Reviews of War Memorials

“McCown has created what many authors spend years trying to achieve: a confessional and yet profoundly fascinating glimpse into one man’s life. He makes it seem so effortless.”
—The Madison Capital Times

“In an ordinary small southern town, a war’s being waged—one that this amusing, sharp-eyed little novel makes extraordinarily vivid.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“[War Memorials] brings to the forefront what it means to be a contemporary southern writer: revealing the poignancy of rural southern life in America with subtlety and heart. . .McCown [is] a modern southern author that deserves attention.” —The Midwest Book Review

“In this wickedly funny novel, Clint McCown traces the aftershocks of a violent century as they reverberate through a small Southern town. Old grievances go off like forgotten land mines. New allegiances form under the pressure of loss and hope. Along the way we meet a Jesus impersonator, a snake-handling evangelist, a maestro of dynamite, a cook impaled by an arrow, an aspiring zookeeper, and a cast of other offbeat characters, all whirling around a comic hero who's struggling to mend a broken marriage.” —Scott Russell Sanders

“What I like best in this gritty and tender and crazily funny book about men and women and the war for love we are constantly waging, is that Clint McCown has finally told the truth about being a human: We have to make a living. We have to find love. And we have to take responsibility, whether we like it or not, for who we are. War Memorials is wonderfully well written and meaningful to boot. What more can a reader ask?” —Bret Lott