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Double time
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| Can a novel change the story of your life?
Priscilla Cogan’s new novel Double Time will keep you up all
night reading. Once you join Billy T. Pickle’s escape from a bank holdup he
carries out to keep his wife Carmelite in shopping money so she won’t kick
him out, you won’t want to leave him. Billy kidnaps a scruffy teenage girl
after the robbery - who doesn’t mind because she was running away from home
anyway - and discovers the tires of his getaway car (Carmelita’s)have been
slashed. Within the sound of sirens Billy jumps into a powder blue Dodge
Dart named Matilda being driven very slowly by an old lady. He shoves the
teenager in front and holds a gun to their heads while ordering the old lady
to head out of town. Thus this unlikely trio begin a zig-zag cross-country
escapade filled with funny, witty and provocative conversation. As if each
wild and exciting experience on the road is not enough, the teenager reads
aloud from a novel belonging to the old lady to relieve boredom on the road.
But beware. The journey isn’t just a wild adventure. In the end you will, as
Cogan warns, wonder “what is real and what is fiction? Can a novel change
the story of your life?”
–Evelyn
Wolfson, author of A First Look At History: Native Americans, Growing Up
Indian, From Abenaki to Zuni: A Dictionary of Native American Tribes, Hot
Flashes from Abroad: Women Travel Tales and Adventures.
see all of the reviews for Double Time
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Winona's Web
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From Publishers Weekly
Contrasting the values of modern Western culture with Native
American beliefs, Cogan's well-told first novel pits a Michigan psychotherapist
against an elderly Lakota woman who seemingly chooses death over life. Winona
Pathfinder, a healthy 69-year-old medicine woman, walks into the office of
narrator Megan O'Connor after being referred by her daughter, to whom Winona has
revealed that she intends to die in two months. At first, Megan uses standard
therapy tactics to try to shake Winona's preoccupation with death. When that
fails, Megan begins to listen to her story; soon she becomes a pupil, as Winona
imparts the Lakota way of life. As the sessions go on, the two women become
friends, and the divorced therapist begins to see how her own loneliness is
caused by what Winona sees as a lack of balance. The conceit may be cliched, but
Cogan has a talent for characterization and weaves together the strengths and
weaknesses of the two women with grace and flair. The author, a psychotherapist
with a background in Native American ceremonies, earns bonus points for
presenting the cultural material without proselytizing. More problematic are the
sections dealing with Megan's friendships and infrequent romantic adventures,
many of them mawkish. Though they represent a significant flaw, they seldom get
in the way of a story that's full of understanding and compassion.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
see all of the reviews for Winona's Web
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Michigan Book Signings |
June 28th [Date Change]
1-3 pm Cottage Books in Glen Arbor |
July 5th
1-3 pm Horizons Bookshop in Cadillac |
July 12th
10 am-5 pm Leland Arts Festival,
Sings-Alone and Priscilla book signing |
July 17th
1-3 pm McLean & Eakin in Petoskey |
July 22nd
1-3 pm The Book Store in Frankfort |
Aug. 2nd
All Day
Sutton's Bay Art Festival,
Sings-Alone and Priscilla |
Aug. 15th
Street Festival
7-9 pm Horizons Books in Traverse City,
Sings-Alone and Priscilla book signing |
Aug. 16th
1-3pm at Horizons Books in Petoskey,
Sings-Alone and Priscilla book signing |
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Two Canoes Press
