The Darkness to the West by Adam Gnade, Trailerparks! CD

(Eberhardt / www.adamgnade.com) Gnade (who also records music and does something with the microcosm publishing house) really cast a spell with his recent novel Hymn California, which wove together incredibly detailed, vivid scenes with a touch that conveyed complexity, ambiguity and sophistication. This shorter book (chapbook sized, but maybe that's a poetry-only term) is a slightly less satisfying but no less compelling series of vignettes involving a whip, some wine, a gun, and America. The CD "Trailerparks!" also features vivid, masterfully painted scenes, but I'm going to be the dick here and say that his literal voice (larynx, tongue, palatte, etc.) does not match his literary voice. There's a reason William S. Burroughs reading his creepy work is awesome -- he sounds like an old, evil creep. Gnade sounds too nice and meek for his dark, moody literary madness.