"The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea" Appears in Entertainment Weekly as One of Five Best Smaller Publisher Books

The book, winner of a Best Fiction award and earning a buoyant Los Angeles Times Review, touted as “so stunning.”

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) September 1, 2006

In a sea of books from major publishers, a little book’s voice rises. "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea," from White Whisker Books, an imprint of Lulu Press, has already scored a major notice in Entertainment Weekly, a long, positive review in the Los Angeles Times, two video interviews on the web and a number of reviews from around the world.

Much like Entertainment Weekly’s August 11th cover story on "Little Miss Sunshine," Christopher Meeks’ book, too, is finding its audience through great reviews and word-of-mouth. In that same issue, Entertainment Weekly placed "The Middle-Aged Man and the Sea" alongside four other books that were selected as the best print-on-demand books of 2006.

Love, death, humor, and the glue called family are the elements of this sometimes intense, often funny collection of short stories. The Los Angeles Times calls Meeks’ book “poignant and wise, sympathetic to the everyday struggles these characters face.” Reviewer Carmela Ciuraru added that the pieces “are also filled with aphoristic revelations: ‘Our lives turn on the stupidest things,’ reflects the protagonist of ‘The Rotary,’ searching through his family history to understand where he has ended up. When his wife announces one day that she is leaving him, he notes, ‘Marriages are like oil derricks and motorboats; when they don't work, they're abandoned.’”

Meeks’ book, too, earlier in the year won an online award for best fiction alongside Kazuo Ishiguro’s "Never Let Me Go" (author of "The Remains of the Day") and three other books at MyShelf.com. Dogmatika in Ireland says under the title "Exceedingly Good Stories" that "Many of these tales have appeared in American literary journals, but reading them together, you get the full impact of Meeks' talent, as he takes you in a head-long assault through ordinary day-to-day life.”

Mr. Meeks has been publishing short stories in literary journals since 1997. He’s also published four children’s books, reviewed theatre for seven years for Daily Variety, had three full-length plays mounted in Los Angeles, and he won the Donald Davis Dramatic Writing Award; he teaches narrative story design at CalArts and fiction at UCLA Extension.

Media Contact: Carol Fass Publicity and Public Relations: 212-691-9707 or Christopher Meeks, 310-493-4576.

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