Crabcakes

The reemergence of James Allen McPherson, one of contemporary literature's bright stars, after a series of devastating personal setbacks that kept him from writing, is one of the major literary events of the season.Crabcakes is an astounding, impressionistic examination of the emotional topography of McPherson's life, from his days in Baltimore to his recent years at the esteemed University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. His exploration of the inner torture that has plagued him will strike a deep chord within readers. "If one does not have sufficient imagination to imagine something beyond the closing-n borders of the now...one will surely begin to die", he writes. Bemusedly he suggests that there is one consolation he could always count on: contemplating the future enjoyment of a Maryland crabcake.Movingly depicting McPherson's quest to find redemption in the rarefied literary world through the study of other writers and the teaching of writing, Crabcakes is a rare look inside the mind of a great writer.