Guest Review: Matt Dojny Reviewed by Jennifer Spiegel

Matt Dojny, The Festival of Earthly Delights. Westland, Mich.: Dzanc Books, 2012. Fiction. 400 pages. Illustrated by the author. ISBN: 978-1-936873-692.

A Book Review of Matt Dojny’s The Festival of Earthly Delights:
Who Can Take Him Seriously?

I don’t really know how to do a book review, though I like very much to “review” books. And since it’s that time of year when the literati and pretenders like me make lists about the best books of the year, I promised to abandon my Christmas plans if Karen Lillis included my book review of Matt Dojny’s book on her site, which is—let’s be honest—nicer than my site.

I only need to figure out how to really review a book. Well, then: form. The Festival of Earthly Delights is, eh hem, an epistolary novel (look it up) written by the protagonist, one Boyd Darrow, to the enigmatic Hap, whose identity you’ll eventually figure out. Boyd and his girlfriend-who-is-pretending-to-be-his-wife, Ulla, are young American expats in the imaginary Asian country of Puchai, where they both hold jobs in education, just as good Americans abroad often do, though Ulla is on the professional side of things.

What I really hate about writing book reviews is plot summary, so I’m going to skip it. The novel is a comedic novel. Epistolary and comedic. You’d be right if you guessed that there’s going to be all kinds of trouble, ranging from whacky food-tasting rituals to toilet humor (in one episode, I almost thought to myself, Enough, Matt! But, then, with further consideration, I thought, Well done, Matt! Well done!), from language mishaps to your usual foreign escapades involving drugs and whorehouses. Drugs and whorehouses are common, right? Boyd Darrow is utterly likeable, and we go wherever he goes willingly. He’s not an idiot. He’s not annoying. He’s just a young American abroad. Who lives with a girl named Ulla. In my opinion, one should always beware of women with names like Ulla. Generally speaking, women with the following names should be avoided: Ulla, Pippa, and Joss. Use your own discretion with Zoey.

In the short time I’ve got here, I’m going to focus on two aspects of this book: its comedic status and its rendering of the American expat abroad (Lordy, I love talking about that one).

It’s a comedic novel! Which means, in brief, it’s funny! You know, we’ve got to be serious for a second, and think about what this means. The comedic thing can be problematic. A bit of a stigma. I can’t remember where it is exactly, but I know that somewhere my own Love Slave is labeled comedic.

I don’t know about Matt Dojny’s response, but my response involved some disgruntled balking. Somehow, my writerly credentials were called into question. My legitimacy was at stake. Yeah, yeah, I read Catch-22. Yeah, yeah: Catcher in the Rye. In one of my non-review reviews, I grappled with the issue. The book was Tina Fey’s Bossypants, and I asked—with all sincerity—“Am I a humorist?” (The review can be found here: That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore.) Because maybe being a humorist isn’t such a good thing.

(Someone, incidentally, publically responded to my review by writing, “In answer to your question, No, you are not. ” I’m still suffering from that one.)

I’ve come to terms with the comedic thing. Dojny probably already has. There’s smart funny (which is marked by smarmy, sexy, true moments that contain beauty and sorrow and wit) and there’s dumb funny (sitcom TV with titles like “My Four Dads’ Sisters and Their Gay Neighbor” or “My Gay Neighbor’s Dad and His Four Sisters”). Funny, when funny is good, is smart. And Dojny’s prose is smart. Humor may be the best way at getting at this human thing, the core of what it means to be human. It seems like it’s the funny people who often see things more clearly. It’s not that they take life less seriously or that their light-heartedness is superficiality; rather, funny people are—dare I say it?—pretty damn perceptive, able to see nuances in behavior and thinking that other people miss. Fools!

If you can’t laugh at a good joke about excrement, something might actually be wrong with you.

Yeah, this book is funny. I’m thinking that the trick to humor is honesty—about everything. This is one super simple example. Ulla wakes up and says to Boyd, “I was just having a horrible nightmare. I was in a super-dirty bathroom, and my bare butt accidentally touched the wall.” I’ve had this dream! But here’s the important thing: though you’ve probably had this dream too, you may not know what to do with it. Dojny turns it into a comic moment, an honest moment. The gifted writer takes the common (like the bare-butt-on-dirty-surfaces nightmare) and renders them uncommon (magical moments abroad). That’s a real festival of earthly delights. Djony, gifted writer, does orchestrate a festival.

Let’s move on. Americans abroad! First, they are so freakin’ funny! Second, my first book—which is not comedic so don’t expect to laugh—is about expats (Shameless Plug: it’s called The Freak Chronicles). Third, I thought Dojny’s rendering of the American abroad was great. There are too many fine passages to quote from; I’m just going to pick a few. Though it’s common to draw upon the strangeness of food, Dojny does so with just the right tone. He’s gentle, without arrogance. He writes about Ulla’s fondness for this one dessert that’s like a “hot-dog bun filled with soybean ice cream, then smothered in creamed corn.” Sounds gross, but you’d probably like it too. I know I ate worse in Africa. There are bowls that emit the smell of “a hot burp, with a hint of black licorice.”

He captures the fear, the trepidation, the goofy white-kid-among-non-white people thinking which is heightened in extreme [foreign] situations. When a bunch of teenage malchaks (the politically-oppressed group, because there always is one) do potentially dangerous teenage stuff when Boyd walks in their part of the imaginary exotic locale, Boyd’s thinking goes like this: “I tried to compose my features into an expression that said: I’m just a gareng [foreigner] on my way home, minding my own business. I don’t think what you’re doing is cool, but I’m not judging you, either. It’s not really a big deal. Just don’t get anybody killed. I’m a visitor from New York City, the ‘Big Apple,’ so, believe me, I’ve seen much worse. . . I don’t view you as ‘the other.’ I know that the same blood runs through all of our veins. You may not have realized this before, but I know that you realize it now, as you look into my eyes: I am not afraid.” Boyd tries hard to communicate all of this in one facial expression, and this sums up what Dojny does in his rendering of the gareng experience: he captures a vast and complex collection of wild, important experiences in a series of quick, often funny, moments.

Well, he’s funny, but can he write? I like this line: “I woke up this morning with a mouthful of rubies.” Isn’t that what a good comedic novel is like? A mouthful of rubies? Think about it, reader.

I wrote my own little list of the Best Books of 2012, which was really the best books I read in 2012. However, my first choice was actually written in 2011, and The Festival of Earthly Delights was my second favorite read of the year. But since it was, in fact, written in 2012, it’s fair to say it was my pick for the Best Book of 2012! Yikes, that felt a little like a mouthful of rubies too. Don’t try to read this final paragraph aloud.

Summary: this is a really good book.

Guest Review by Jennifer Spiegel
Author of Love Slave (September 2012, Unbridled Books)
and The Freak Chronicles (June 2012, Dzanc Books)

Best of the Small Press 2012: Charles Rammelkamp

1. Autumn's Only Blood, Willie James King (Tebot Bach, 2012)
   Review: http://chamberfour.com/2012/04/30/review-autumns-only-blood/

2. Watch the Doors as They Close, Karen Lillis (Spuyten Duyvil, 2012)

3. Cannoli Gangster, Joey Nicoletti (WordTech Communications, 2012)
    Review: http://chamberfour.com/2012/10/04/review-cannoli-gangster/

4. The Freak Chronicles, Jennifer Spiegel (Dzanc Books, 2012)

5. The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice, Nathan Leslie (Atticus Books, 2012)
    Review: http://chamberfour.com/2012/10/30/review-the-tall-tale-of-tommy-twice/

~~Picks by Charles Rammelkamp, author of Fusen Bakudan (Time Being Books, 2012)

Best of the Small Press 2011: Day 5

Jenna Freedman reads from one of her zines at Lili Coffee Shop.
July 1, 2011, Pittsburgh. Photo by Artnoose.

Zine librarian Jenna Freedman came to Pittsburgh this July on The Orderly Disorder: Zinester Librarians in Circulation Tour with a small troupe of librarians who were on the road in between the ALA conference in New Orleans and the Zine Librarians (Un)Conference in Milwaukee. Jenna is a zine librarian at Barnard College, and a very active member of the Radical Reference Librarians; she has helped catalog the Occupy Wall Street Library. I got to see Jenna speak in my first semester of library school, and she was a large part of my inspiration to focus my studies on small press cataloging and collections. Jenna blogs at the Lower East Side Librarian, and she often reviews zines and small press books. This year she is recommending three zines and three books and she's included links to her reviews of each title.

Pittsburgh's own master of zines, Artnoose, organized the Pittsburgh reading for Jenna & friends, which was held in Polish Hill at Lili Coffee Shop. (See Day 3 for my ode to Lili). Artnoose (who was based in the Bay Area for many years) writes, typesets, and prints the zine Ker-Bloom!; I'm a big fan of her storytelling, and her letterpressed zines have a great visual aesthetic, too. She relocated to Pittsburgh a few years ago and is now a resident at the Cyberpunk Apocalypse Writers House, a space dedicated to supporting writing-in-progress, with an emphasis on zine writers.

*****

Jenna recommends three zines:

1. White Elephants #4, Katie Haegele (Self-published zine)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/haegele/whiteelephants4

2. Big Zine, Little Zine, Milo Miller (Self-published zine)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/miller/bigzinelittlezine

3. The Shortest Day, Celia C. Perez (Self-published zine)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/perez/shortestday

And three books:

1. Dragon Chica, May-lee Chai (GemmaMedia)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/chai/dragonchica

2. Repeat After Me, Rachel DeWoskin (Overlook Press)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/dewoskin/repeatafterme

3. Grrrl, Jennifer Whiteford (Gorsky Press)
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/reviews/whiteford/grrrl

Recommended by Jenna Freedman
Zine librarian, Radical Reference librarian, and zinester
http://lowereastsidelibrarian.info/

RIP George Whitman and Best of the Small Press 2011: Day 4

Writer in Residence is Mark Spitzer's memoir of living at
Shakespeare and Company (Paris) in the late '90s.

I was sad to hear this morning about the death of George Whitman, legendary expat bookseller of Paris for almost 60 years. I was lucky enough to spend some time with George (surely one of the great characters of the 20th Century) in his incarnation of Shakespeare & Company in 2000 and 2001. George made me pancakes, gave me a reading, put my novel in the window, and vacated his bed for me, as he did for so many writers and other artists who came through his bookstore over the years. I remember him snarling at customers, getting warm hugs from the young ballerina who was sleeping in the bookstore in those days, and giving himself a "haircut" with a candle. (He'd burn his hair and then pat out the flames.)

Today’s small press recommendations come from Mark Spitzer, who (in a sense) got me to the unique English-language bookstore. This renegade editor (Exquisite Corpse, Toad Suck Review), translator (Bataille, Genet, Celine), and author of novels, nonfiction, and poems wrote a letter of introduction to George Whitman for my poet friend Geoffrey Cruickshank-Hagenbuckle to stay at Shakespeare; when I first met Geoffrey a few months later, his stories of Paris and George Whitman inspired me to travel to the city of the Surrealists and to sleep at Shakespeare & Co.

I finally met Mark Spitzer in 2011 when he came to Pittsburgh for a July reading organized by local publishers Six Gallery Press and Low Ghost Press. Six Gallery was featuring his new book, Proze Attack, the second book of Spitzer's collected works to be published on this rebel press. Sharing the stage that night were Pittsburgh poets Kris Collins, Margaret Bashaar, Don Wentworth, Jason Baldinger, Lucy Goubert, and Bob Pajich. At the reading, I picked up a copy of Spitzer's tribute to Shakespeare & Company, Writer in Residence: Memoir of a Literary Translator (University of New Orleans Press, 2010), and quickly devoured his compelling story of translating exciting texts by French avant garde authors, dealing with cranky small press editors, staking out his territory at Shakespeare & Co and then literally repairing it as it crumbled, and falling in love and lust with other bookstore habitués. But throughout this memoir also runs the touching, well-drawn, and hilarious story of his friendship with George Whitman. His chapters perfectly capture the contradictions of the man who was one of the most grumpy bookmen of them all, but who was also one of the most generous softies. George was a longtime friend to the avant garde, with emphasis on “friend”: He seemed to value friendship at least as much as he cared about books, revolution, or literature. I am grateful for Mark Spitzer's written memories of George and for his small press picks below.

*****

1. Emergency Room Wrestling, The Dirty Poet (Words Like Kudzu Press)
2. House Organ, no. 76, Kenneth Warren, ed. (House Organ)
3. Blank, Davis Schneiderman (Jaded Ibis Press)

Recommended by Mark Spitzer
Author of Proze Attack (Six Gallery Press)
http://www.sptzr.net/

*****
Check out:

Writer in Residence: Memoir of a Literary Translator
By Mark Spitzer
http://www.amazon.com/Writer-Residence-Memoir-Literary-Translater/dp/1608010201

A memory of George Whitman by expat poet Eddie Woods:
“A Place to Change Trains”
http://www.parisiana.com/node/125

My own memoir chapter of Shakespeare & Company:
“A Bookman’s Holiday in Paris”
http://www.undiepress.com/2011/02/15/a-bookmans-holiday-in-paris/

New York Times obituary of George Whitman
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/15/books/george-whitman-paris-bookseller-and-cultural-beacon-is-dead-at-98.html

Best of the Small Press 2011: Day 3

Sueyeun Juliette Lee reads at Lili Coffee Shop to a packed house. Pittsburgh, September 2011.

In September, I was happy to be introduced to the work of three poets I didn't know when Dawn Lundy Martin organized a poetry reading with herself and visiting writers, Nick Demske and Sueyeun Juliette Lee. Today's small press recommendations come from Sueyeun Juliette Lee, whose poems tell us, "Resistance can be subtle and vicious." Juliette also edits chapbooks at Corollary Press.

A dense amount of literary energy was packed into the cozy space of Lili Coffee Shop that night. Lili is one of my favorite places in Pittsburgh--whenever I go there, I run into artists and writers I know, or meet new ones. It's a true cafe in that 1960s sense--you'll see a few people pecking away at laptops, but mostly it's full of conversation. It doesn't hurt that it shares an old brick building with a record shop and a bookstore. Lili regularly generates its own events (music and readings), and often pairs up with the 3rd floor bookstore (Copacetic Comics) for book parties with writers or comic artists.

*****

Sueyeun Juliette Lee writes:

"I'd like to take the opportunity to recommend three Asian American authors who are doing incredible work, work that really pushes against the expectations of what "Asian American" literature ought to look like. The first two in particular take on "traditional" Asian American themes, such as displacement, family, and language, but in completely radical ways that I think regenerate the field."

1. Insomnia and the Aunt, by Tan Lin (Kenning Editions)
"I wrote a review of Tan Lin's book over at Constant Critic, where I'm a contributor."
See: http://www.constantcritic.com/sueyeun_juliette_lee/kenning-editions-pamela-lu’s-ambient-parking-lot-and-tan-lin’s-insomnia-and-the-aunt/

2. Entwine, by Jai Arun Ravine (TinFish Press)
"I'm a big fan of Jai's, having published Jai's chapbook with Corollary a few years ago. Jai is a multi-faceted artist, writer, and performer whose work I always find challenging and stimulating."

3. Daughter; a Novel, by Janice Lee (Jaded Ibis Press)
"A confession. I haven't read Daughter by Janice Lee yet, but am recommending it solely on the basis of my impression of her as a thinker and critic. I'm still waiting to receive my copy (it's a limited edition release--so folks should hurry before it disappears!) but am a HUGE supporter of folks coming out of the CalArts system."

Recommended by Sueyeun Juliette Lee

Author of That Gorgeous Feeling (Coconut Books) and Underground National (Factory School)
http://www.silentbroadcast.wordpress.com

Small Press Holiday Recommendations: Day 2 (2011)

I first met Baltimore writer/editor Jen Michalski when she came to Pittsburgh to read at The New Yinzer Presents series around 2008. I loved her stories then, and I listened even closer when she came back to the series in April of this year: She read a haunting fiction excerpt of a father and daughter, of tenuous reconnections, fragile hopes, and broken hearts. I can't wait until this novel sees print. Until then, you'll have to enjoy her story collection, Close Encounters (So New Media) and her winning novella, May-September in The 2010 Press 53 Open Awards Anthology.

The New Yinzer is a Pittsburgh literary magazine that's been around for a decade as an online publication with occasional print anthologies in beautiful editions. The reading series they host (in an art gallery that doubles as an indie music venue) features 3 or 4 readers each month and does a great job of bringing together Pittsburgh's favorite local poets and storytellers, new and unknown writers, small press writers passing through Pittsburgh, and enthusiastic audiences.

*****

1. Death Wishing, Laura Ellen Scott (Ig Publishing)
2. Kiss Me Stranger, Ron Tanner (Ig Publishing)
3. The Bee-Loud Glade, Steve Himmer (Atticus Books)

Recommended by Jen Michalski, author of Close Encounters and From Here, editor of jmww
http://jenmichalski.com/
http://jmww.150m.com

Small Press Holiday Recommendations for 2011

Writer Lori Jakiela and poet Jimmy Cvetic confer at the bar (L) while Erin Valerio (R) sells tickets to Literary Death Match.

November 9, 2011, Brillobox Bar, Pittsburgh.

It's that time of year again! Best-of-the-small-press lists for 2011 will be appearing on this blog for the rest of the month. This year I'm asking for recommendations from writers and small press gurus who came to visit Pittsburgh (my current city) in 2011. The lovely Erin Valerio was my First Responder this year; I had the pleasure of meeting this Pittsburgh native when she brought Literary Death Match to Pittsburgh last month. If Literary Death Match comes to a city near you (and at 38 cities and growing, it very well might), you shouldn't miss the chance to attend. The format of this unique reading series combines comedy, hijinks, and seriously good readings to create an entertaining evening that is greater than the sum of its parts. Erin was thrilled to finally get the series to her hometown, and I think I heard her say that it all went even better than her wildest hopes. I, for one, was impressed and entertained. The excellent reading lineup consisted of Lori Jakiela (winner), Jimmy Cvetic, Lissa Brennan, and Adam Matcho. You can see photos and read a recap here.

***

1. God Bless America: Stories, Steve Almond (Lookout Books, 2011)
Steve Almond's latest is almost frighteningly perceptive. Equal parts wickedly funny and hugely, desperately sad, God Bless America is a true portrait of a nation -- not always pretty, but stunningly honest and self-aware.

2. Lamb, Bonnie Nadzam (Other Press, 2011)
Lamb is dark, unnerving, and quite frankly, a bit icky -- which is precisely why I love it. It's about a middle-aged man and a preteen girl on a road trip, but try to read it without thinking of Lolita.

3. Other People We Married, Emma Straub (FiveChapters Books, 2011)
Emma Straub works at one of Brooklyn's best indie bookstores, and when this book was released, there was a post-it note beneath it on the shelf which read "I wrote this book. Please buy it. I love you." This collection is as stellar as you'd expect from a prominent figure on the indie scene, so take her advice: buy it.

Recommended by Erin Valerio
Literary Death Match producer
http://www.literarydeathmatch.com

Guest Review: LIFE AFTER SLEEP Reviewed by Joel Thomas

Mark R. Brand. Life After Sleep. Chicago: CCLaP Publishing, 2011. Fiction (novella). Available as an e-book or in handbound edition. http://www.cclapcenter.com/lifeaftersleep/

Mark R. Brand’s sci-fi novella centers around the premise that through the wonders of science, humans can get by on significantly less sleep. A device referred to as a “Bed” allows for full rest in only two hours. Will we use the extra hours in our day for education, cultural enrichment, and making the world a better place? Will we finally get around to donating blood and going to the gym regularly? Or will we simply possess a few more hours each night to help us keep up with our favorite reality shows? Surely we can find more “Real Housewives” adventures to follow, and their own reduced need for sleep will provide even more snippy banter and social catastrophes.

Fortunately, Brand takes readers down a more interesting road. His own background in science and medicine informs the novella throughout, allowing him to provide detailed exposition and explanations of the technology itself and its effects on each protagonist. As we all know, the literary world of tomorrow’s technology often turns out to be a curse more than a blessing, and this novel displays the personal dystopia that is Life After Sleep. Capitalism always wins, of course, and readers soon learn that corporations expect humans to work many more hours, often for less pay. The most glaring example: a war veteran with PTSD working an inhumane number of hours at a futuristic version of Walmart. His Sleep (Brand refers to the shortened version of sleep with a capital letter: “Sleep”) struggles prove nearly devastating, as do the hallucinations of a rest-deprived surgeon who blacks out during operations.

Even with an overarching social theme, the narrative stays focused on individual lives rather than sweeping political statements. This move keeps the novella lean and intimate. Readers meet characters who stay vulnerable and believable, beset by problems and conflict but never forced into saving the world. One major narrative branch, for example, portrays the difficulties of a couple trying to adapt back to more traditional sleep patterns after having a baby. As it turns out, Beds aren’t safe to operate near infants. The young father/husband works too many hours without the benefits of a Bed and its technology-enhanced Sleep, and the young parents both struggle to adapt to their physical needs for rest. In another vein, a successful band promoter pushes the legal and physical limits of Sleep while dabbling in other intriguing technologies (which this reviewer will leave unspoiled so the reader can take pleasure in discovery). Her own desperate lifestyle brings a hedonism and danger-driven appeal to the book.

With Life After Sleep, Brand doesn’t push extremes, keeping a sense of relative believability. Some readers may prefer fantasies so unbelievable that the enjoyment comes from reveling in the seemingly impossible, but this novella’s appeal comes in its chilling likelihood.

Recommended for collections of contemporary fiction, science fiction, medical fiction, and Chicago authors.

Available from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography, or from Amazon.

Reviewed by Joel Thomas
Midwestern adjunct writing instructor
http://thecasserolex.wordpress.com/

Book Review: BAD BAD BAD by Jesús Ángel García

Jesús Ángel García, badbadbad. Colorado: New Pulp Press, 2011. Fiction. 237 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9828436-3-5.

Jesús Ángel García's debut novel, badbadbad, is lousy with exquisite contradictions. The protagonist, Jesús Ángel García, is a fallen angel with a Jesus complex, a lost man with a mission. The novel is a bildungsroman told by a young man who is already divorced with a child; or do I mean a coming-of-age in reverse, an "adult child" seeking his own lost innocence? If he's looking for his innocence, it's through sexcapades with kinky chicks on the social web, and though he's enjoying a lot of sex dates, sex toys, and other Triple-X adventures in the Bible Belt South, he mainly seeks out troubled women who might need his healing powers of love and listening. He attends church services every Sunday morning, but that's just for appearances: He's more excited about evening performances by the local punk band Children's Crusade, but he makes a living as the webmaster for the biggest evangelical congregation in town. By day he forms allegiances with his custody lawyer and the Reverend; by night he shares bourbon and MP3s with the Reverend's excommunicated son. The story's a pulp fiction narrated (from jail? from beyond the grave?) to a younger brother he abandoned long ago to an abusive family. The novel's almost a stroke book, but some of the sex scenes are decidedly unappetizing. And although the novelist uses his own name for his protagonist, I have no idea (as reader) whether the book is thinly-veiled autobiography, metaphor for lived experience, or pure fabrication using the device of truthful confession.

One of the most perfect chapters is one where descriptions of a gay pride rally and a KKK march are intertwined. Both events attract the same two camps, it's just a matter of who's marching in the center (each in their own brand of costumes) and who's holding the protest placards on the sidelines. Another choice chapter sees Jesús (aka JAG) take a trip with two of the "fallen angels" (the name of the underground hook-up website JAG frequents) to a huge Southern tent show featuring "guns, knives, and dolls." The scene has a carnival atmosphere, even as it takes place under the kind of tent that (on another day) might house a religious revival. The "dolls" featured at the show are bikini-clad babes who pass out lemonade to shoppers and set up targets for customers enjoying their new guns. The weapons are lit by halogen lights as if they were jewels. The air smells of fried dough. JAG observes the families who push their baby strollers from booth to booth, window-shopping like they're at a mall. His "alt" friends encourage him (against his preferences) to buy a gun, a plot point that makes the reader wonder how alternative these kids really are. They teach JAG how to shoot, how to handle his gun, while the sexual healer imagines his ex-wife as the target. Nearby, some men have brought their own targets: images of black civil rights leaders. In the background, the sound of endless American war marches on.

Over and over in badbadbad, the plot reveals hypocrisies and paints contradictions within characters or scenes that once seemed to be only black and white. Other times it draws parallels and similarities between camps that are supposed to be polar opposites. Weren't the bigoted Bible-thumpers being set up as the bad guys and the queer-fabulous music-lovers the good fellows? What about the third-wave feminist hotties who are unashamed to declare what they want, but push their self-love to the point of shallowness? Are we being robbed of a symbology we thought we understood, or is García (the author) simply righting and complicating perceptions that were far too simplistic when we started reading?

JAG's story is full of people. But as characters enter, entice, and evaporate, one character remains. This reveal sneaks up on the reader: JAG is a narrator who provides some reflection, a certain amount of internal commentary along the way. But often enough the story reads like we're following him as an enchanted observer in a forest of wacky Southern characters—some long familiar, others new to the scene. Eventually, after the reader passes through all the distractions of colorful 21st Century punks, ravers, earth mamas, bondage queens, and neo-goths; after we wade through the rabid religious homophobes, Klansmen, and right-to-lifers, the character of JAG himself emerges. He's surrounded by pals and booked with play-dates, but his loneliness is only growing. His pull towards the social web is compulsive, his need to shop for the next hook-up is constant, his separation from his son is never-ending, and his desire for connection remains dangerously starved. Like JAG's own sudden revelation that constant online contact and overlapping cyber-relationships have added up to nothing, all these compelling characters suddenly disappear from the plot like ciphers: We're dropped into a sudden awareness of a profound emptiness in JAG that's been gathering steam while we were paying attention to everything else--a void growing ever more hungry, angry, and violent under the surface.

Badbadbad draws on styles and themes from familiar stories and older literatures. The novel sustains the straight-talk trashiness of 20th Century pulp, the sex-romp identity games of Kathy Acker, and the dark inevitability of Giovanni's Room. But it considers an absolutely current societal malaise: the twin-headed hydra of selective isolation and social media addiction. In the process, badbadbad reveals a new brand of lust for life and a new kind of lost generation.

Recommended for collections of contemporary fiction, literary fiction, small press fiction, emerging authors, neo-pulp fiction, fiction about the internet age, and Southern fiction.

*****

Find badbadbad on New Pulp Press here.

Find more about this "transmedia" novel (and the 32-city book tour) on the author's website here.

Guest Review: Stefanie Wielkopolan Reviewed by Margaret Bashaar

Stefanie Wielkopolan, Border Theory: Selected Poems. Detroit: Black Coffee Press, 2011. Poetry. 61 pages. ISBN: 978-0982744048.

Border Theory is the debut poetry collection by Stefanie Wielkopolan. Wielkopolan grew up in Michigan, but got her MFA at Chatham University and currently resides in Pittsburgh. In spite of us sharing the same small city and the same small but vibrant poetry community, I had never heard of or met Wielkopolan. We weren’t even friends on Facebook (gasp!), so I went into this collection knowing only what I have mentioned above about Wielkopolan, and excited to read a collection by a young poet living in Pittsburgh.

The title Border Theory is quite apt – the place of each poem is set up in relation to other places in the book. You travel in a relatively straightforward way – from Michigan to Pittsburgh to Germany to Kentucky. While Wielkopolan leads you on a physical journey from point A to point B with little back and forth between spaces, each space is not so often described by what or where it is, as often as it is described by how far it is from another space in the book, or how it is different from another space. Places are measured not in city blocks or square mileage, but in hours away from one another, in miles of distance between the people residing in them.

In addition to a linear progression through space, there is also a distinctly linear progression through time in Border Theory. The poems set in Michigan tend to be about the speaker’s parents and grandparents, about the speaker's childhood. Transition poems from Michigan to Pittsburgh feel like poems that are also about the transition from childhood into adulthood, and so on. This time/space progression deftly reinforces the ideas of borders, with each move from one point to the next almost a rite of passage for the speaker. The only point at which this linear progression of time breaks off is when the speaker visits Germany, at which point some of the poems become about WWII. This is also the only point in the book when the events of the poems do not take place within the speaker’s lifetime or family.

While Wielkopolan brings the reader through a linear journey, the reader often is brought into a poem after the action - poems often seem to be recollections or explanations of aftermath and consequences rather than descriptions of action themselves. When paired with the plain, almost conversational language of the poems, this lends the poetry of Border Theory to a wisdom of careful reflection within the poems’ lines.

I ultimately felt very satisfied by Border Theory upon completion of the book. If you are going to read it, I would definitely recommend reading straight through, from beginning to end in order to truly take the physical and emotional journey mapped out in miles and hours.

Border Theory is available from the publisher website,
Black Coffee Press: http://www.blackcoffeepress.net
and from select bookstores.

Review by Margaret Bashaar
Co-host of The TypewriterGirls, editor of the anthology Make It So, and author of Barefoot and Listening (Tilt Press, 2009)

Guest Review: Alex Kudera reviewed by Joel Thomas

Alex Kudera. Fight for Your Long Day. Kensington, Md.: Atticus Books, 2010. Fiction. 264 pages. ISBN: 978-0984510504.

Fight for Your Long Day’s protagonist, Cyrus Duffleman, does not fit the usual literary profile of professors – well-respected educators who juggle natural charisma and artistic brilliance, usually while battling demons available only to the privileged. Instead, author Alex Kudera gives readers a glimpse of the modern faculty majority: adjunct instructors. Like so many adjuncts, Duffleman’s story unfolds as he travels between low-paying teaching jobs and even a few hours weekly as a security guard. A dramatic adventure involving political assassination and dangerous troubled students unfolds around the well-intentioned teacher, but he doesn’t have time to stop and play the hero, especially without health insurance, until the novel comes to its madcap climax.

Kudera himself takes on a tough job with this novel. The writer clearly wants readers to understand the heavy load adjuncts undertake for low pay, and he includes specific details that real adjuncts will recognize as absolutely accurate. Students struggling with mental illness surfaces as a sub-theme, too, and he treats the topic with sensitivity even while illustrating inadequate resources for such situations at most colleges.

The author blends this gritty reality with humorous fantasy, deftly balancing heavy subject matter and an entertaining story. Hilarious caricature illustrates the idiosyncrasies and mounting frustrations for the character he affectionately nicknames “Duffy.” The novelist also cleverly sneaks in countless cultural references. This reviewer’s favorite appears when Kudera describes how Security Guard Duffleman stumbles into an underground punk rock show and gawks through scantily-clad girls’ mesh halter tops: “Duffy X-rays specks of” a body part, a pun that nods to readers who might also be punk fans. The plot involves some outlandish intrigue, with humorous references to a “President Fern,” a Homeland Security official with the surname “Cliff” (substituted for “Ridge”), and the dynamics of on-campus political radicals.

The combination of wordplay, satire, and over the top excitement make for an entertaining read. At the same time, Kudera’s thoughtful commentary reminds readers that Cyrus Duffleman represents many long, low-paying days worked by real adjuncts across America. The elements combine for an enjoyable book entertaining and exciting enough for a broad audience but thoughtful and sharp enough for university literature professors, even those fighting for their own long days.

Recommended for collections of contemporary fiction, academia-related fiction, Philadelphia-based fiction, social and/or political satire, working class fiction, and urban fiction.

Available from the publisher and at select bookstores.
Distributed by Itasca Books (who work with Baker & Taylor and Ingram).
Read more at Atticus Books.

Reviewed by:
Joel Thomas

Midwestern adjunct writing instructor
http://thecasserolex.wordpress.com/

Fiction Review: THE ABSENT TRAVELER by Randall DeVallance

Randall DeVallance. The Absent Traveler: A Novella and Other Stories. Kensington, Md.: Atticus Books, 2010. Short fiction. 186 pages. ISBN: 978-0-9845105-2-8.

Charles Lime, the protagonist of The Absent Traveler, is a Bartleby for our age. Instead of working for a lawyer on Wall Street, he’s employed by a big box store in a Western Pennsylvania strip mall. Rather than copying legal texts, he rings up electronics. He doesn’t live in an ill-lit corner of his office but rents an equally pathetic space in an unrenovated basement. A 26-year-old college grad who prefers not to have any ambitions beyond head cashier, Charles baffles his peers, enrages his father, saddens his mother, frustrates his manager, and washes over the collegiate coworkers who pass through his workplace en route to different cities and better jobs.

The Absent Traveler, its protagonist, and his “absence” are curiously compelling. Written in third person, though largely from Charles Lime’s point of view, the story offers a window into Charles’ thoughts. But none of what goes through Charles’ mind serves as easy explanation for his scant motivation, and little of his interior bonds us to him in comfortable sympathy. Meanwhile, we learn that Charles has a penchant for daydreaming and a fetish for travel literature. Charles prefers not to travel far in physical reality (he resides a short walk from work and a short drive from his childhood home), but has a strong instinct to escape: When he picks up a book, the dingy walls of the basement fade away. The insults of his father, a young woman’s rejection, his predatory alcoholic landlady: all recede to a safe distance when Charles is in the throes of an overseas tale. As his latest travel book becomes more and more a part of the novella’s text, it slowly reveals the deeply seductive nature of Charles’ will to elude reality--the darker (even destructive) side of his extreme inertia in real life.

Interestingly, author Randall DeVallance, who traveled with the Peace Corps to Bulgaria, has eschewed the instinct to create a traditional travel memoir: the narrative of the “authentic” exotic experience. Instead he weaves his Eastern European memories into the travel tale which draws Charles Lime in so fully, it leaves him absent to his own daily life. Preferring daydreams and alternative futures to actualities, The Absent Traveler sneaks up on us as a dark fable for the age of the internet: In a time when increasing numbers of us spend increasing hours interacting with a pixelated virtual reality, what transpires in the physical lives we're no longer acknowledging? Charles Lime is an anti-hero who makes a virtue of flying under the radar, but whose story won’t easily be forgotten.

Recommended for collections of contemporary fiction, small press fiction, short fiction, and Western Pennsylvania authors.

Available from the publisher and at fine bookstores.
Distributed by Itasca Books (who work with Baker & Taylor and Ingram).

Read more at Atticus Books.

Recent Acquisitions: March Edition

Above left and below, Julien Poirier's new book El Golpe Chileno, on Ugly Duckling Presse. Poems and drawings.
http://www.uglyducklingpresse.org/catalog/browse/item/?pubID=139

Above right, Amir Rashidd's chapbook of poems, Sweet Blood Call, with drawings by Lois Griffith.
Available at Awesome Books: http://smallpresspittsburgh.wikispaces.com/Awesome+Books


Below, I Hotel on Coffee House Press, ten novellas by Karen Tei Yamashita set in the heart of the Yellow Power Movement of the late 60s through late 70s.
http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781566892391/i-hotel.aspx

Glass City, Poems by John Grochalski is new from Low Ghost Press and will be reviewed soon on this blog.
See a review on Burning River Press' website here: http://burningriver.info/?p=1128

Below, two new zines from ArtNoose: xXXXx: Straight Edge Erotic Fiction, and the newest issue of Ker-bloom!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/artnoose

Below, issue 54 of Public Illumination Magazine, drawings and short-short stories on the theme of SPICE.
http://www.mondorondo.com/pim/

And finally, a beautifully-crafted new book (below pic is a detail of the cover) from Encyclopedia Destructica: Public Record is a book of poems by Justin Hopper, written from 19th Century crime reports in downtown Pittsburgh. Illustrated by various artists.
http://publicrecordpgh.com/

Guest Review: DEGREES OF ELEVATION reviewed by Doug Mathewson

Charles Dodd White and Page Seay, eds. Degrees of Elevation: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia. Huron, Oh.: Bottom Dog Press, 2010. Anthology of short fiction. 186 pages. ISBN: 978-1933964393.

To successfully capture a place; to transport the reader to a different world using words alone is a mighty feat. By observation or remembrance writers create narrative portraits of a place. People are often shown to us through their language and peculiarities of culture. Capturing a sense of the land is harder. The dialogue of Stephen King brings us back to his native rural Maine. E. Annie Proulx, with her sharp eye and careful ear has taken us on a long journey from Newfoundland, down through Vermont to Texas and finally to Wyoming. Every place is unique, as are its inhabitants. Both are woven tightly together in a finely detailed pattern. They seem to be inseparable. This tie between place and people is incredibly strong in this collection of new Appalachian short fiction. Degrees of Elevation published by Bottom Dog Press is a treasure. These seventeen stories introduce us to the independent-natured people who live in a very natural land entirely dominated by coal. These are fictional works, telling the stories of people who are very real.

I was honored to be introduced to Scott McClanahan’s kindly “Mary the Cleaning Lady” who helps a young girl gain a greater understand of the world. Silas Hound, Richard Hague, and Denton Lowing treat us to their determined eccentric characters. Each living life to its fullest. When I read Alex Taylor’s story “The Coal Thief” I felt I knew Uncle Ransom from somewhere. Then I recognized him as every mythological trickster from the Monkey King to Br’er Rabbit!

Hard times, doubt and depression offset with the smallest kernel of hope prove the most stringent tests of people. These tales are beautifully told by Mindy Beth Miller, Jim Nichols, and Sheldon Lee Compton. I earnestly cared for every one of their characters. Marginalized sub-cultures are explored by Crystal Wilkinson and John McManus. These writers introduce us to people we may not even know exist. “Horseweed” by Chris Offutt and “Into the Gorge” by Ron Rash both show us so much in so few words about the wooded hills of Appalachia, and how times have changed.

Several of these stories may well stay with the reader for years. Two in particular will always be with me. “Haskell” from Chris Holbrook’s “Upheaval” is heart-breaking man who is coming apart physically and mentally. The story is told in specific small language that is so much a part of this man’s life. In “Country Boys” by Rusty Barnes, Reena puts Jimmy in some enticingly difficult situations till he gets over his head, and has to decide. Jimmy’s choice is not easy, but yours is. Support small and independent press by purchasing this fine collection of stories written by some of the very best authors you will find today in American short fiction.

Degrees of Elevation at Bottom Dog Press:
http://smithdocs.net/recent_titles

Degrees of Elevation at SPD: http://www.spdbooks.org/Producte/9781933964393/degrees-of-elevation-short-stories-of-contemporary-appalachia.aspx

Review by
Doug Mathewson
Editor at Blink-Ink
http://www.blink-ink.com/
Published by:
Full of Crow Press and Distribution
http://www.fullofcrowpress.org/

Guest Review: Allen Frost reviewed by tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE

Allen Frost. The Mermaid Translation. Huron, Oh.: Bottom Dog Press/ Bird Dog Publishing, 2010. Fiction. 140 pages. ISBN: 978-1933964409.

I know nothing about this author or his intentions. As I read this I wondered what it would've been like to read it at age 8. I reckon that might've been when it would've seemed the most magical to me. It seems like it'd be in good company if it were to be grouped with L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time, Evans G. Valens' Me and Frumpet: An Adventure With Size and Science, & Tolkien's The Hobbit - all of which stimulated my imagination, sense of wonder, & ability to daydream when I was 8 or 9. I'm further reminded a tad of novels for adults like In the Days of the American Museum by Robert Edric & Leonora Carrington's The Hearing Trumpet. While in some respects the novel seems surreal it's not really stream-of-unconsciousness enough to be surrealist. It's more stolidly in the tradition of kids books everywhere - there're ethical underpinnings that're a relief to me as an adult who's often exasperated by the boneheaded macho behavior of the male world. THIS BOOK IS (mostly) GENTLE - & thank goodness for that. The chapters are short, the language is simple, the characters are 'exotic': a former deep-sea diver, a mermaid, dolphins, a magician, elephants. The world is post-empire & the forces of fantasy are free-ranging.
http://smithdocs.net/BirdDogy/BirdDogPage.html

Reviewed by
tENTATIVELY, a cONVENIENCE
http://www.thing.de/projekte/7:9%23/tent_index.html

Guest Review: Johnny Ryan reviewed by Eric Nelson

Johnny Ryan, Comic Book Holocaust. Oakland, Ca.: Buenaventura Press, 2006. Comics. 128 pages. ISBN: 978-0976684893.

In the graphic, gleefully offensive world of Johnny Ryan, body parts fly through the air and all bodily orifices (both natural and unnatural) are ripe for penetration. From the creator of Angry Youth Comics comes this book of sketches skewering comics ranging from Krazy Kat to Hi and Lois. Many times the jokes have little to do with the original content or turn on a dime into a wild tangent, an interesting choice considering every comic is exactly one-page long.

While some criticism has pointed out the fact that for Ryan, the laugh lies in how horrible the joke is in the first place, leading to the question of "Why do we need a full book of this?" I think one thing that's neglected in that discussion is the amount of detail given to each piece. While obviously the jokes won't be for everyone (Archie tells Jughead about his plan to put a firework in poor Betty's ass for being "a bananahead"), enough darts are thrown at the board to make a reader (and especially a writer) go back at the end, knowing they missed something. Highly recommended for comics nerds and those with a nasty streak. Guaranteed to put you on anyone's naughty list.
http://www.buenaventurapress.com
http://johnnyryan.com

Reviewed by
Eric Nelson, zinester and author of Silk City Series (Knickerbocker Circus Publishing, 2010)

http://knickerbockercircus.squarespace.com/books/

Small Press Recommendations: On the Eve of the Eve of the New Year

Today’s small press recommendations come from Philly, San Fran, and New York. Doug Gordon is editor at New Door Books in Philadelphia. New Door Books formed in 2009 out of a writer’s collective that’s been around since 1985. Their first title, Hanah’s Paradise by Ligia Ravé, had been rejected by American presses but published in translation to much acclaim in Spain—New Door thought the book deserved an audience in its native language. Read more about New Door Books here: http://newdoorbooks.com/ Samantha Giles heads the San Francisco literary organization, Small Press Traffic, a literary center which started out in the back room of a Castro Street bookstore in 1974. Remaining above the petty politics of literary cliques, SPT has been dedicated to attracting writers from many backgrounds, and promoting independent presses and writing that pushes limits; the organization has grown over the years to run a reading series, hold writing workshops, curate a small press archive, publish a journal, and much more. Veronica Liu works at one small press during the day, and runs a great micro-press, Fractious Press, in her free time. I got to meet Veronica when she came to Pittsburgh to table for Fractious at a Progressive Library Skillshare in 2007. We plotted methods of a small-press world takeover, and although it hasn’t quite happened yet, we maintain hope. I enjoyed reading poet Elizabeth Harrington, who writes about her childhood home of Oklahoma from her current home of New York. The subjects and imagery of her poems read with honesty and emotion while the language continually surprises in both great and subtle ways.

*****

1. The Tables of the Law, Thomas Mann, trans. Marion Faber and Stephen Lehmann (Paul Dry Books, 2010)
This is a brilliant new translation of a neglected novella by Mann, a story of Moses commissioned in 1943 as a "defense" of Jewish law and culture against the Nazis, but so imbued with Mann's depth of vision that it challenges our understanding of religion.
http://pauldrybooks.com/

2. Degrees of Elevation: Short Stories of Contemporary Appalachia, ed. Charles Dodd White and Page Seay (Bottom Dog Press, 2010)
http://smithdocs.net/

3. Love Park, Jim Zervanos (Cable Publishing, 2009)
http://www.cablepublishing.com/

Recommended by
Doug Gordon, New Door Books
http://newdoorbooks.com/

*****

1. Killing Kanoko, Hiromi Ito (Action Books, 2009)

2. Humanimal: A Project for Future Children, Bhanu Kapil (Kelsey Street Press, 2009)

3. The Book of Frank, CA Conrad (Wave Books, 2010)

Recommended by
Samantha Giles, Executive Director, Small Press Traffic
http://smallpresstraffic.org/

*****

1. Stroll: Psychogeographic Walking Tours of Toronto, Shawn Micallef, illustrations by Marlena Zuber (Coach House Press)

2. Hyperart: Thomasson, Genpei Akasegawa (Kaya Press)

3. Local Motion: The Art of Civic Engagement in Toronto, edited by Dave Meslin, Christina Palassio, & Alana Wilcox (Coach House Press)

Recommended by
Veronica Liu, coordinator of Fractious Press
http://www.fractiouspress.com/

*****

1. Earthquake Came to Harlem, Jackie Sheeler (New York Quarterly Publications)

2. Equal to the Earth, Jee Leong Koh (Bench Press)

3. For My Father, Paula Brancato (Finishing Line Press)

Recommended by
Elizabeth Harrington, author of The Quick and the Dead, Grayson Books (First prize winner in Grayson Books chapbook competition)
http://www.eharringtonwrites.com

*****

Stay tuned for more guest reviews, and more book giveaways.

Small Press Recommendations: On the Third Day of Kwanzaa

Today’s recommendations come from two great small press booksellers. Ron Kolm has been a bookseller at various indies in Manhattan for 35 years, including some of the greats: St. Mark’s Bookshop, Strand, East Side Books, Coliseum, Posman Books. Known as the “Fuller Brush Man of the Lower East Side” because he is often carrying a bag of small press books to show or give you, Ron is also a prolific writer of prose and poetry and a founding member of the group of literary renegades, The Unbearables. He’s edited several anthologies of writing by the Unbearables, including one of the best small press books I read in 2010, called The Worst Book I Ever Read. I love that the writers included are mainly poets, novelists, and experimentalists, but happen to be talented and engaging nonfiction storytellers in their spare time. Yes, a bibliophile’s title of books writers hate: This is one of the best books about books (and reading) I’ve read in a while--and one of the best books of true stories, too.

Bill Boichel runs Copacetic Comics, one of my favorite bookstores in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. He’s been selling comics for over 30 years, and promoting Pittsburgh artists/educating Pittsburgh readers for almost as long through his always-eclectic wares and gatherings, first through multi-media, comics-oriented events like Transfer (and an accompanying comics anthology, Transformer); next through his hangout-store in east Pittsburgh, BEM; and most recently through the first annual PIX: Pittsburgh’s Indy Comics Expo. Copacetic is his second store (opened in 2000) and features much more than traditional comics: Marvel and DC favorites sit beside indie comics, art and photography monographs share the store with fiction and poetry, titles on cinema studies sit beside a highly-curated selection of CDs and DVDs. Consequently, Bill has the chance to introduce Superman fans to Julie Doucet, to lure in art students and fiction lovers and introduce them to graphic novels, or to be an unsuspecting neighborhood shopper’s first exposure to the existence of zines, the films of Hal Hartley, or the artists of Fantagraphics. Copacetic expanded in late 2009 to provide a gift shop for Pittsburgh's cartoon museum, Toonseum: There Bill features the history of comics on his shelves.

Ron and Bill have also contributed their small press expertise to library collections. Ron helps libraries build comprehensive small press archives, most notably at the Fales Special Collection at the New York University library. Bill helped build the graphic novel collection at the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh by selecting the small press and other obscure titles to round out the superheroes.

I have to offer kudos to both Ron and Bill for their tireless evangelism on behalf of the small press!

*****

1. Haywire, Thaddeus Rutkowski (Starcherone Books)

2. Sasquatch Stories, Mike Topp (Publishing Genius)

3. Virgin Formica, Sharon Mesmer (Hanging Loose Press)

Recommended by
Ron Kolm, writer and editor at Unbearables Books and Autonomedia
http://www.unbearables.com/blog/

*****

1. Birchfield Close, Jon McNaught (NoBrow Press, $18)

2. Tele-Tales, Dan Zettwoch (self-published, $3)

3. Afrodisiac, Jim Rugg (AdHouse Books, $14.95)

Recommended by
Bill Boichel, owner of Copacetic Comics
http://www.copaceticcomics.com/

*****

The BFI Film Classics Series sits near the Cometbus zine anthology at Copacetic Comics.

Small Press Recommendations and Book Giveaway! On the Second Day of Kwanzaa

Today’s small press recommendations come from writer Mike Faloon, author of The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock (Gorsky Press) and editor of the zines Go Metric and Zisk. Mike is also generously giving away a copy of one of his recommendations, a poetry book by James Jay called The Journeyman (Gorsky Press). Leave a comment (on Blogger or Facebook) and tell us anything about your relationship to the small press or to reading, and I’ll choose one person to receive a free copy. No review necessary. You can also email me at eyescorpion@gmail.com.

I met Mike Faloon in July when he and James came to Pittsburgh on their Journeymen and Split Rock Tour. I had the pleasure of showing them around Pittsburgh’s North Side neighborhood before the reading. Although I forgot that it was a Monday and that the Warhol Museum would be closed, we ventured across Allegheny Square to see the artful writers’ residence houses on Sampsonia Way, the ones obtained by City of Asylum for international writers in exile. On the way there we passed the high school where a young Willa Cather was once head of the English department, and stumbled onto a sign for an industrial business owned by one of Andy Warhol’s brothers.

The reading that night at Cyberpunk Apocalypse showcased three great storytellers: James Jay with his tragicomic narrative poems, Mike Faloon with his deadpan-funny fiction, and Art Noose with her personal zine, Ker-bloom!

*****

1. The Journeymen, James Jay (Gorsky Press)

Finding poetry I enjoy is like shopping for gifts: I don’t know what I’m looking for until I find it. And with The Journeymen I’ve found it. A consistently satisfying collection of character sketches. Insightful, graceful, and funny at the right times. The titles speak volumes: “Ronald Reagan Killed My Band Teacher so Now I Can’t Play Saxophone for Huey Lewis or the News.” (I love the choice of “or” rather than “and.”) “A Sunny Day at the Pub Debating Whether to See the ‘On the Road’ Scroll at the Library or Order Another.”

2. Devil Born Without Horns, Michael Lucas (Rudos and Rubes)

At the 150-page mark I was still wondering whether this was a crime story or a memoir about life in the high-end furniture business. Devil Born Without Horns is the former and it’s worth the work. The “what the hell?” sense of wonder (confusion?) mentioned above kept me turning the pages and drew me into the narrator’s descent into madness. Credit Lucas with the willingness to let the story unfold so slowly and dishing out the absurdity in the proper doses.

3. Impossibly Funky – A Cashiers du Cinemart Collection, Mike White (BearManor Media)

Don’t be misled by the title, focus on the subtitle. This is a “best of” from one of the premiere movie zines of the past 20 years. Mike White is driven by a fan’s passion (obsession?) and writes with a critic’s objectivity. I can only assume that it took months to track down all of those James Ellroy documentaries he writes about but he has no reservations about letting you know which ones suck. White takes his movies very seriously but not himself. (You may remember his documentatry Who Do You Think You’re Fooling?, which brilliantly compared Reservoir Dogs to the Hong Kong movie, City on Fire, from which Tarantino swiped the ending.) Perfect commode fodder.

Recommended by
Mike Faloon, editor of Go Metric zine and author of The Hanging Gardens of Split Rock

http://www.gometric.typepad.com/

*****

Stay tuned for more end of the year Small Press Recommendations, and more guest reviews.

Guest Review: Peter Blair Reviewed by Robert Isenberg

Peter Blair, Farang: Poems by Peter Blair. Pittsburgh: Autumn House Press, 2010. Poetry. 80 pages. ISBN: 978-1-932870-34-3.

In Thai, farang means “outsider.” Specifically, a white outsider. The farang is the gringo of Southeast Asia, and there is no question, as one reads Peter Blair’s verse, that he is an outsider. But Blair is also deeply imbedded in Thailand, and as Farang progresses, we see not a mere outsider, but a man caught in a cultural tide-pool.

Among Westerners, Thailand enjoys a happy reputation – easy to fly to, traveler-friendly, full of exotic wonders. But when Blair began work as a Peace Corps volunteer, he found a different Thailand – a troubled country wracked by loathing and political turmoil. Blair dates a woman named Siripan, but her father “doesn’t like her/dating a farang.” He meets a “bar girl,” the infamous victim of Asian sex-slavery, who “says her father sold her, 10,000 baht,/to a Bangkok bar.”

One could expect such cultural dissonance in a country 7,500 miles from Blair’s native Pittsburgh. Blair seems savvy enough, but nothing could prepare him for the drowning of his friend, Ampon. This accidental death is a shocker, and there are many such moments in Farang – there is even a coup, while Blair is “up-country” – and they are all treated with an eerie Buddhist calm.

Blair adapts to Thailand, slowly and painfully, and by the time he returns to Pittsburgh, he sounds ghostly with new perspective: “In O’Rourke’s Bar and Grille, a mile/from where I grew up,/I’m a farang,” he declares in his penultimate poem, “Back in Pittsburgh for my Father’s Funeral.”

Farang has been described as a travel narrative, but the volume is something more – an intimate account of life on a cultural frontier. Blair is not only a white outsider, but a first-worlder living in a country ravaged by foreign powers. Like Steinbeck, Blair comes uncomfortably close to his subjects, and the proximity burns him. But this is what makes farang such a masterwork; if Blair can’t bring us all of Thailand, he can show us the tragic beauty of his scars.

http://www.autumnhouse.org/catalog/farang-by-peter-blair/

Reviewed by
Robert Isenberg, author of The Archipelago: A Balkan Passage (Autumn House Press, 2011)

http://www.autumnhouse.org/the-archipelago-a-balkan-passage/