Going Outside: Fiction - Commentary - Jazz

Writings that run the gamut from the very funny to the darkly serious.

"Gosh he's a bloody good writer! Verbose but hilarious. His stories and essays present a mad, vulgar, dysfunctional world that the author flounders around in. Great entertainment."
-Harold Nawy, Prof. Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley

"Levin's short stories are fantastic. His writing is simply brilliant, the intelligence and wit sharp beyond comparison, and his humor is wry and beautifully sardonic; there were occasions which had me in stitches. Each story peels back another layer of the author, and we very quickly start to realize that there is far, far more meaning to Levin's writing than [may first meet the eye].] In truth, what may start off to some feeling in some ways puerile in fact soon evolves into something much deeper and more existentially profound. We start to learn a great deal about Levin- no more so than his transfixion (some might even call it an obsession) with the inevitability of death; it even reaches an extent to which this probably becomes the theme of the book." - Matt McAvoy

"'The Killer' is a powerful story. I really dig how Levin uses the style/conventions of classic existential fiction (like 'Notes from Underground' and 'Nausea') to explore the contemporary spree killer phenomenon. It's bleak, disturbing, and insightful." - William H. Duryea

"Wow...what an extremely intense and powerful work ['The Killer' is]. I see exactly what Levin's going for here, a journey forthwith into the mind of some of those people who all too often become national news in this country. Incredible work. - Michael Shields

"Well written... 'The Killer' is an important and ambitious project, analyzing from the inside the mentality of a sociopathic nihilist." - Donald Webb

"'When Pacino's Hot' is the funniest story I've ever read." - Cecil Taylor

"'Peggie' is the funniest and rudest thing I've read in years, and 'Dog Days' is just extraordinary...original and disturbing." - Tony Cook

"A writer from whom I always learn something."
- Nat Hentoff on Levin's jazz writings

"Heavy and brilliant." - Douglas Rushkoff on "Everything's Alright in the Middle East

"A writer of talent and intelligence.
- Irving Louis Horowitz