Rich Boy uses the tent pole events of the seventies as the foundation to a remarkable story. Historical events are appropriately used to render the rich landscape and meaty narrative. The author, Sharon Pomerantz, is the architect of this sublime and critically acclaimed novel.

Rich Boy was a ten year project that was given life after a teaching job for Pomerantz. In addition to being one of twelve books released by Twelve publishing this year-- the book is the only work of fiction published by Twelve, as such it already has the label of recommended read.

From the humble beginnings of New Yorks Jewish quarter to conscription during the Vietnam war. The Book encapsulated decades of change.

In Robert Vishniak the author has crafted a complex and charismatic character who strives for something better then his humble beginnings. The journey of a boy into a man and the solitude he suffers and the comfort he finds in the women that are drawn to him. Spanning his early years and when "girls now invited him to their houses after school and on weekends, and most of them had no scripts and demanded no loyalty oaths" we follow Robert through his emotional growth through the women he meets. Crea; "The reddish blond hair and small closet-eyes that turned upward at the edges ... and dangerously long legs."

Each one different to the last. "he could smell the oily scent of polish on her skin, and the candy-sweet scent of watermelon from her lip gloss"

We are introduced to Robert as a new born and Pomerantz from the outset lavished the character with all the ingredients of a boy who has the power to lure the gaze of women. As he journeys through his teens she explores the hormonal stresses that strain his relationship with women and his subsequent growth as a result. In Rich Boy the protagonist is constantly challenged by the changing environment. Pomerantz routinely delivers killer plot points, constantly seeking to challenge the readers interest.

The peripheral characters are quirky, sexy or smart thus ensuring that Pomerantz powers of literary seduction continue. All characters decusate the timeline, returning throughout the narrative to provide the rich relationships that ensure this piece will remain a satisfying narrative long after it's release.

Rich Boy
By Sharon Pomerantz
Available from Twelve
$24.99

Far North provides an apocalyptic narrative from the perspective of sole surviving sibling of a five member family. The finalist in the National Book Award. Far North is penned in the first person and the protagonist speaks to the reader in Burkowski like prose. The lyrical text is a consistent remind of the changes that face the world by promoting the text issues we face now. Sheriff Makepeace is on the brink of ending her own life-- just then and illustrating get plotting craft the author provides the protagonist with just an inkling of hope as a low flying biplane sputters across the night sky.

The work is reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road. Where McCarthy's book explores the emotion relationship between the father and son, Theroux undertakes the challenge of having the lonely protagonist explain her way through the armageddon of life.

The story takes the reader into the snowy planes of the far north. Through the conflict of prison life and the meaning of endurance, beauty and self respect. Defending the weak and empowering one self.

Far North
By Marcel Theroux
Available from Picador
$15.00

The Lonely Polygamist is a ripe tale about, you might have guessed, polygamy. The juxtaposition of Golden Richards being lonely sets up the pivotal concept behind the well crafted piece. In this remarkable novel, Brady Udall makes the exotic as familiar as the mundane. He allows the reader to witness a family unlike anything you have seen before. Poignant, loving, tragic and rich with humor.

By his own account, Golden Richards is a nice man. Father of twenty-eight children, husband to four wives, a devout and religious man, he is living his own hyper abundant version of the American dream in his little corner of Virgin Valley Utah.

As Udall writes early in the novel, "the life of any polygamist, even when not complicated by lies and secrets and infidelities, is anything but simple." Life for Golden Richards has become such a complicated affair that it seems a mystery to him where things started to go wrong.

The author is also open about his own experiences citing his own great-great grandfather David King Udall as being a polygamist. comically stating that if "polygamy didn't exist, neither would I" going on to say "It seemed only right, then, that I should write a novel on the subject."

The Lonely Polygamist
By Brady Udall
Available from WW Norton Co.
$25.00

Review by: Terry Winders