Scott McClanahan is the author of Crapalachia, The Incantations of Daniel Johnston (illustrated by the iconic artist Ricardo Cavolo), Hill William, The Collected Works of Scott McClanahan: Volume 1, Stories II, and Stories V!. His fiction has appeared in Bomb, Vice, and New York Tyrant.
"The Poet Laureate of Real America."
--Nick Moran, The Millions"McClanahan's prose is miasmic, dizzying,
repetitive. A rushing river of words that reflects the chaos and
humanity of the place from which he hails. [McClanahan] aims to
lasso the moon... He is not a writer of half-measures. The man has
purpose. This is his symphony, every note designed to resonate, to
linger."
--Allison Glock, New York Times Book Review"Crapalachia is the
genuine article: intelligent, atmospheric, raucously funny and
utterly wrenching. McClanahan joins Daniel Woodrell and Tom
Franklin as a master chronicler of backwoods rural America."
--Steve Donoghue, The Washington Post"Scott McClanahan is one of
those rare writers who achieves Kafka's credo that a book should be
the axe that shatters the icy soul of our interior. Crapalachia,
with its tongue-in-cheek title, is anything but refuse and
detritus. In fact, it's a broken and half-sung ode to place and
people and history, a personal reclamation of falsehoods cast on
rural communities in West Virginia."
--Ocean Vuong, author of On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous, in "The
10 Books I Needed to Write My Novel" (Literary Hub)"No other book
this sad will make you laugh this hard." --Kevin Thomas, The Rumpus
"McClanahan's deep loyalty to his place and his people gives his
story wings: 'So now I put the dirt from my home in my pockets and
I travel. I am making the world my mountain.' And so he is."
--Gina Webb, Atlanta Journal-Constitution "[Crapalachia is] a wild
and inventive book, unquestionably fresh of spirit, and totally
unafraid to break formalisms to tell it like it was."
--Blake Butler, Vice "Epic. McClanahan's prose is straightforward,
casual, and enjoyable to read, reminiscent at times of Kurt
Vonnegut. Crapalachia is one of the rare books that, after you
reach the end, you don't get up to check your e-mail or Facebook or
watch TV."
--Alex Miller, Rain Taxi Review of Books"Part memoir, part
hillbilly history, part dream, McClanahan embraces humanity with
all its grit, writing tenderly of criminals and outcasts, family
and the blood ties that bind us."
--Royal Young, Interview Magazine"A brilliant, unnerving, beautiful
curse of a book that will both haunt and charmingly engage readers
for years and years and years."
--J. A. Tyler, The Nervous Breakdown"McClanahan's style is as
seductive as a circuit preacher's. Crapalachia is both an homage
and a eulogy for a place where, through the sorcery of McClanahan's
storytelling, we can all pull up a chair and find ourselves at
home."
--San Diego City Beat "McClanahan's is a joyful philosophy,
communicated via his own distinctive melange of poetic storytelling
and direct address, and never less than an enthralling read.
[Crapalachia is an] elegiac call to savor life now, today."
--Nathan Weatherford, Full Stop "Scott McClanahan's Crapalachia
resurrects words. It's an apple that tastes good. But not just
good. Necessary."
--Center for Fiction"[Crapalachia is] McClanahan's best and most
affecting work to date. McClanahan is that rare writers'-writer, an
artist whose work you'd just as easily recommend to a teenage kid
as to a distinguished professor."
--The Coffin Factory"It is the defiance in the writing that is
breathtaking, the very aliveness of this voice in the face of all
those dead: the thousands and thousands of dead miners, the dead of
the Hawk's Nest Tunnel, the dead of the Sago Mine Disaster, the
dead of the Buffalo Creek Flood, the dead of hunger, the dead of a
death by their own hands."
--Mesha Maren, HTML Giant"A heartfelt narrative about growing up,
friends, family, human nature, love, going to school, history,
death, and rural West Virginia... an homage to everyday things that
are somehow extraordinary... a wonderful eulogy to a time and a
place."
--Gabino Iglesias, Verbicide"Crapalachia is an open-hearted, poetic
existential exploration disguised as a southern-fried memoir.
McClanahan has staked out new literary territory and firmly planted
the Crapalachian flag there. Long may it wave."
--Shelf Unbound"This punchy, inimitable book is one of the best
memoirs I can remember reading, a prescient and preposterous ode to
Americana's charms and failures with enough greasiness to stick to
your bones like homemade gravy."
--Chris Vola, The Lit Pub"[Crapalachia is] a remarkable and
rambling personal history, a loving, laughing, eye-rolling and
affectionate portrait of a region, [McClanahan's] home, the place
he's from and therefore who he is."
--Henry Stewart, The L Magazine "McClanahan's frenetic account of
life growing up in rural West Virginia practically seethes with
place, with empathy, with humor and violence and the
boringness/incredibleness of being young."
--Emily Temple, Flavorwire"In this innovative 'biography, '
McClanahan... chronicles the peculiarities of Appalachian
life--punctuated by mine collapses, quotidian tragedies, and
recipes for chicken and gravy--and is infused with both boundless
love and the ever-present specter of death... His singular mission
is to create a lasting testament to the people he has loved and he
succeeds: [Crapalachia] leaves an enduring impression."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review"Though the book doesn't come
out until the middle of next month, I can't wait until then to say
how much I liked Scott McClanahan's Crapalachia. [McClanahan's]
voice is wholly unaffected, and his account manages to be both
comic and unpretentiously sentimental."
--Nicole Rudick, The Paris Review 'Daily'"McClanahan through words
attempts to transform memory into a record of family and friends,
to somehow make them permanently a part of his life--and all our
lives... stark, beautiful writing."
--Natalie Sypolt, Paste Magazine
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