Mike Figgis

Quote of the Day: Tuesday 4 June 2013: The world is an infinitely fascinating, tragic and humorous place. Mike Figgis

Constance Rourke

Quote of the Day: Monday 3 June 2013: An emotional man may possess no humor, but a humorous man usually has deep pockets of emotion, sometimes tucked away or forgotten. Constance Rourke

Ephesians: 4:2

Quote of the Day: Sunday 2 June 2013: Ephesians 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love.

Galatians 5:13

Quote of the Day: Saturday 1 June 2013: Galatians 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

The Earth Provides

Quote of the Day: Friday 31 May 2013: “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.” – Gandhi

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Where humans have dogs, oafs have mans. But in Allen's provocative parable, mans are far cleverer than dogs. Faithful though feckless companions, they can be trained to work, play music, or fight. Some even talk. As oafs say, every boy should have a man. But while the oafish giants act like mans are pets, readers know they are slaves. Like all parables, there's a message here. We need to pay attention to our environment and to those Bangladeshi clothesmakers who do work for us. "The oaf," Allen concludes, was "selfish, thoughtless, and careless in his actions. Now his world is lost." Grade: A

Library Journal (June 1, 2013)

Winner of the Sonja H. Stone Prize in Fiction for his story collection, Churchboys & Other Sinners, Allen begins this captivating, fable-laced story with a poor young oaf, referred to as Boy, who lives in a world where human beings are ruled by small giants. After the loss of Boy’s “man,” Boy is offered by his father a “female man” named Red Sleeves, wrapped in a red ribbon with a note: “Every boy should have a man. You’re a fine son. Love, Dad.” Thus begins an imaginative and honest epic, weaving together biblical stories, fantasy, poetry, and fairy tales with a touch of realism. As Boy journeys through centuries, lands, wars, and empires, encountering characters struggling with the duality of being human and oaf, Allen asks us to question the assumptions, -isms, and contradictions of the modern world. Powerfully elegiac, the novel’s ending stands on its own. VERDICT Recalling the humanitarian concerns of Octavia Butler’s Fledgling and the poetry of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, this book will appeal to readers of literary fiction and fantasy.—Ashanti White, Yelm, WA