Sunday, March 6, 2016

Brad Smith

Brad Smith was born and raised in southern Ontario. He has worked as a farmer, signalman, insulator, truck driver, bartender, schoolteacher, maintenance mechanic, roofer, and carpenter. His novels include Shoot the Dog and other Virgil Cain mysteries, All Hat, which was made into a major feature film, and One-Eyed Jacks, which was shortlisted for the Dashiell Hammett Award.

Smith's new novel is Rough Justice.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. His reply:
I am reading three things, two of which I just finished.

Did you ever have a title in your head that you kept telling yourself you really needed to read and then never got around to it? Well, A Confederacy Of Dunces was such a book for me. It took me years to finally read, and then I went through it like greased lightning. One of the great comic novels of the 20th century, with a protagonist so preposterous, nasty, shallow, mean-spirited, oblivious and utterly vain that you can’t help but love him. (Yes, I realize I just described Donald Trump but trust me—Ignatius J. Reilly is a different cat) John Kennedy Toole’s masterpiece.

I also just read an ARC of Dana Spiotta’s new Innocents And Others. Terrific read, about film-making and myth-making and friendship and telephones. Excellent book.

I’m working on a novel set in 1910 Montana and so I picked up We Pointed Them North, a memoir by E.C. “Teddy “Blue” Abbott, a real life cowboy who trailed cattle herds from Texas to Wyoming and Montana back in the early days, circa 1870-1890. An authentic telling of the rough and tumble times of a genuine cowpuncher, far removed from some of the far-fetched depictions in the movies.
Visit Brad Smith's website and Facebook page.

The Page 69 Test: Shoot the Dog.

My Book, The Movie: Shoot the Dog.

The Page 69 Test: Rough Justice.

My Book, The Movie: Rough Justice.

--Marshal Zeringue