Customer Reviews

Heaping Stones

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this debut novel by Rob Woodard except that it was supposed to be in the Charles Bukowski camp of putting the raw facts of life right on the page. It was that, but much more. The book's simple opening line ("It was a stupid boring night.") perfectly sets the tone for this story of a thirty something writer's journey from a state of depression and anger to a new attitude of hope and vision.

Several themes run through this book. Most obviously, at first, it's a story of a man obsessed with sex, love, and women, struggling to overcome the loss of an ex-girlfriend. But the reason this novel really works is that Woodard experly weaves in the concurrent tale of an artist's fight to find his own voice, as well as a new direction in, and attitude towards, life.

The opening chapters of Heaping Stones are written in a very simple prose (see the opening line above), and I must admit that I wasn't sure whether I liked it at first. But as I read on I found the prose to become more interesting and complex, morphing at times into long lines of stream of conscious thought. More importantly, Woodard subtly brings the reader with him on his journey from basic anger and depression to compex emotional heights and depths. I found that when I least expected it I suddenly realized that I was hooked on the book and couldn't put it down. This I think is Woodard's greatest strength. He has a way of really digging into human emotion and developing it on more and more levels as his story goes on.

I really enjoyed this book and am looking forward to his next novel.

This book was quite a disappointment. Given that Woodard's stablemates are Dan Fante and Tony O'Neill, both of whom I quite like, this book fell a little flat. For one, there's very little dialogue. Not until 40 some pages in do we find two people talking. There's some internal discussion, quite a lot in fact, but that just ain't the same. In the end, the book reads a bit too much like a journal, and a whining one at that. There's inconsistency of style as well, with one chapter being simply one long sentence, possibly a homage to Kerouac, but overdone, disjointed. Still, there's the cry from the pit at the bottom of this and I'm open to read another by Woodard.

Slams into your brain like a freight train moving at eighty miles per. You have a choice: either get the hell
out of the way, or jump on board. I say do the latter--and hang on for a reading experience you'll soon not forget.

Easy to relate to--because that's exactly what it's about: trying to exist in this chaotic, unpredictable, screwed-up, mixed-up, fu*ked-out and fu*ked-up and, at times, pretty damn amazing world we are all a part of.

A bang-up job. Brutally honest. Look forward to more great things from this fresh, new voice.

Set in present-day Long Beach, CA, this is the story of Rob, in his late thirties, and still an unpublished writer. He is having a hard time dealing with the abrupt walking-out of Maggie, his wife, several months previously. Rob seems locked into a cycle of self-hatred and drunken rages.

Veronica has a free and open sexual nature which seems to make up for a self-esteem level of zero. It is as if Veronica feels that her only worth as a human being is based on what is between her legs. After a three-day binge of sex, sleeping together and more self-loathing on Rob's part, he finally lets it all out, and physically throws Veronica out of his apartment.

Rob busses tables at a local restaurant to pay the bills. A fellow employee is Rachael, a vivacious recent high school graduate with a sweet and innocent nature. They engage in some playful flirting during work hours, which gets their fellow employees to gossiping. Even better, from Rob's point of view, is that Rachael enjoys reading Literature (she is actually familiar with Scandinavian writer Knut Hamsun), something about which Veronica is basically clueless. Rachael inspires Rob to take another look at some of his past writing attempts, stashed in a drawer. Her sweet nature begins to show Rob that there really is a light at the end of his emotional tunnel.

This is a short novel, but an uncomprising one, moving from bitter to almost optimistic. It shows the big difference between "sexual" love and "real" love. There may have been a little too much emphasis on the sex scenes, but this is still a good piece of writing that is worth reading.

Rob is an excellent writer and has a way with words. I couldn't put the book down and I read it within a weekend. It is an easy but rewarding read and leaves you wanting more. A very sexual and upfront in your face type of book. Very honest and revealing. I can't wait for his second novel to come out in stores.