Las Vegas Sun

Las Vegas homeboy Charles Bock, whose debut novel “Beautiful Children” is set against the backdrop of his hometown, managed to appear twice — at the very front and very back pages —in this Sunday’s New York Times Book Review.

Bock opens the section with a letter to the editor in which Bock describes learning that his homemade mix tapes —which he gave out for free at book readings — are selling for $500 on eBay. The author suggests that the sellers donate the money to Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth “or some other organization that works with homeless and at-risk teens.”

And Bock is mentioned glowingly in Polly Morrice’s section-closing essay about J.D. Salinger and his depiction of youth:

Then there is the missing 12-year-old at the center of Charles Bock’s deservedly acclaimed new novel, “Beautiful Children.” Newell Ewing, as surly as his name is euphonious, does not at first fit the mold of “God’s children,” but by the end of the novel he makes a choice, to escape causing pain to others, that puts him in this category forever. These new wise children may bump up against different rules than Salinger’s did, but as unfallen versions of ourselves they take us to the same bright, wild terrain.