Finished: In Sunlight or In Shadow

Legendary author Lawrence Block corralled some of his author buddies and came up with an ingenious idea. Each author picked an Edward Hopper painting (you know ‘em when you see ‘em) and the writer was tasked with using that painting as inspiration for a short story.

The book is called: In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper.

I started this in December and have been reading them off and on. I love these kind of anthologies where you can knock one off when you have fifteen minutes. I just finished it this weekend and absolutely loved it. If I counted this as a 2016 read, it would be my favorite of the year.

From Amazon:

A truly unprecedented literary achievement by author and editor Lawrence Block, a newly-commissioned anthology of seventeen superbly-crafted stories inspired by the paintings of Edward Hopper.

Amazonians give it 4.5 out of 5.

It introduced me to some accomplished authors I’d never read before and I quickly added some of their works to my Amazon cart and my BTB (books to buy) list I take to the used book store.

I was really looking forward to the Lee Child story (he of Jack Reacher), but it was surprisingly one of the weaker ones of the bunch. Seemed like he just threw something together quick and didn’t even use Jack Reacher in the story. I thought he dropped the ball on that.

Stephen King’s was expectedly creepy. I saw his was nominated with Block’s short story for a prestigious Edgar Award (named after Poe).

Goodreads lists some of the authors:

Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Justin Scott, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Lawrence Block himself. Even Gail Levin, Hopper’s biographer and compiler of his catalogue raisonée, appears with her own first work of fiction, providing a true account of art theft on a grand scale and told in the voice of the country preacher who perpetrated the crime.

Goodreaders give it a 3.8 out of 5.

It hits 7+ out of 10 on the Haugenometer. Fantastic. Below is probably the most famous Hopper painting: Nighthawks: