A Review

A favorable review of my novel is now up on the Whistling Shade site.

Check it out . . . http://www.whistlingshade.com/0603/0603.html

A story of mine entitled "Identifying" is available on the same page.

My Poem "Clean" and my Novel

Like my poem, "Clean," the poems in my book Tornado Warning are poems that deal with real family situations and the heartache and tenderness that come with belonging to a family.

You can order Tornado Warning by sending a check for ten dollars (includes shipping) payable to me to:

Jeff Vande Zande
P.O. Box 2042
Bay City, MI 48707

Also, if you order through me, you can get a signed copy of my novel, Into the Desperate Country, for 15 dollars, which includes shipping and handling.

"Jeff Vande Zande's Into the Desperate Country captures the primitive pulse of a life on the edge. Against the backdrop of Northern Michigan, a taut drama plays itself out, pulling the reader along on its tight rope. Once the logical world of our daily routines falls away, what are we left with? Vande Zande offers no easy answers in this impressive debut novel."

-- Jim Daniels, author of Detroit Tales

Checks for 15 dollars, payable to Jeff Vande Zande, can be sent to the above address.

All of my books are also available on www.amazon.com

Thanks for stopping by.

The Road, Reviewed

Cormac McCarthy's new book, The Road, might end up being a classic in American literature. It sure feels that way when you're reading it, and I don't say that lightly. It is set in a post-apocalyptic world. There's no Mad Max or Tina Turner characters. Instead, you get "the man" and "his son" -- a pair of survivors who live on Maslow's lowest level of the pyramid while they try to survive day to day. They walk "the road" -- the highways that remain after a nuclear holocaust -- the causes of which are blissfully never explained. Once it has happened, and you're a survivor, who cares how it happened? This world is so authentically described that you get the impression that McCarthy time-traveled to live in just such a world. The details seem startlingly real.
In the end, this is a story of unrelenting love in the face of so many reasons to relent. Your heart will go out to this duo as they travel the ash-covered world that McCarthy has created. Just check out the reviews on amazon. They're already glowing, like "the fire" that the father tells the son they are carrying. This truly is a must-read!