids. There's Matt's father who is slowly going senile, but still thinks he's "got it" because he can't remember that a stripper named Charity took him for all he was worth. There are countless would-be customers of Matt's pot dealing scheme who feel like they need to have a smoke just to make it through a day at the office. These are people we know, and in some cases these are people we are, and despite all his squeezing them into ridiculous situations for laughs, Walter doesn't let us forget that. The Financial Lives of the Poets is an engaging story of a family gone awry full of cannily delivered truths and a potent satire of life in today's USA. show less
The Financial Lives of the Poets drew an inevitable comparison to the TV show Weeds for me. Both are at once laugh out loud funny and sad in their biting satirization of what the American dream has become. Mercilessly does Jess Walter spear the new American family unit that builds its ambitious life on hard work and mountains of debt. He harpoons the people who seemingly without a second thought take out loans on houses and cars they never had any hope of affording sold to them by slick salesmen peddling an unrealistic way of life. Walter mocks the people who, once they've attained some semblance of security, throw it away on goofy dreams and online shopping binges all the while ignoring the important things in life like their spouses, their children, and their friends.
Hidden within Walter's laugh out loud satire, however, is a set of real, recognizable characters that draw readers' sympathies. There's Matt who got lost while he was trying to find his dreams, who can't sleep at night for worrying about what fate will befall his family now that he's failed as their provider. There's his wife, Lisa, who desperately misses the powerful, sexy career woman she used to be before she gave it up for kids. There's Matt's father who is slowly going senile, but still thinks he's "got it" because he can't remember that a stripper named Charity took him for all he was worth. There are countless would-be customers of Matt's pot dealing scheme who feel like they need to have a smoke just to make it through a day at the office. These are people we know, and in some cases these are people we are, and despite all his squeezing them into ridiculous situations for laughs, Walter doesn't let us forget that. The Financial Lives of the Poets is an engaging story of a family gone awry full of cannily delivered truths and a potent satire of life in today's USA. show less
Lists
Open Book 2021 (1)
Edgar Award (1)
Five star books (1)
Favourite Books (1)
True Crime Books (1)
Carole's List (1)
To read (1)
Books Read 2025 (1)
Books Read 2026 (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 22
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 10,590
- Popularity
- #2,244
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 589
- ISBNs
- 222
- Languages
- 13
- Favorited
- 13
