Fran Lebowitz loves David Carkeet (and so do we!)

Over on The Rumpus, an Overlook favorite, Kevin Nolan looks back at writer Fran Lebowitz's 1997 appearance on Charlie Rose. It's a "year in books" episode, and Nolan found Lebowitz's mention of Overlook author David Carkeet particularly interesting.

Lebowitz also mentions a writer I would not have known in 1997 and was still unaware of until recently: mystery writer David Carkeet. He’s very funny, said Lebowitz, and she highly recommended Carkeet’s debut comic novel Double Negative. It was nominated for an Edgar Award in 1980, and it is being kept in print today, appropriately perhaps, by Overlook Press. (Carkeet’s newest novel, From Away, was published last year, also by Overlook.) Double Negative is the first of three books featuring the character Jeremy Cook, who, like Carkeet, is a linguist.

We have David Carkeet's backlist available in paperback--check it out! And go here to see some of the fantastic reviews From Away received. The holidays are over--if 2011 is the year you resolve to find a new author, this might be a perfect book for you.

Meet David Carkeet and Laura Joh Rowland at BookHampton's Mystery Mayhem May 15-16

Our friends at BookHampton out on Long Island are hosting a Mystery Mayhem Festival this weekend featuring top mystery writers participating in readings and talks.

Laura Joh Rowland, author of Bedlam: The Further Adventures of Charlotte Bronte, will appear at three events: May 15, 1pm, at the East Hampton store, and May 16, 1pm in Sag Harbor, and 3pm at the Southampton store. David Carkeet, author of From Away and Double Negative, will also be in East Hampton on May 15 at 1pm and May 16, 11am. Don't miss this great weekend of mystery and mayhem in the Hamptons!

David Carkeet's FROM AWAY in St. Louis Post-Dispatch

David Carkeet's new comic mystery From Away is reviewed in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch: "For years, David Carkeet taught linguistics and writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Now, he lives in Vermont, the setting for his latest mystery novel, "From Away." Although the book centers on the murder of a lusty young woman, much of its tone falls under the category of humor of the absurd.

The result makes for entertaining reading, at least for readers willing to suspend disbelief. You see, the plot hinges on the fact that its hero is a fat Chicagoan who just happens to be in Montpelier, Vt., when the murder happens — and the Chicagoan just happens to be a dead ringer for a Montpelier man who left town without word three years back. The local cops think that the vaguely described Chicagoan is their murderer. But if the Chicagoan can convince everybody that he's really the local boy come back home, he's home free.

Much of the tale centers on the Chicagoan's cleverness in passing himself off to the clannish Vermonters as somebody he knows nothing about. He's glib and quick-witted, and his quirks make him a memorable character. Author Carkeet also shows a sure hand in depicting Vermonters and Vermont, which he calls "this backward state of dirt roads and dial-ups."

Oh, yeah — toward book's end, the comic tone gives in to a sinister twist before the murder finally gets solved. It's a different kind of story told in a different kind of way. If you can accept the premise, I promise you good reading." -Harry Levins

More Praise for David Carkeet's FROM AWAY

David Carkeet's From Away is reviewed in ForeWord magazine: "From Away is a novel in the hallowed age-old tradition of mistaken and swapped identity fables. Yet it departs from its predecessors in the eccentricity of its main character: Dennis Braintree is an overweight model-train aficionado and writer who alienates everyone he meets. The novel features a murder, or at least what some want to believe is a murder. In all, this is a comical peek into the lives of small-town citizens, their relationships and desires, and a better-late-than-never coming of age.

After crashing his car, Braintree finds himself spending the night in a tiny Vermont burg where a sexual encounter gone wrong earns him the title of Suspect #1 for the disappearance (and purported murder) of a local woman. Instead of being brought in by police for questioning, Braintree is mistaken by the police as long-absent hometown hero Homer Dumpling. In order to avoid arrest, Braintree has to assume the role. At this point, based on what we have seen of Braintree, who bears a resemblance to John Kennedy Toole’s character Ignatius J. Reilly from A Confederacy of Dunces, the reader is in serious doubt that this play-acting will hold. The tension builds from there.

Amazingly, the mistaken identity does hold long enough for Braintree to find himself in the position of accompanying local police as they attempt to find...Dennis Braintree. Meanwhile, for what is probably the first time in Braintree's life, those around him are treating him as if they like him (with some notable exceptions). In order to stay in character, Braintree must try to suppress his usual callow and often crass behavior. It's no easy task, and several lapses make for serious comedy.

Suspending disbelief on the part of the reader is the primary challenge of the mistaken/swapped identity genre. One has to accept that, by the power of suggestion and consensual validation alone, the supporting characters could discount all inconsistencies and mishaps and believe that the one person is actually another. Author Carkeet makes the suspension of disbelief less painful than it could be. The character of Braintree is so over-the-top in his interior monologue that the reader can hardly pay attention to anything else. He’s foolish, unpredictable, and hilarious.
Steeped as he is in a murder investigation; the guise of a man he knows nothing about; and thirty years’ worth of friends, family, and former lovers; Braintree manages to surprise even himself. A coming-of-age story about a man in his late thirties, From Away is a light read full of gentle humor and rural charm." - Leia Menlove

Meet Novelist David Carkeet, Author of FROM AWAY, at Upcoming Events

David Carkeet, author of From Away, will appear at these upcoming events:

April 7 (Wednesday), New England Independent Booksellers Association meeting, University of Southern Maine, Portland, Maine

April 8 (Thursday), 7:00 p.m., Phoenix Books, Essex Shoppes and Cinema, 21 Essex Way, Essex, Vermont

April 17 (Saturday), 11:00 a.m., Kingdom Books, 283 East Village Road, Waterford, Vermont

April 24 (Saturday), Tables of Content (authors' dinner), Rutland Free Library, Rutland, Vermont; information at http://www.rutlandfree.org/.

April 26 (Monday), 7:00 p.m., discussion of Double Negative with Bear Pond Books Mystery Book Group, 77 Main St., Montpelier, Vermont

DOUBLE NEGATIVE and FROM AWAY: The Discreet and Dangerous Charms of David Carkeet

Crime fiction columnist, blogger, critic and journalist extraordinaire Sarah Weinman looks at two novels by David Carkeet: Double Negative and his new novel From Away: " One thing should be clear from the outset: David Carkeet is not a crime novelist, not in the way we think of the term now. He doesn't set out with a sense of righteous fury to chronicle society's ills, nor does he wish to document murder in all of its transfixing brutality. Instead his touch is lighter, more whimsical, featuring protagonists who, instead of being tortured, are mildly affronted at best. When they find themselves in the crosshairs of the law, they don't mount an outraged crusade, but conduct a parallel investigation of the real culprit of murder that carries a veneer of the absurd, as if they know how ridiculous it is to play amateur sleuth. And while a crime novel's devil should always be in the details, Carkeet's characters are more often bedevilled by linguistic anomalies, the taste of homemade pie, and the baffling habits of the women they want to woo. Put another way, crime fiction protagonists find murder, while murder finds Carkeet's reluctant sleuths. They aren't looking for trouble, or at least not according to their own occasionally convoluted logic. They want to be liked, but sometimes have a hard time expressing that to others, who misconstrue their habitual complaining as a manifestation of darker emotions. The net result for readers is a sense of being swayed off the expected narrative course into more intriguing, messier byways of human behavior, whose larger mysteries will always dwarf that of who killed whom." Read the full review here.

David Carkeet's FROM AWAY Featured in Vermont's Seven Days

Margot Harrison of Seven Days reviews David Carkeet's From Away in the current issue: " From Away is one of those books you’ll like a lot or not at all by the time you’ve finished the first paragraph. If you like it, as I did, Middlesex author David Carkeet's novel will make you laugh. Repeatedly. Not for nothing does it come with an approving blurb from quirky-mystery king Carl Hiaasen, or another — from Publishers Weekly — that likens it to the Coen brothers’ movie Fargo. It’s a good comparison, because From Away is a lumpy but well-spiced gumbo of local color, serious drama and silliness. Like the Coen brothers, Carkeet is less interested in plots than in people and the stupid things they do: His protagonist deserves to stand beside the Dude in The Big Lebowski as a fellow with a knack for changing the tone of every situation he lands in. While From Away isn’t flawless, it’s an original, unlike anything else in its genre."

Overlook Preview: FROM AWAY by David Carkeet

Coming in March is a new novel - and the Overlook debut -from acclaimed novelist David Carkeet. From Away is a splendidly entertaining comic novel that is also a finely wrought mystery. Here's a sampling of the early praise:

"Anyone who doesn't laugh out loud at David Carkeet's writing needs to have their pulse checked. He's a very clever fellow, and this is a deftly funny book."--Carl Hiaasen

“If Alfred Hitchcock could remake Fargo, it might feel something like David Carkeet's comic-absurd latest.” – Publishers Weekly

“What a unique and engaging voice has David Carkeet. From Away is humanely funny, mysterious, and most unpredictable. It’s filled with unexpected delights, most of which come courtesy of his wise-cracking, edge-seeking protagonist Denny Braintree. I’m not sure how Carkeet does it, but I’m glad he does. Fresh and unafraid. Enjoyment guaranteed.” -T. Jefferson Parker

“Imagine Preston Sturges and Ruth Rendell collaborating and you’ve got From Away. Beautifully plotted, emotional resonant and, most of all, hilarious.” - Jonathan Kellerman

David Carkeet is the author of six novels, including Double Negative, The Full Catastrophe, and The Error of Our Ways. His memoir, Campus Sexpot, won the Creative Nonfiction Award given by the Association of Writers and Writing Programs. Among his honors are an Edgar nomination, a James D. Phelan Award from the San Francisco Foundation, an O. Henry Award, and a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. His short stories and essays have appeared in American Literature, Carolina Quarterly, Kansas Quarterly, The North American Review, The Oxford American, River Styx, The San Francisco Review of Books, New York Stories, The New York Times Magazine, Poets & Writers, and The Village Voice. For many years, David Carkeet taught linguistics and writing at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also directed the MFA program there and edited its literary journal, Natural Bridge. He now lives in Vermont with his wife and two children.

David Carkeet's FROM AWAY in Kirkus Reviews

David Carkeet's new novel From Away, coming in March 2010, is reviewed in Kirkus Reviews: "Dennis Braintree's adventures in Vermont begin when his car runs off the road and into a ditch, leading him to hail passersby, "Welcome to my crash site!" He winds up at the Ethan Allen Motel in Montpelier, where blind hostess Betsy, whose rooms have been filled by a legislative session, sticks him first in a windowless cubby, then in the room vacated by Mort Shuler. It's here that he meets good-time girl Marge Plongeur, who makes herself at home in his Jacuzzi, sends him out for cigarettes and condoms and then vanishes after apparently swinging so hard from his chandelier that she brings it crashing down on his bed. Except that Marge hasn't just vanished; according to Nick and Lance, a pair of police officers Denny runs into at the airport, she's been pushed off the balcony by whoever rented the room and left footprints outside in the snow. That person, naturally, is Denny, and his goose would be cooked if Nick hadn't taken Denny for his old friend Homer Dumpling, Betsy's nephew, who spent the last three years in Florida. Denny, recently fired from his job at a magazine aimed at model-railroad buffs, sees no reason that he shouldn't accept the role that's just been handed to him, and Carkeet (The Error of Our Ways) moves heaven and earth to show how he can get away with the masquerade against all odds—mainly because Denny embraces each new obstacle as a challenge and never shows the slightest fear. Sooner or later, of course, this house of cards has to come tumbling down, but Carkeet's Candide is so winning and his plotting so deft that the day of reckoning is as graceful as the moment when the juggler catches all five balls without missing a beat."