Requiem, Mass.
By John Dufresne
John Dufresne is my favorite living author. His novel, "Love Warps the Mind a Little" is in my top 10 All-Time-Favorites.
The only thing bad about John Dufresne is that he writes very slowly. He only publishes a new novel every few of years. His novels are so good, so entertaining that I finish them in a day or two. That means every time I read a new novel by John Dufresne, I have to wait YEARS before I get to read another one! The only thing that helps is that he blogs a lot, and he published a book of short stories ('Johnny Too Bad') in 2005. I allow myself one short story every six months. As a matter of fact, I'm depressed now, because I just finished his new novel and it hasn't even been released yet.

Anyway, about the new book...
Go on over to Amazon right now and pre-order this one. It is awesome. It has a touch of "Love Warps..." to it, and that made me very happy.
The main character is John. It's a 'bio-novel'. It's John's life story in novel form. I'm curious as to how much is fiction and how much is true.
The novel is laid out with flashbacks from now, where John lives with Spot the dog and Annick the girlfriend, to the past, where he is growing up with his family and a host of other interesting characters.
Don't let the flashbacks scare you, either. There is no confusion here. Dufresne is such a good author that the flashbacks flow as if you were watching a movie, not reading. 80% of the book takes place in the past, anyway, so its easy.
John's mom is mentally unstable and thinks that John and Audrey (his sister) are actually robots that have replaced her 'real' children and are spying on her. The only time she thinks she's talking to the 'real' John is when he is talking to her on the phone. John's dad is an over-the-road trucker that has his own secrets (BIG ones, too). It all ads up to wonderful reading, filled with Dufresne's awesome humor and touching family feelings.

As with his other books, John uses his magic to breath life into his characters and they jump off the page and run all over your mind hours after the book is closed. The scenes are painted so lifelike that you'll swear they are photographs.
Don't miss it!

I give 'Requiem, Mass.' a 5 out of 5.