Soft-Boiled: An Investigation of Masculinity and the Writer’s Life

New father wrestles with the masculinity question–shadows a private eye as experiment.

SOFT-BOILED follows Stephen J. West as he shadows a private investigator by the name of Frank Streets. What starts out as a last-ditch effort to write West’s first book–while juggling responsibilities as a husband and new father–becomes a critical reflection on art-making, storytelling, and masculinity in America. Blending memoir, reportage, criticism, and detective thriller into one capacious yet focused narrative, SOFT-BOILED is a lyrical and aching self-reflexive portrait of an artist that asks the questions so many men are afraid to ask.

A unique, wandering study with plenty of thought-provoking, endearing twists–Kirkus

SOFT-BOILED is a magical genre remix that challenges received ideas of American Manhood and the Lone Artist, while simultaneously delivering a thrilling and comedic detective noir and moving family drama–Torrey Peters

SOFT-BOILED leaves no stone unturned in its investigation of this unified myth of American manhood, and West is a smart, fun, kind-hearted investigator, willing–like Frank Streets, the enigma at the book’s center–to let us ride along and see what happens next–Lucas Mann

Literary Nonfiction.