Thomas Sullivan’s name first caught my attention in 1993 when singer-songwriter Glenn Frey dedicated his song “I’ve Got Mine” to Mr. Sullivan for using a phrase from his novel “The Phases of Harry Moon”. The song is on Glenn Frey’s album “Strange Weather” which is a lucid and thought-provoking description of life in L.A. in the 1990’s performed with Mr. Frey’s seldom romantic urgency and transparent sound.
Several years later as I was doing research for my study on the poetry of the Eagles, Mr. Sullivan’s name again surfaced on my radar screen after reading his column “CROSS LAKE, GLENN FREY & BREATHING THE SKY”. His universe of novels, short stories, blog columns and newsletters immediately caught my attention.
Mr. Sullivan’s seminal novel “The Phases of Harry Moon” (D.P.Hutton, 1988) is the story of Harry Moon, one of four eccentric brothers descending from Irish immigrants. The reader follows the youngest brother Harry Moon from his childhood, through college and marriage. It is the story of a husband and father marginalized and driven to extinction. It is written in a satiric style but I find the book not a bit light-hearted. The book is an unusual strong character study and digs deep into Harry Moons personality with elegance, wit and grace. It is original, intelligent and powerful.
“The Phases of Harry Moon” was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize and is said to have a cult following. I can easily understand why. It has a timeless quality and is highly recommended.
Following “The Phases of Harry Moon” Mr. Sullivan published a number of thrillers or horror books. I’ve had the chance to read “The Water Wolf” published in 2006. I’m not familiar with the genre and leave it to the experts to judge on the book’s genre-specific quality. Putting aside genre, reading it as a novel (something I always do), he clearly empowers also this story with craftsmanship, intelligence and intellectual range.
His short stories, some of them award-winning pieces, published in various magazines are unfortunately not easily available.
Mr. Sullivan's monthly blog columns on Storytellers Unplugged weblog are of special interest and amusement. Storytellers Unplugged is a collective of professional authors and creative professionals writing about the creative process and topics related to the creative lifestyle. In his columns Mr. Sullivan goes right to the heart of the matter. In his second column “WHO?” posted January 16th, 2006 he asks where the answers come to the questions you agonize over in front of the computer screen. His approach seems to be asking the question “Who am I?” The “Who”, according to Mr. Sullivan, is always a search within yourself.
In one of his earlier columns he introduces the idea that you can divide the purpose of language (and writing) into three areas: the language of emotions, the language of things and events, and the language of ideas. The careful reader will recognize these ideas in many of his subsequent blog posts, making his columns at Storytellers Unplugged coherent.
In the columns “The PERFECT SETUP, WRITING WITH LIZARDS, AND OTHER KEYS TO INSPIRATION” of August 16th, 2009 and “SEA LIONS IN COFFINS, GETTING LOST & WRITING WITHOUT WORDS” of December 16th, 2009 (to name just a few) he intelligently discusses issues such as creativity, motivation and inspiration.
In his column WHO’S THE STIFF, THE GANG OF 5 & AN ADAM ‘N’ EVE SLEEPING BAG of January 16th, 2010 he comes back to one of his other main themes namely that creativity is pointedly about excellence. According to Mr. Sullivan, it is only in pursuit of excellence that all our senses and sensibilities come fully alive and we breathe rarefied air once again.
His thoughts on creative writing, music as well as art in general are highly relevant and interesting, and his work is obviously of great inspiration to many people. Check out the large number of comments, many from creative artists themselves, posted on his Storyteller weblog. His essays and newsletters are simply very entertaining and inspirational to his readership.
His writings celebrate the individual and freedom. According to Thomas Sullivan, independence and individualism is most often synonymous with endurance in the art. And grassroots recognition more important to enduring acceptance than media hype.
Mr. Sullivan is obviously a man of high ethical standards. His work is transparent in the sense that self-honesty is a common thread in his work. His connectivity with nature adds to his literary composure. Nature is a prime resource for him and cross country skiing a religion.
Thomas Sullivan is a crossover author and his literary scope is wide. Often this represents a challenge in terms of market acceptance and commercial potential. In the case of Thomas Sullivan I think it’s an asset.
He elaborates on this himself in the Storytellers weblog column “MAKING LOVE or BETWEEN THE COVERS (of a book)” of April 15th, 2009. For Mr. Sullivan there are no choices; he must follow his conviction and write in whatever genre he must. It’s a question of honesty, to himself and in the long run to his readership. As he writes in his abovementioned column: “Not being true to yourself is being untrue to everything else”.
I would like to put forward a proposition to his publishers: publish a collection of his work (short stories and essays) in a coherent and innovative format and make it available internationally. A new edition of "The Phases of Harry Moon" is also long overdue. His fans all over the globe deserve it.
To learn more about Thomas Sullivan go to
Thomas Sullivan's homepage and his columns at
Storytellers Unplugged weblog.
My Norwegian review of Thomas Sullivan's excellent novel "Second Soul" is now published in the Norwegian publication ABC Nyheter. Read my full review in Norwegian here.
