"Lee Maynard writes better than anyone else I know about how a boy is infused with the rules of American manhood. This new book The Pale Light of Sunset is a fictional memoir– a kind of heightened and imagined life that Maynard describes in the subtitle as "Scattershots and Hallucinations in an Imagined Life." Organized chronologically from 1936 to 2005, it is series of beautifully written short narratives. They begin with the story teller as a free-ranging boy in the mountains; then he is transplanted for a time to the mean streets of Baltimore, Maryland; then he is back in Crum, West Virginia– the scene and title of his extraordinary first novel....The persona Maynard creates, the experiences he offers us, make for a truly gripping book that you find yourself halfway through when you only meant to read a few pages."

-Meredith Sue Willis, author: Oradell at Sea

"Simply a superb book. These stories of a lifetime are infused with a wanderer's soul, a seeker no less spiritual than what we see in the accounts of itinerant Zen monks from medieval Japan. Indeed, The Pale Light of Sunset is just such a narrative of the mind and spirit for our own time. . .Lee Maynard has tipped his hat to all [Chaucer, Defoe, Twain, Steinbeck, James Still, and Flannery O'Connor] and then invented his own technique here, and taken it where he needs to go to tell his own brand of story."

-Richard Currey, author of Crossing Over: The Vietnam Stories, Fatal Light, and Lost Highway

"Lee Maynard's vivid and heart-wrenching writing packs a wallop that left me reeling. In The Pale Light of Sunset, Maynard's stories take us on his sometimes harrowing journey from the hills of West Virginia to a mountaintop in Santa Fe, New Mexico where we learn along with him his life lessons. Seldom have I come across a book of short stories that read like such a compelling novel. I couldn’t put it down."

-Sandy Johnson, author: The Book of Elders and The Thirteenth Moon

"(Maynard writes like) Jean Shepherd on acid . . .
CRUM is one twisted little novel."

Robert Beveridge, Critic

"Maynard is a Gonzo Mountaineer . . . "

Pops Walker, Musician; Writer
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"CRUM is great. Lee Maynard is a genius.
No writing has captured rural America this well since Mark Twain.
A masterpiece!"

Stephen Coonts, author of: "Flight of the Intruder"
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"Whatever You Do, Don't Read CRUM! In a column . . . I wrote about the author Lee Maynard and his book CRUM. I tried to issue a warning that there would be language and situations in it that might be offensive to some people. However, I didn't go so far as to say it might cause heart palpitations, deafness or blindness. In hindsight, maybe I should have. I did make this warning: Read CRUM at your own risk."

Jack Cawthon, Hur Herald

"Maynard and Chuck Kinder -- the two original Outlaw Writers of Appalachia, and other unlucky regions."

Jon Manning, Writer; Musician

" . . . Maynard presents a portrait of a young man's psyche which ranks just a small notch below great American portrayals of adolescence - Huckleberry Finn and The Catcher in the Rye."

Michael Shannon Friedman, for the GAZETTE
Charleston, WV

"Each time I read Lee Maynard's CRUM, I ask myself, Why is this foul-mouthed, sexist, scatological hillbilly-stereotyping novel one of my all-time favorites?"

Meredith Sue Willis, Author, Editor, Teacher

"It's a shame more people don't know about this book.
It's one of the funniest books I've ever read."

T. Bratz, Critic

"Lee Maynard's CRUM is one of those rare, can't put it down treats that American literature rarely affords the addicted reader. After two chapters I was hooked and try as I might I could not save it for later.What a treat - laughter, tears, heart beat of a connection to shared time and place. "

K. Bruce Florence, Critical Reader