The details “grisly”, the people “lunatic”, the results, “magnetic”.

The Birth of Death and Other Comedies: The Novels of Russell H. Greenan

 

 

“Examining Greenan’s characteristic themes and strategies, Whalen provides perceptive readings of the dark comedies of this criminally neglected American master, and in a coda reflects on Greenan’s career and the reception of his work.”

 

 

 

 

 

Tom Whalen’s authoritative study is published by The Dalkey Archive and can be purchased online through from Amazon and other book stores listed by Google Scholar .

 

 Comments on The Birth of Death and Other Comedies: The Novels of Russell H. Greenan

 

Russell H. Greenan is the chronicler of people living at the edge: the edge of civilization, the edge of madness, the bitter, crumbling edges of their own lives. Tom Whalen’s study of Greenan is, like the novels it so lovingly details, masterful, uncommon, and intensely personal.
— James Sallis

 

In The Birth of Death and Other Comedies Tom Whalen provides an astute, salutary dissection of Russell H. Greenan's work, especially Greenan’s eccentric and inspired novel, It Happened in Boston?, a paranoid faith-grope, in his chapter “What an Edifice of Artifice!" If you've never read Greenan's odd work, reading Whalen’s book guarantees that you will. It will make you a fan of both writers. What a masterfice!
— Derek Pell

 

You can discover more of Tom Whalen’s critical writing and fiction at:

tomwhalen.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Birth of Death and Other Comedies:

The Novels of Russell H. Greenan

 

by Tom Whalen