Thirsty for Thirst

[Doug Millison]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/1998/11/29/RV4
4524.DTL

is the url of my review of Thirst. Make sure you copy it all into your
browser "go to" window and it should come up. If that doesn't work, go to
http://www.sfgate.com/search/, plug my last name (Millison) in the FastFind
box, and that should bring up a link to my reivew, too.

I liked Kalfus' book a lot. A couple of the stories were a bit lighter than
the rest, but the rest were wonderful. Kalfus lives in Moscow (or he did
when I wrote the review earlier this year), and I carried on some email
correspondence with him. Space limitations prevented dealing with it in the
review, but Kalfus told me he counted Pynchon among authors he would
consider influences on his own writing. I find nothing particularly
Pynchonian in his style, but the international scope of his work and his
serious concern for people who become pawns of corporate and governmental
forces far beyond their control show an affinity, perhaps.  He also told me
that he had previously written some stories that DFW published in a
literary quarterly (DFW was editor), I don't recall if those stories are
collected in _Thirst_ or not, nor do I recall the name of the journal.

I did manage to work a Pynchon mention into my brief review, of course.

If all else fails, you could buy _Thirst_ at Amazon.com.


D O U G  M I L L I S O N  [http://www.online-journalist.com]
 Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend.
 Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read.
       --Groucho Marx