Ryan McKern

is a palette cleanser; I can grind through one of his nov­els in about 5 hours, it's light on the mind, and doesn't require much deep thought. It occa­sion­ally elic­its a com­fort­able chuckle and doesn't leave any sort of con­tro­ver­sial after­taste. His work is the lit­er­ary equiv­a­lent of a light flan or sor­bet served between courses: it's not the point …