Book Reviews

“BLIND MAN’S BLUFF is a spectacular piece of satire . . . . absolutely impressive and believable in every respect . . . . While Adams’ style is relentlessly light and funny, it is far from harmless. In the end . . . the story is as impossible for the reader to forget as the participants’ stupidity is for them to leave behind. . . . The glory of Adams’ book is that it is right on target.” — Mike Ritchey, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

“Adams handles it all with style, wit and increasing doses of terror . . . [a] highly readable, very clever book . . . an excellent regional writer.” — PLAYBOY Magazine

“BLND MAN’S BLUFF is an energetic jazz ballad by a writer sure about his purpose. He never misleads us, and his voice is authentic.” — James Hoggard, Dallas Times Herald

 “BLIND MAN’S BLUFF has the greatest range of any recent Texas fiction. It moves from howlingly funny rustic boyhood scenes worthy of Twain to the bleakest pathos and tragedy that is first cousin to Faulkner. Few writers even attempt this—with BLIND MAN’S BLUFF, Adams has done it!” — Paul Foreman, Thorp Springs Press

 “ . . . an odd and beautiful book . . . illustrated with haunting metaphorical line drawings, also by Adams.” —Bryan Woolley, Dallas Times Herald

 “BLIND MAN’S BLUFF is the dynamically written story of small-town life in Texas, presented in a beautifully illustrated and produced format.” — Nancy Hamilton, El Paso Times

 “And it bothers me, Slats, ‘Cause I can’t stop thinkin’ about it.” — Kelly Fero, Third Coast Magazine

“  . . . the instincts of a fine regional humorist [and] penchant for the underlying violence of outback communities that smacks of Twain.” — Sidney Crammer, Austin Chronicle

“The themes are powerful, the plot, masterly . . . But what is most surprising about the novel is how it deepens from satire, almost burlesque of rural manners, to a consideration, with attendant moral complexity, of the human consequence of a code that is smug, constricting, and finally cruel.” —Don Graham, The University of Texas at Austin

“Like Faulkner, with his Yoknapatawpha country, Mr. Adams has succeeded in creating a world of his own—a world steeped in Texas folklore and suffused with poetry and humor. Mr. Adams has opened up new territory for American Literature . . . He is what I would call a genuine novelist. There’s nothing superficial about his art.” — Claude Levy, Université de Paris, Chairman, Etudes Anglo-Americanes

“ANNIVERSARIES IN THE BLOOD is a pearl sitting on a fur cushion . . . a fine Texas novel that makes you think.” —Mike Cox, Austin American-Statesman

“Adams creates fascinating yet authentic characters, tells a rollicking good tale, builds a time and a place with remarkable clarity, and for those who like it—there are lower layers, implications that mark the enduring substance of the story-teller’s art.” — Max Westbrook, Professor of American Literature, The University of Texas at Austin

“Adams’ talent combines love and honesty about Texas culture to produce a metaphoric vision that illuminates and examines critically the universal cries of the heart found in all cultures. We can all be grateful for his expanding consciousness which broadens and deepens our own personal understandings of who and what we are.” — Kenneth Davis, Professor of English, Texas Tech University; President, Texas Popular Culture Association.

“The Author’s own writing is filled with a liveliness so intense that textbook writers everywhere will eating their hearts out.” — David Skwire Cuyaloga Community College

“Anyone who picks up this book cannot help but be charmed by its engaging style, lucid thinking and simple design.” — Joseph F. Trimmer Ball State University

“. . .  clear and convincing.” —Jeff Rakham, University of North Carolina at Asheville