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Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Editor Reviews New Jason Jepson Work

When We Were Young
By Jason Jepson
Authors' Website: www.jasonjepson.com
Genre: fiction, memoirs
ISBN 978-159858-757-9
Publisher: Doge Ear Publishing

Reviewed by Mike Wever, editor Wandering Magazine
 


When We Were Young
by Jason Jepson
When We Were Young is described by the author as a fictionalized account of his youth, and indeed it reads much more like a memoir of a common man than a novel. Although the main character Jonah learns lessons and grows from his experiences, there is not much sense that Jonah’s biggest problems are resolved and the man’s situation at the end seems little changed from that of the teen at the beginning.
More than anything, this book is an in-depth examination of Jonah. Nothing especially remarkable happens to him between the end of his time in high school and the beginning of his truly adult years, but the steady beat of mundane events work on him like water against a stone. Jonah’s roughest edges are smoothed while the central core of his personality remains intact. It’s hard not to admire Jonah for the convictions he sticks to and easy to forgive the faults he can’t escape.
The writing at times seems a bit self-indulgent, and the things that are important to Jonah come across more from sheer repetition of ideas than masterful description of his emotions or thoughts. Just like with Jonah, however, a number of admirable traits exist among the faults. At a number of critical points in the story Jepson turns a phrase that makes several pages worth of writing click, creating a firm, memorable impression. There are also a number of descriptive passages that rise far above the rest, suggesting that Jepson will be an author who will be even more enjoyable to read with each successive book.
When We Were Young is published by Dog Ear Publishing and is available now through Amazon.

© Copyright 2010 Mike Wever
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  The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :

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