Eric Miles Williamson Has Done It Again

June 23, 2:24 PMEast Bay Literary ExaminerTony R. Rodriguez

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ERIC MILES WILLIAMSON

Eric Miles Williamson smashes through the complex barriers of socio-economics and socio-emotionality with his latest novel Welcome to Oakland. Here, Williamson offers to readers the return of his beloved bad boy, foul-mouthed protagonist T-Bird Murphy, who was first introduced by Williamson in his acclaimed novel East Bay Grease. However, in Welcome to Oakland, Murphy is now a man, and life isn’t rich with happy days. There’s struggle with dead end jobs, dead end friendships and dead end moments saturated with ill fated melancholy. There’s loathsome plight and disparaging ideologies that linger about Murphy’s dismal existence. But Murphy is a survivor. He’s a remarkable human being that manages to press on against the bitter East Bay winds that whimsically funnel through the sad Oakland streets. Murphy also possesses a certain richness that allows him to see things differently. Where there’s struggle, Murphy sees the promise of better days. And where there’s plight, Murphy sees distinguished beauty. Murphy’s charismatic courage to endure through the hard times shines away the grim realities of life in Oakland.

Eric Miles Williamson is the mystic on the street corner, the one who promises his listeners better days to come. Only those locked into their daily cyclic movements will continue walking past his street corner. And those of us who will listen will be fulfilled because we’ll already be drawn in by Williamson’s fierce bravery to step away from conventional storytelling in order to release the wild beast contained in the narrative of Welcome to Oakland.

Welcome to Oakland  by Eric Miles Williamson

Raw Dog Screaming Press, July 2009, 236 pages, paper trade

ISBN 978-1-933293-80-6, $15.95 (USA)

For more info: tonyrodriguez (at) hotmail (dot) com

Copyright © 2009, Tony R. Rodriguez, Examiner.com