In his second book, novelist Michael Snyder introduces us to three very unusual and distinct voices all torn by tragedy:
Willy Finneran, washed-up genre novelist with an espresso maker that just won't die and a habit of avoiding conflict even if it means putting the truth on a sliding scale.
Ozena Webb, single mother and Javatek's top customer service representative. She spends every evening playing board games with her twelve-year-old son who is mentally crippled from an early childhood accident.
Shaq, a small and scraggy homeless man with trauma-induced blank spots on his memory, trying to piece together the story of his life while assisting Father Joe at the Mercy Mission.
As their stories intersect, the narrative vacillates between hope and naivete, comic relief and postmodern ennui. Startling in its authenticity, this unforgettable novel reveals that no matter how far one has strayed from hope, there is always a way to return.
In his third novel, author Michael Snyder delivers another honest, authentic, and intriguing plot carried along by quirky characters whose actions and reactions still manage to look and sound like the rest of us.
It is often said that every good joke contains some basic truth.
In A Stand-Up Guy, aspiring comedian Oliver Miles puts that axiom to the test when he revamps his comedy act by filling it with darkly personal truths about friends and family. But, as the edgy humor begins to attract more attention, the young comic's personal life gets more complicated. When he realizes he has managed to turn the two women he cares about most into props for his act, he wonders if his honesty on-stage is making him dishonest in life. Despite the sobering reality of his world off stage, the laughter and the success is intoxicating, even for a stand-up guy.
A Stand-Up Guy is a real story about real people struggling with life's rights and wrongs. It will appeal to anyone who enjoys a uniquely-woven relational drama threaded with a little mystery and delivered with a lot of humor and insight.
Russell Fink is twenty-six years old and determined to salvage a job he hates so he can finally move out of his parents' house for good. He's convinced he gave his twin sister cancer when they were nine years old. And his crazy fiancee refuses to accept the fact that their engagement really is over.
Then Sonny, his allegedly clairvoyant basset hound, is found murdered.
The ensuing amateur investigation forces Russell to confront several things at once---the enormity of his family's dysfunction, the guy stalking his family, and his long-buried feelings for a most peculiar love interest.
At its heart, My Name Is Russell Fink is a comedy, with sharp dialogue, characters steeped in authenticity, romance, suspense, and fresh humor. With a postmodern style similar to Nick Hornby and Douglas Coupland, the author explores reconciliation, forgiveness, and faith in the midst of tragedy. No amount of neurosis or dysfunction can derail God's redemptive purposes.
