Willocks

He's also an eye-catcher: artist Julian Schnabel approached the red-maned, porcelain-skinned Willocks at breakfast in New York a few years back and pleaded with him to sit for a portrait.

Madonna's Boy Freud 2008

Willocks' world is a thick stew of smells, colors and sounds, Fresh blossoms compete with steaming entrails underfoot in the besieged city; dyed silks interwoven with strands of gold, flags and banners wave over fields colored by death and rot; the sweet viola music played by Carla and Amparo underscores the roar of cannons or the hot breath of frightened horses.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Willocks gives his readers an epic tale that will sweep them along as powerfully as a tsunami.

Review of The Religion, by Tim Willocks 2007

Willocks' tone is faux 18th century; in fact, though it is truly not that kind of novel, I kept thinking of John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy, both academic sendups of the early epic novel.

Review of The Religion, by Tim Willocks 2007

Willocks' hero -- a borderline comic-book action figure who weeps upon hearing music and is honorable to a fault -- is Mattias Tannhauser, kidnapped when he was a child from Germany by marauding Turks and raised by them; he is, here, no longer a young man, seemingly in emotional and psychological retreat.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Willocks' tale is set on the cusp of either the end of the Medieval period or the beginning of modern times.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Willocks' tone is faux 18th century; in fact, though it is truly not that kind of novel, I kept thinking of John Barth's The Sot-Weed Factor and Giles Goat-Boy, both academic sendups of the early epic novel.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Willocks gives his readers an epic tale that will sweep them along as powerfully as a tsunami.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Willocks reminds us at every point, every battle, every stroll through the city, every panorama that meets a character's eye.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007

Though I am convinced he is serious, Willocks also seems to be enjoying himself immensely; the novel is a treat to read.

Archive 2007-05-01 2007