Best literary release of 2007, hands down. No, hands up, raise your hands to the sky and praise tha lah-ord for scratching my literary itch.

Portes nails the pubescent voice of a girl named Luli who decides to leave her horrid, abusive existence in Nebraska for the road, a road leading to Las Vegas. Luli discovers she has something that men want with her maturing body and feels that is going to give her the life she needs.

Along the way she gets protection from a shady motherly type named Glenda.

Dark, funny and naked to the bone honesty make "Hick" the literary classic it will become.

It's one of those books you read, if you're a writer, that will make you seeth with jealousy.

Trust me, if you only buy one book this year, if you only read one book this year, make it "Hick". I'm not kidding. Buy it because you won't be able to help yourself by marking and highlighting all the brilliant dialogue and narrative and you'll need to read it twice.

Literary love,

Tony DuShane