charles keatts writing and art
Reviews of my writing and art
from an online review of my second novel, In the Flat Field:
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"What Flat Field finally has to count on for its literary worth isn’t its crude DIY pretensions to cyberpunk-meets-Ulysses, the book and the movie adaptation,(Joyce descendant?: wishful thinking; Houellebecq aspirant?: warmer,) but its richness as a portrait of an arty local dude whose heyday in San Francisco coincided definingly with the September 11th attacks. And it is pretty rich. Keatts captures a true sadness over human and environmental loss and a will to make something beautiful out of it that are evocative and particular. Readers who identify fondly and/or disturbingly with Mark/Alex will identify very strongly. Readers who don’t will receive a thorough education in this sub-sub-subset of human being. And don’t we really read to get a through knowledge of human beings? "
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reviews of Blue
There is no plot diagram to this novel Blue. It exists, existed is existing as you read. It is everyone and no one. It is him, her, they, them, us and nobody.
It is powerful and truthful. Self hatred, love, insomnia, sleep, sex, addiction, abuse, discipline and hedonism. Addiction, sobriety, addiction in sobriety, murder, lust, love, abuse, insanity and lucidity.
Powerful prose and themes: gods, myth, faith, nihilism, art, literature, music, philosophy, dysfunction. .. writing to write. Writing to make rights? There are no answers in Blue but the novel is a journey I enjoyed. Raw, honest an existentialist gen x story. It doesn't need you the reader, it allows you to see through the piercing Blue. This book wasn't meant for you, yet allows you in to view in a voyeuristic way.
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