By Gail Hairston
(April 19, 2016) — Manuel Gonzales stepped away from the restraints of traditional literary genre to create a story that twists not only the plot, but the characters as well. In so doing, “The Regional Office Is Under Attack!”, the first novel published by the University of Kentucky assistant professor of English and creative writing, has sparked the imagination of one reviewer after another.
Kelly Braffet of The New York Times Book Review is one of the most recent writers to review "The Regional Office Is Under Attack." Braffet noted that Gonzales was “primarily concerned not with the action-packed events at the surface but with the greater question of human alienation, through talent, technology or a combination of the two.” Braffet’s review is seasoned with phrases such as “crisp prose,” “entertaining and satisfying” and “thoughtful and well considered.”
“Like the best of the stories it satirizes so gently,” writes Braffet, “it’s rollicking good fun on the surface, action-packed and shiny in all the right places; underneath that surface, though, it’s thoughtful and well considered. Gonzales has created a superheroic fighting force of the kind we’ve grown so used to … and then he has turned out their pockets and flipped open their diaries.”
Gonzales will be at Joseph Beth Booksellers 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 19, at Lexington Green.
Gonzales was chosen to judge the PEN Award in January and named to Buzz Book’s list of must-read books of 2016. He is the author of the acclaimed story collection “The Miniature Wife,” winner of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction and the John Gardner Fiction Book Award. He is a graduate of the Columbia University Creative Writing Program and teaches writing at UK and the Institute of American Indian Arts.
To read more reviews of Gonzales’ “The Regional Office Is Under Attack!” visit:
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/manuel-gonzales/the-regional-office-is-under-attack/
http://www.kansascity.com/entertainment/books/article71802982.html
http://www.amazon.com/The-Regional-Office-Under-Attack/product-reviews/1594632413