They say life imitates art, but what happens when art imitates life? In Mud Season, the newest book about a book, main character Woody hits a little too close to home when his fiction novel which is „loosely“ based on his in-laws very successful and public company accuses them of a fictional crime. Sounds serious right? You’d be wrong. Main character Woody, may be named after Margaret Atwood, but he is anything but serious; he’s quirky, sarcastic, and often very funny. This novel will have you laughing out loud at parts and is a fun addition to the „books on books“ genre.

As a former journalist who is perpetually trying to write a novel, ‘Mud Season’ seemed too good to pass over while on the hunt for my next read.
Jeff Kramer’s debut novel is a hugely entertaining take on the ‘writer being a writer’ genre. Our main character, Atwood ‘Woody’ Hackworth has been let go from his journalism job on a local newspaper and decides that he’s going to take revenge (on everyone, even people who are good to him) in the form of a very close-to-the-bone novel.
Hiding within the argument of ‘it’s fiction’, he writes what he knows which is fine until he starts to serialise it online and, well, the mud starts slinging.
Woody’s sardonic humour and lofty aspirations make him an intriguing character – we should dislike him for his pig-headedness and obnoxious lamentations about his ‘Art’ and ‘The Process’, but he’s almost too hapless to truly dislike. There are all sorts of cultural nods in the novel – some intended, some maybe not.
Having just finished a book about ‘The Wire’, my mind was very tuned into the various commentary around the practice of journalism, and I thought Woody’s somewhat petulant decision on a new career felt like it was straight out of ‘American Beauty’.
The novel within the novel works extremely well, despite the very fine lines between truth and reality. Woody’s novel reads enough like a hard-boiled detective (or maybe slightly poached detective!) to clearly differentiate between Woody’s life and his fictional alter-ego Cus’s life.
I initially felt like the novel ended with a bit of a whimper, rather than a bang but, considering it a bit more, I think it worked extremely well because, with the joint narratives, we got one over-the-top ending, and one more grounded in realism which, at the end of the day, is where Woody realises he needs to be.
As I say, as a writer and former journalist, I lapped up every word of this – I identified with so much of what he said about both professions and I did appreciate the commentary around the vagaries of each industry.
A thoroughly enjoyable, well realised novel, with some crackling dialogue, interesting characters, and a book within a book. What’s not to love when it’s done well?

My thanks to Koehler Books, via NetGalley for an eARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.