I haven't read Shields's books, so I'm unqualified to comment on the quality of his work. What's interesting to me is that there's still cache in Seattle in getting published by New York presses and an assumption that merely publishing books bestows upon one the role of cultural figure. It's laughable to me to think that my opinion on anything is worth listening to just because I've written a few books.

What a missed opportunity! Dude should have locked two actual local skykomishites into that shack overnight, got them all likkered up and then transcribed their conversation as close to verbatim as possible into those pages instead. Probably wouldn't be too pretty, but definitely closer to "literary."

@2: I'm sorry Ryan, but I have to disagree with you. You actually use narrative, characterization and suspense quite well, so I value your opinions on writing.