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The Failure is a picaresque novel set in Los Angeles about two guys who conceive and badly execute a plan… to rob a Korean check-cashing store in order to finance the prototype for an impossibly ridiculous Internet application James Greer one of the nimblest and most multilayered American fiction writers has with his latest novel The Failure pulled off a sublime and shivery-smooth literary hat-trick-cum-emotional-gotcha I defy anyone to come up with an equation to explain how this book s first impression as a ridiculously clever funny crime story can gradually disclose a metanovel built from far more encyclopedic scratch only to reveal upon its conclusion a central overriding thought so heartfelt literally it trembles your lower lip This is one stunning piece of work --Dennis Cooper author of Ugly Man James Greer s The Failure is such an unqualified success both in conception and execution that I have grave doubts he actually wrote it --Steven SoderberghJames Greer is the author of the novel Artificial Light Akashic Books which won a California Book Award for Best Debut Novel and the nonfiction book Guided By Voices A Brief History Grove Press a biography of the band for which he once played bass guitar He is currently working with director Steven Soderbergh on a rock musical about Cleopatra starring Catherine Zeta-Jones He lives in Los Angeles
Trinie Dalton s voice is so charming in these stories and they fly right by so it takes a… little time to realize how deftly she is talking about death and sex and fear and love and fur and slumber parties how lightly she touches upon heaviness making an imprint so gentle you don t know it s there until later when the story floats back up in your memory light as a butterfly or a blood-oil lilypad in the bath --Aimee Bender Trinie Dalton is as radically original a young writer as I ve ever come across a post-punk post-apocalyptic post-everything sensibility casting spells of willed innocence against the powers of darkness she knows terrifyingly well --David Gates These charming stories vibrate with innocence and awe Trinie Dalton is an effortless purveyor of wonder strangeness and love She is a writer of high spirits and unguarded vision and this debut collection is an absolute pleasure to read --Ben Marcus In Wide Eyed a wonderfully eccentric and vibrant collection Trinie Dalton showcases her ability to put a fresh spin on the world leading the reader into places never explored--sometimes dreamlike sometimes nightmarish always riveting Her vision is wholly unique and memorable --Jill McCorkleIn Trinie Dalton s tweaked vision of reality psychic communications between herself and Mick Jagger The Flaming Lips Marc Bolan Lou Reed and Pavement are daily occurrences Animals also populate this book beavers hamsters salamanders black widows owls llamas bats and many more are characters who befriend the narrator This collection of stories is told by a woman compelled to divulge her secrets fantasies and obsessions with native Californian animals glam rock icons and horror movies among other things With a setting rooted in urban Los Angeles but colored by mythic tales of beauty borrowed from medieval times Shakespeare and Grimm s fairy tales Wide Eyed makes the difficulties of surviving in a contemporary American city more palatable by showing the reader that magic and escape is always possible Stories include Hummingbird Moonshine in which the narrator s frustrated hunt for authentic religion in botanicas and science books culminates in a spiritual connection made with a hummingbird In Oceanic she resolves to marry a manatee after a drunken pre-party for her best friend s wedding In Tiles four vignettes about bloody accidents in tiled bathrooms intermingle with scenes from Dalton s favorite scary movies Featuring oddball prose in the traditions of Dalton s literary heroes--Denton Welch Robert Walser and Jane Bowles--these stories have a dreamy imaginative quality that reveal a peculiar state of mental ecstasy To be inside the mind of Trinie Dalton is to be escorted into bliss
A graphic memoir about the treatment of mental illness treating mental illness as a commodity and the often… unavoidable choice between sanity and happiness In her early twenties in New York City diagnosed with bipolar disorder Rachel Lindsay takes a job in advertising in order to secure healthcare coverage for her treatment But work takes a strange turn when she is promoted onto the Pfizer account and suddenly finds herself on the other side of the curtain developing ads for an antidepressant drug She is the audience of the work she s been pouring over and it highlights just how unhappy and trapped she feels stuck in an endless cycle of treatment insurance and medication Overwhelmed by the stress of her professional life and the self-scrutiny it inspires she begins to destabilize and while in the midst of a crushing job search her mania takes hold Her altered mindset yields a simple solution to quit her job and pursue life as an artist an identity she had abandoned in exchange for medical treatment When her parents intervene she finds herself hospitalized against her will and stripped of the control she felt she had finally reclaimed Over the course of her two weeks in the ward she struggles in the midst of doctors nurses patients and endless rules to find a path out of the hospital and this cycle of treatment One where she can live the life she wants finding freedom and autonomy without sacrificing her dreams in order to stay well
Saer is one of the best writers of today in any language --Ricardo Piglia What Saer presents marvelously is… the experience of reality and the characters attempts to write their own narratives within its excess --BookforumIn modern-day Paris Pich n Garay receives a computer disk containing a manuscript--which might be fictional or could be a memoir--by Doctor Real a nineteenth-century physician tasked with leading a group of five mental patients on a trip to a recently constructed asylum Their trip which ends in disaster and fire is a brilliant tragicomedy thanks to the various insanities of the patients among whom is a delusional man who greatly over-estimates his own importance and a nymphomaniac nun who tricks everyone--even the other patients--into sleeping with her Fascinating as a faux historical novel and written in Saer s typically gorgeous Proustian style The Clouds can be read as a metaphor for exile--a huge theme for Saer and a lot of Argentine writers--as well as an examination of madness Juan Jos Saer was the leading Argentinian writer of the post-Borges generation The author of numerous novels and short-story collections including Scars and La Grande Saer was awarded Spain s prestigious Nadal Prize in 1987 for The Event Five of his novels are available from Open Letter Books Hilary Vaughn Dobel has an MFA in poetry and translation from Columbia University She is the author of two manuscripts and in addition to Saer she has translated work by Carlos Pintado
<P>Hairstyles of the Damned is an honest, true-life depiction of growing up punk on Chicago's south side: a study in… the demons of racial intolerance, Catholic school conformism, and class repression. <P>It is the story of the riotous exploits of Brian, a high school burnout, and his best friend, Gretchen, a punk rock girl fond of brawling. <P>Based on the actual events surrounding a Chicago high school's segregated prom, this work of fiction unflinchingly pursues the truth in discovering what it means to be your own person.
Sturla Jón Jónsson is invited to represent Iceland at a poetry festival in Lithuania, which is the beginning of his… troubles. While at the conference, his overcoat is stolen, his article about how stupid literary festivals are causes a huge controversy, and he's accused of plagiarism. And that doesn't even include his encounters with the bizarre festival attendees.
In this five-book compilation by the author of the Baby-Sitters Club, a group of teenage friends struggles with friendships, family,… and romanceDawn and Sunny aren't speaking. Maggie's eating disorder has become extreme and Amalia is making it her mission to help. Ducky's parents have left him alone--again--and this time he could really use their advice.A spin-off of the bestselling Baby-Sitters Club, the California Diaries are first-person accounts of five teenagers dealing with the ups and downs of growing up. Diary Two contains the second journal of each of the main characters, books six through ten in the series.This ebook features an illustrated personal history of Ann M. Martin, including rare images from the author's collection.
'First published in France in 1973, this unbearably sad novel from Swiss author Chessex, the first non-French writer to win… the Prix Goncourt, charts a man's slow but steady path toward tragedy.Chessex perfectly captures the juxtaposition of the profound and the banal in a surreal scene where a mortuary representative hawks different models of urns to hold cremated remains. Jean's burden of guilt only grows heavier with time, and the denouement will strike many as pathetically inevitable.' Publishers WeeklyA haunting work, reminiscent of Albert Camus, that portrays with exquisite psychological detail the emotional crisis in the life of Jean Calmet, a young Swiss schoolteacher. As we watch the father's cremation in the opening chapter, we sense that, even though his father's body has been reduced to ashes, his spirit survives to haunt Jean. His father's prodigious vitality and virility had crushed his family and ruined his son's childhood. Even after his father's death, Jean cannot be free. The parental ogre's actions continue to suck Jean into a vortex of despair.Jacques Chessex, a giant of Swiss literature, won the Grand Prix de la langue française and was awarded the Grand Prix Jean Giono for his entire work. Bitter Lemon Press published his novels The Vampire of Ropraz and A Jew Must Die to high acclaim. He died in 2009 at age seventy-five.
<P>Aged 15, Jordan Bone got into a car with friends. She would never walk again. Paralysed from the chest down,… her life was changed forever. Becoming depressed and feeling like life wasn't worth living, these weren't the teenage years that Jordan had envisaged. <P>However, slowly but surely, she began to get herself out of the darkness. With a little help from the internet, Jordan started to embrace positive thinking and embarked on a personal journey to get her confidence - and her life - back. Eleven years on from the accident, Jordan creates her own beauty tutorials on YouTube and has a range of successful brand partnerships. She has reclaimed her life and her independence and now wants to share her inspirational story with others and is telling it through different aspects of beauty. This isn't a book about looking good on the surface, this is a story of inner strength, believing in yourself and finding motivation when you feel like all hope is gone.
Lauded as the “Queen of Lesbian Pulp” for her landmark novels of the 1950s, Ann Bannon defined lesbian fiction for… the pre-Stonewall generation. Following the release of Cleis Press’s new editions of Beebo Brinker and Odd Girl Out, I Am a Woman finds sorority sister Laura Landon leaving college heartbreak behind and embracing Greenwich Village’s lesbian bohemia. This edition includes a new introduction by the author.
The characters in these nine short stories abandon families, plot assassinations, nurse vendettas, tease, taunt, and terrorize. They retaliate for… bad marriages, dream of weddings, and wait decades for lovers. How far will we go to escape to a better dream? What consequences must we face for hope and fantasy? Robin McLean's stories are strange, often disturbing and funny, and as full of foolishness and ugliness as they are of the wisdom and beauty all around us.Robin McLean holds an MFA from UMass Amherst. She teaches at Clark University and lives in Bristol, New Hampshire, and Sunderland, Massachusetts.
Internationally acclaimed as a playwright, screen-writer, comic and sardonic commentator on the endless gaffs, absurdities and the profound and painful… misunderstandings that continue to characterize social interactions between aboriginal and non-aboriginal peoples, Taylor's stories in Fearless Warriors are a full frontal assault on stereotypes of all kinds and an edifying affirmation of humanity unlike anything else in fiction.
Glass Grapes and Other Stories is the first full-length collection of short stories by distinguished poet and fiction writer Martha… Ronk. Ronk's work has garnered critical accolades and numerous awards, including, most recently, a 2005 PEN USA Award in poetry, a 2007 NEA Fellowship, and a 2007 National Poetry Series Award. Glass Grapes is a collection of short, experimental stories, usually dominated by an object imbued with fetishistic qualities by an obsessive, self-involved narrator. The language of these stories is repetitive, provocative, imagistic, occasionally comic, and unnerving. Ronk's fiction moves with the same grace, beauty, and attention to language as her most accomplished poetry.
Foreign correspondent James Ryan was there whenever the world changed: in the Middle East, in the Balkans, in the former… Soviet bloc. But now he can't remember these events; he can't recall anything long-term, except the summer of his fifteenth year following his mother's death. It was the summer his father told him to call him Kurt. The summer the mysterious and enchanting Vera burst into their lonely, quiet lives. The summer his own world opened, then irrevocably changed.James, at fifty-two, suffers from a severe case of early onset Alzheimer's. The novel unravels James's predicament through the clear glimpses he retains of that long ago summer, and through the desperate attempts of his wife and his nurse to bring him back to the present, if only for stolen moments. Each has her motives: his wife trying not to lose the man with whom she shared so much - wars, death, love, loss of a child, history. And his nurse, the half sister he never knew he had, needing James's adolescent memory to understand the biological father and mother she never met. Told from the perspective of a man betrayed by his own mind, Shadow Man is a novel of identity and suspense that travels across continents and deep into the pasts that make us each who we are. It explores the power of memory to heal and to mask, and of the limits of unconditional love. Set in Philly and the eastern shore of yesteryear, in the Middle East, and throughout Eastern Europe, Fleishman's trademark descriptive but spare lyricism shines. Shadow Man is a touching and haunting novel perhaps most similar to The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, though it is a work of fiction. From the Trade Paperback edition.
With tales of a gruesome murder, a typhoid epidemic, corrupt politicians, and a Japanese invasion, The Writing on the Wall… was intended to shock its readers when it was published in 1921. Thinly disguised as a novel, it is a propaganda tract exhorting white British Columbians to greater vigilance to prevent greedy politicians from selling out to the Chinese and Japanese. It was also designed to convince eastern Canada of British Columbia's need for protections against an onslaught of the 'yellow peril.'This novel is not exceptional in its extreme racism; it reiterates almost every anti-oriental cliché circulating in British Columbia at the time of its publication. While modern readers will find the story horrifying and unbelievable, it is in fact based on real incidents. Many of the views expressed were only exaggerated versions of ideas held throughout the country about non-Anglo-Saxon immigrants. The Writing on the Wall is a vivid illustration of the fear and prejudice with which immigrants were regarded in the early twentieth century.
Martine Desjardins delivers to readers of Maleficium the unexpurgated revelations of Vicar Jerome Savoie, a heretic priest in nineteenth century… Montreal. Braving threats from the Catholic Church, Savoie dares to violate the sanctity of the confessional in this confession-within-a-confession, in which seven penitents, each afflicted with a debilitating malady or struck with a crippling deformity, relates his encounter with an enigmatic young woman whose lips bear a striking scar.As these men penetrate deep into the exotic Orient, each falls victim to his own secret vice. One treks through Ethiopia in search of wingless locusts. Another hunts for fly-whisks among the clove plantations of Zanzibar. Yet others bargain for saffron in a Srinagar bazaar, search for the rarest frankincense, and pursue the coveted hawksbill turtle in the Sea of Oman. Two more seek the formula for sabon Nablus in Palestine or haggle over Persian carpets in the royal gardens of Shiraz. The men's individual forms of punishment, revealed through the agency of the young woman, are wrought upon their bodies.Baroque in its complexity, Kafka-like in its inexorable mechanics, Maleficium by turns astonishes, amuses, and beguiles. Then author Martine Desjardins's Vicar Savoie-as in any confession worth its communion wafer-saves the best (or worst) for last.Maleficium won the Prix Jacques Brossard and was a finalist for the Governor General's Literary Award (French Fiction), the Prix des libraires du Québec, the Prix des cinq continents de la Francophonie, and the Prix France-Québec.
Super Black places the appearance of black superheroes alongside broad and sweeping cultural trends in American politics and pop culture,… which reveals how black superheroes are not disposable pop products, but rather a fascinating racial phenomenon through which futuristic expressions and fantastic visions of black racial identity and symbolic political meaning are presented. Adilifu Nama sees the value—and finds new avenues for exploring racial identity—in black superheroes who are often dismissed as sidekicks, imitators of established white heroes, or are accused of having no role outside of blaxploitation film contexts. Nama examines seminal black comic book superheroes such as Black Panther, Black Lightning, Storm, Luke Cage, Blade, the Falcon, Nubia, and others, some of whom also appear on the small and large screens, as well as how the imaginary black superhero has come to life in the image of President Barack Obama. Super Black explores how black superheroes are a powerful source of racial meaning, narrative, and imagination in American society that express a myriad of racial assumptions, political perspectives, and fantastic (re)imaginings of black identity. The book also demonstrates how these figures overtly represent or implicitly signify social discourse and accepted wisdom concerning notions of racial reciprocity, equality, forgiveness, and ultimately, racial justice.
The Brother is a spaghetti western told in poetic prose, simultaneously paying tribute to both Clint Eastwood and Alessandro Baricco.… It opens with a mysterious stranger arriving in a small town controlled by a group of men-men who recently cheated the stranger's supposed sister out of her inheritance. Following his arrival, fortunes change dramatically, enraging this group of powerful men.
Called "remarkable" (The Wall Street Journal) and "an ambitious, colossal debut novel" (Publishers Weekly), Helen DeWitt's The Last Samurai is… back in print at last Helen DeWitt's 2000 debut, The Last Samurai, was "destined to become a cult classic" (Miramax). The enterprising publisher sold the rights in twenty countries, so "Why not just, 'destined to become a classic?'" (Garth Risk Hallberg) And why must cultists tell the uninitiated it has nothing to do with Tom Cruise? Sibylla, an American-at-Oxford turned loose on London, finds herself trapped as a single mother after a misguided one-night stand. High-minded principles of child-rearing work disastrously well. J. S. Mill (taught Greek at three) and Yo Yo Ma (Bach at two) claimed the methods would work with any child; when these succeed with the boy Ludo, he causes havoc at school and is home again in a month. (Is he a prodigy, a genius? Readers looking over Ludo's shoulder find themselves easily reading Greek and more.) Lacking male role models for a fatherless boy, Sibylla turns to endless replays of Kurosawa's masterpiece Seven Samurai. But Ludo is obsessed with the one thing he wants and doesn't know: his father's name. At eleven, inspired by his own take on the classic film, he sets out on a secret quest for the father he never knew. He'll be punched, sliced, and threatened with retribution. He may not live to see twelve. Or he may find a real samurai and save a mother who thinks boredom a fate worse than death.