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Kirkus Review of Raw
Revare’s novel features graduate creative writing professors, big business bad guys, vindictive ex-wives and a one-armed (well, one-handed) train engineer.
Carl Krauthammer seems to have it all—a lucrative business career, an ambitious wife and relatively few responsibilities. But when he’s canned from his position because of a corporate takeover—by the disjunctively-named Bland Corporation—he’s both out of a job and out of a marriage. At the age of 37 he moves to the “other” Manhattan, in Kansas, to study in a fiction-writing program under the tutelage of Jules Frye, a National Book Award nominee who hasn’t written anything (or anything worthwhile) for a number of years. Carl also meets Susan, a beguiling and seductive English professor who happens to be Jules’s former lover. Deciding that Jules is the kind of author who can definitely make or break a writer’s career, Carl assiduously curries his favor, flattering Jules and appealing to his substantial and inflated ego. It turns out Jules has his own agenda, however—he literally digs up a manuscript he’d buried a few years earlier and enlists Carl’s help in doing “research” for his novel. The plot—both of Jules’s work-in-progress and of Revare’s novel—involves a train wreck that years before had been caused by some La Leche terrorists—“lactivists”—and Susan had been entangled in these lacteal politics. Now her son, Ocean, is associated with an underground company that processes raw milk, and the Bland Company is trying to do a hostile takeover of this business as well. It turns out that unbeknownst to Carl, Jules is manipulating his knowledge to write a kind of roman-a-clef, all the while claiming that it’s an original work of fiction, and Carl, now romantically tied to Susan, wants to expose Jules’s secret—that his creative writing is not so creative after all.
A good read populated by idiosyncratic characters.
Kirkus Reviews
Carl Krauthammer seems to have it all—a lucrative business career, an ambitious wife and relatively few responsibilities. But when he’s canned from his position because of a corporate takeover—by the disjunctively-named Bland Corporation—he’s both out of a job and out of a marriage. At the age of 37 he moves to the “other” Manhattan, in Kansas, to study in a fiction-writing program under the tutelage of Jules Frye, a National Book Award nominee who hasn’t written anything (or anything worthwhile) for a number of years. Carl also meets Susan, a beguiling and seductive English professor who happens to be Jules’s former lover. Deciding that Jules is the kind of author who can definitely make or break a writer’s career, Carl assiduously curries his favor, flattering Jules and appealing to his substantial and inflated ego. It turns out Jules has his own agenda, however—he literally digs up a manuscript he’d buried a few years earlier and enlists Carl’s help in doing “research” for his novel. The plot—both of Jules’s work-in-progress and of Revare’s novel—involves a train wreck that years before had been caused by some La Leche terrorists—“lactivists”—and Susan had been entangled in these lacteal politics. Now her son, Ocean, is associated with an underground company that processes raw milk, and the Bland Company is trying to do a hostile takeover of this business as well. It turns out that unbeknownst to Carl, Jules is manipulating his knowledge to write a kind of roman-a-clef, all the while claiming that it’s an original work of fiction, and Carl, now romantically tied to Susan, wants to expose Jules’s secret—that his creative writing is not so creative after all.
A good read populated by idiosyncratic characters.
Kirkus Reviews
Now What Are They Saying About Raw?
Well, Whitney Terrell, author of the Huntsman and King of Kings Country says: Steve Revare is the freshest satirical voice to come out of the Midwest in many years. His new novel, RAW, is a hilarious send up of state school politics, writing gurus, and the seamy underbelly of the dairy world. Wry, vibrant, a master of invention and surprise, Revare establishes himself in these pages as a Calvin Trillin of the plains. It’s a debut readers from coast to coast shouldn’t miss.
And Susan Wells Bennett says:
When I was a kid, my grandparents kept a milk cow so that they could enjoy the pleasures of fresh milk. They tried to convince me that this raw product was better than the kind that came in cartons. Despite their best efforts, I was never converted to their way of thinking.After reading Steven Revare’s Raw, a Novel, though, I’m thinking I may have missed out on something special back then. Thankfully, I didn’t miss out on this quirky novel. Raw follows Carl Krauthammer as he attempts to exchange his accounting career path for that of a writer’s. After the collapse of his marriage, he leaves the East Coast Manhattan for the Midwestern Manhattan, Kansas, in order to study under the tutelage of his favorite novelist, Julian Frye. Carl imagines that life will be simpler back in Kansas; he couldn’t be more wrong. Instead, he finds a town full of breast-feeding activists, aggressive philosophy students, and the same corporate cogs he thought he’d left back in that other Manhattan. Of course, he also discovers an illegal dairy that sells raw milk and other dairy products, which is the source of the novel’s title.Every character in this novel is as familiar as they are unique. Julian Frye reminded me of a burnt-out author who taught creative writing at the university I attended. Carl’s girlfriend, Susan Hirschman, bore a strong resemblance to many of my feminist professors. However, the quirks that Mr. Revare gives these and his other characters are inspired.Raw has done something my grandparents never could – it has made me wish I could try fresh milk. There must be something magical about the stuff for it to inspire such a funny, fantastic book.
And Susan Wells Bennett says:
When I was a kid, my grandparents kept a milk cow so that they could enjoy the pleasures of fresh milk. They tried to convince me that this raw product was better than the kind that came in cartons. Despite their best efforts, I was never converted to their way of thinking.After reading Steven Revare’s Raw, a Novel, though, I’m thinking I may have missed out on something special back then. Thankfully, I didn’t miss out on this quirky novel. Raw follows Carl Krauthammer as he attempts to exchange his accounting career path for that of a writer’s. After the collapse of his marriage, he leaves the East Coast Manhattan for the Midwestern Manhattan, Kansas, in order to study under the tutelage of his favorite novelist, Julian Frye. Carl imagines that life will be simpler back in Kansas; he couldn’t be more wrong. Instead, he finds a town full of breast-feeding activists, aggressive philosophy students, and the same corporate cogs he thought he’d left back in that other Manhattan. Of course, he also discovers an illegal dairy that sells raw milk and other dairy products, which is the source of the novel’s title.Every character in this novel is as familiar as they are unique. Julian Frye reminded me of a burnt-out author who taught creative writing at the university I attended. Carl’s girlfriend, Susan Hirschman, bore a strong resemblance to many of my feminist professors. However, the quirks that Mr. Revare gives these and his other characters are inspired.Raw has done something my grandparents never could – it has made me wish I could try fresh milk. There must be something magical about the stuff for it to inspire such a funny, fantastic book.
What Are They Saying About Raw?
"A triumph of the bovine spirit!"
Happy Cow Coalition of California
"One thumb and one hook up!"
Sparky
"They said it was a story of two Manhattans. There wasn't a drop of vermouth in the whole book!"
Carrie B.
What will you say? Find out September 30th.
Raw. a Novel. Read it with a cow you love.
Happy Cow Coalition of California
"One thumb and one hook up!"
Sparky
"They said it was a story of two Manhattans. There wasn't a drop of vermouth in the whole book!"
Carrie B.
What will you say? Find out September 30th.
Raw. a Novel. Read it with a cow you love.
Get Thirsty. Coming in September 2010
Who Is This Steven L. Revare and Why Does He Want Us To Get Raw?
Steve Revare writes humorous novels that take place, at least partially, somewhere in Kansas. He
has spent his entire life racking up experience to put in his novels.
He wrote jokes for a Dennis Miller project, ran camera for NFL
broadcasts, wrote award-winning television promotion spots, co-founded and sold a
web-development firm, and, due to an unfortunate lack of
pre-freelance-gig research, operated a TV camera during a three-day
Amway convention.
He currently creates on apps and content for his company Slugworth, Incorporated.
Steve earned a BA in English from Indiana University, and an MA in English,
Creative Writing, from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. There,
he worked with author Whitney Terrell and earned the Gary William
Barger Memorial Scholarship and the Stanley H. Durwood Fellowship Award.
Oh, yes...and he wrote a little book about "an underground dairy that sells illicit raw milk, and uncovers a militant wing of La Leche League that specializes in light domestic terrorism."
Coming to a dairy case near you September 2010 Raw
has spent his entire life racking up experience to put in his novels.
He wrote jokes for a Dennis Miller project, ran camera for NFL
broadcasts, wrote award-winning television promotion spots, co-founded and sold a
web-development firm, and, due to an unfortunate lack of
pre-freelance-gig research, operated a TV camera during a three-day
Amway convention.
He currently creates on apps and content for his company Slugworth, Incorporated.
Steve earned a BA in English from Indiana University, and an MA in English,
Creative Writing, from the University of Missouri - Kansas City. There,
he worked with author Whitney Terrell and earned the Gary William
Barger Memorial Scholarship and the Stanley H. Durwood Fellowship Award.
Oh, yes...and he wrote a little book about "an underground dairy that sells illicit raw milk, and uncovers a militant wing of La Leche League that specializes in light domestic terrorism."
Coming to a dairy case near you September 2010 Raw