Richard Melo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Born: | August 10, 1968 San Francisco, California |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Novelist, Critic |
| Nationality: | United States |
| Genres: | Literary |
Richard Melo (born August 10, 1968) is an American author and book reviewer. His debut novel, Jokerman 8, was published in 2004.
[edit] Biography
Richard Melo was born in San Francisco, California and attended the San Francisco State University. He currently lives in Portland, Oregon.
As a book critic, since 2004, Melo has reviewed books by Thomas Pynchon, William Vollmann, Colson Whitehead, and Tom Robbins, among others. Melo is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.
His fiction has appeared in Willamette Week and Gobshite Quarterly. He began his career as a playwright with two productions appearing on the Mt. Hood Community College stage in the early 1990s. He is a graduate of the Creative Writing program at San Francisco State University.
His novel, Jokerman 8 (Soft Skull Press, 2004), follows the lives of several San Francisco State University college students as they flirt with the radical environmental movement and one another. Set in the late 80s and early 90s, it follows the members of the radical Jokerman troupe as they spike trees, sink an Icelandic whaling vessel, and occupy a construction crane on the eve of the groundbreaking of an animal research facility on the University of California campus. The writing style recalls works by Ken Kesey and Tom Robbins, though its closest literary cousin is The Monkey Wrench Gang, by Edward Abbey. Jokerman 8 was Number 1 on Powell's Books small press bestseller list in October 2004.
