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Last weeks book news cycle had a clear winner: Nico WalkersCherry.
ANew Yorkerfeature is forthcoming.
By now, you might have heard the story.
Finally, after publishing giant Knopf pays Tyrant for the rights and works out the legal complications:Cherry.
(Walker is more fallen middle class, but no matter.)
Good press never guarantees great reviews, but the right backstory might.
In their near universal praise, critics dwelled on Walkersauthenticvoice.
Quil Lawrence, forNPR, put itmore succinctly: Walker writes about Iraq from a grunts-eye level.
Lawrence also commented on the dry, straight-faced humor ofCherry, which works because its unnamed narrator lacks pretension.
Fertel called it infinitely more real than the absurdities dreamed up by Thomas McGuane.
Then he called it Holden Caulfield Goes to War.
Meanwhile, Walker the person continues to generate gritty buzz without leaving his Kentucky prison.
(He cant until 2020.)
For Walker, unlike his narrator, bad luck has a way of turning good.
