| Mar ’04 |
| 25 |
| 12:00 am |
Akashic authors Robert Arellano & Shawn Shiflett read from their new books Don Dimaio of La Plata & Hidden PlaceMonday March 22nd 7PM
Robert Arellano is the author of Don Dimaio of La Plata Roberto Bobby Arellano De Nueva Jersey taught creative writing at Brown University and is the author of Fast Eddie: King of the Bees. His short fiction has appeared in the Kenyon Review and Jane. As an indie musician, Arellano has performed with Will Oldham, Havanarama, and Nick Cave.
Shawn Shiflett is the author of Hidden Place He is a professor in the Fiction Writing department at Columbia College Chicago. He is working on a second novel Hey, Liberal about a white boy in a predominantly African-American high school one year after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Shiflett was born and raised in Chicago, and currently lives in La Grange, Illinois with his wife and two children.
Don Dimaio of La Plata, a selection of the Akashic Urban Surreal series, is Robert Arellano\’s wickedly funny novel about the adventures of a high-flying American mayor who\’s always pimping the keys to his city with a bribe in his pocket, a straw up his nose, and an ape who’s just escaped from the zoo on his tail. Between grand openings and ribbon-cuttings, a trusty trooper named Pancho Sanchez muscles the black limo with numero-uno license plate through traffic while in back Mayor Don “PALLY” Dimaio (bearing a remarkable resemblance to former Providence, RI mayor Vincent “Buddy” Cianci who is currently serving a five-year sentence in federal prison for racketeering and corruption) swigs cognac from a flask, exposes his privates (which he nicknames “Rock Sinatra”), and holds strategy meetings with strippers from the Crafty Beaver. No matter how naughty his behavior or tacky his toupees, the people of La Plata can’t get enough of Donald “Pally” Dimaio and the jars of sauce, “Dimaio’s Own Mayonnaise,” he hawks at every fundraiser.
HIDDEN PLACE is Shiflett\’s suspenseful and provocative literary debut, set in Chicago and Puerto Escondido, a small Mexican beach town 150 miles south of Acapulco. Told in a strong vernacular voice, the story focuses on six major characters, all of them highly flawed and uncomfortably real. The narrator, Roman Pearson, and his girlfriend, Mila Popovic, take a vacation together to Escondido in the hopes of patching up their deteriorating relationship.
Both authors will read and sign copies of thier new books
