 Relief Editor-In-Chief, Kimberly Culbertson whole-heartedly recommends My Name is Russell Fink, by Michael Snyder.
Two years ago, when I read Michael's Snyder's fiction submission, "All Healed Up," I actually did a little dance of excitement. Ben and I were in a restaurant at two in the morning,sifting through the first batch of submissions, and I was really wondering what I had gotten myself into; every submission I read that night was less appropriate then the last, at least according to the vision I was trying to uphold for Relief. And then I read Michael's story and I knew that this literary journal idea from God made some sense, and that I would be thrilled and proud to publish "All Healed Up."
It's still one of my favorite moments in all of Relief history. If you haven't read the story, it's the first piece in the first issue, which you can purchase here. OR... You could pick up his recently published book, My Name Is Russell Fink. It's even got a few elements from his Relief publication, though no toad venom (you'll just have to read the story).
This often sad, though just as often laugh-out-loud novel spotlights a struggling hypochondriac painter secretly convinced that he caused his sister's cancer at nine years old. In the midst of his unhappy life, he finds his dog dead and the search for the killer helps him to unravel his anger and guilt. The whodunit mystery brings the reader along for a wacky ride complete with a disgraced faith healer father, alcoholic mother, forever-in-trouble brother, freezing astronaut, strangely dressed love interest, self-obsessed fiance, crotchety neighbor, and a not-quite-right private eye. Despite the quirky and wild ride, Russell's journey is poignant and thought provoking.
And there's a flip book at the end.
At Calvin's Festival of Faith and Writing last April, we were pleased to be located across from the Zondervan booth, where Michael's book was front and center. When we had a chance, we hung out with Andy Meissenheimer and his crew. I even tried to get Andy to hook me up with a "Dog Gone Good Book" shirt (Sadly they were all allocated.) I told so many people to purchase Mike's book that two separate people asked me confusedly if I worked for Zondervan. (which prompted questions about where I actually worked, at which point I remembered why I was there and plugged Relief. Since Zondervan wasn't actually selling books, I think I managed to frustrate a few would be readers by selling them on the story and then explaining that they couldn't actually buy it at the booth--sorry Mike! I blame Andy.)
Relief offers our congratulations to Michael Snyder, who's pulled off a wonderfully fun debut novel that sits quite comfortably outside the box of stereotypically Christian fiction. True, there's no toad venom, but he does booze up the dog on occasion :)
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