The Baptism of Billy Bean
Whenever I can, I like to review books by my home-state authors. Roger Alan Skipper, a distinctive voice from Western Maryland has just released his second novel, The Baptism of Billy Bean, and here is an excerpt from my review for Maryland Public Radio:
“Skipper’s talent is not plot but tender renderings of human emotions (provided he doesn’t over-sentimentalize). Hollar (the main character) learns “happiness runs in one direction only, like time,” when he realizes he loves his wife only after she’s gone, and his “pain operates under no such limitation. The shards never ascend to the table and reassemble themselves, but the same plate could break again and again and again. This is what excited me about The Baptism of Billy Bean, the singular way that Roger Alan Skipper put his sentences together…“
Hear the rest at WYPR, Maryland Morning on 10th March.