February 25th, 2009 / 1:00 am
Uncategorized

Ken Baumann on Shane Jones’s LIGHT BOXES

lbfrontsmallA review submitted by national heartthrob Ken Baumann, for Shane Jones’s just released novel LIGHT BOXES from Publishing Genius Press.

I feel it’s hard today to find a work of art that is earnest, that is compassionate. (Michael Kimball’s Dear Everybody comes to mind). I was startled by Shane Jones’s novel because it is so painfully both; it bleeds itself, and bleeds for others.

Light Boxes is a story about a community, about a man’s quest to rid his community of February, a bitter and long spell of cold that haunts the the town and its people. I don’t want to speak explicitly of the ‘narrative’ here, only because I think there is magic in discovery; it’s a sensual work. Many of the images affected me viscerally, and will stay with me for a long time. Dead bees pour from the sky, a broken father sits in the middle of a snow-covered street, a body surfaces in a river covered in text… I could list all the beautiful, and often tragic, images contained within for awhile.

To go deeper: The characters, the people, in Light Boxes breathe true. I really felt them living, and felt them dying. They seem warm, hot & cold all at once, much like the seasons that surround them. The story also functions on a level outside its own prison, outside the printed page, but, again: I’d like to keep quiet. I’d like you to discover the layers yourself.

Shane has crafted a fine myth, one I hope lasts for a very long time.

Buy and read Light Boxes.

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12 Comments

  1. Ken Baumann

      ‘National heartthrob’

      I’m going to cut you.

      xo thnx

  2. Ken Baumann

      ‘National heartthrob’

      I’m going to cut you.

      xo thnx

  3. Blake Butler

      girl, you know its true

  4. Blake Butler

      girl, you know its true

  5. daniel bailey

      ken, if you had been at awp i would’ve asked you to sign my television.

  6. daniel bailey

      ken, if you had been at awp i would’ve asked you to sign my television.

  7. Ken Baumann

      I would have signed it to make you happy.

  8. Ken Baumann

      I would have signed it to make you happy.

  9. daniel bailey

      i also would’ve asked you to sign blake butler.

  10. daniel bailey

      i also would’ve asked you to sign blake butler.

  11. Mudanzas Mongo « Maciste Betanzos en la intimidad

      […] forthcoming novel ‘The Failure Six’ * ‘Light Boxes’: The Official Website * Ken Baumann on ‘Light Boxes’ @ HTMLGIANT * Publishing Genius […]

  12. HTMLGIANT / Light Boxes Redux

      […] I reviewed Light Boxes back in February, 2009. In honor of the official US release day of the Penguin presentation, here are those words, slightly altered and here again: […]