Review
Strause's first novel is fast gathering momentum as one of the
'it' books for 2005. With its teenage protagonist,
Maybe A Miracle
has the potential to appeal to readers from the older teens through to adults,
both men and women; and with subject matter that runs the gauntlet of hot topic
subjects, including religion and politics, this is also a shoe-in for book clubs
who enjoy a little contention in their reading matter (you'll find a reading
guide at BookBrowse), and will probably find itself on high school reading lists
before long. As one reviewer puts it, "
Maybe A Miracle starts out somewhere not far from J.D.
Salinger's rye field (i.e.
Catcher In The Rye), but it ends up in a new and strange and marvelous place
where only this extraordinary first novelist could take it."
Beyond the Book
Brian Strause was born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, and now lives in Silver
Lake, California. In the interview, which you can read in full at
BookBrowse, he answers a number of questions including the inevitable one asked
of first time authors - whether
Maybe A Miracle is based on his own
experiences. To which he replies:
"They say to write what you know, but unfortunately the life I've lived isn't
exactly chock-full of drama. And indeed, I grew up in Columbus on an idyllic
street in a storybook neighborhood. But it's not like
Blue Velvet,
where it was sordid once you start peeling back the layers. It was all quite
painfully normal. Which is all to say, my own family – while incredibly
supportive of me – are not...
