Monthly Archive for April, 2005

Friday, April 15th, 6:00 PM
Sarah Vowell book event for Assassination Vacation
sponsored by Quimby’s and the Chicago Public Library.
FREE
PLEASE NOTE THIS EVENT IS NOT AT QUIMBYS!
Head Down to the
Harold Washington Library
400 S. State Street
Chicago IL 60605
 
Sarah Vowell exposes the glorious conundrums of American history and culture with wit, probity, and an irreverent sense of humor. With Assassination Vacation, she takes us on a road trip like no other?a journey to the pit stops of American political murder and through the myriad ways in which they have been used for fun and profit, for political and cultural advantage.
 
From Buffalo to Alaska, Washington to the Dry Tortugas, Vowell visits locations immortalized and influenced by the spilling of politically important blood, reporting as she goes with her trademark blend of wisecracking humor, remarkable honesty, and thought-provoking criticism. We learn about the jinx that was Robert Todd Lincoln (present for the assassinations of Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley); and witness the politicking that went into the making of the Lincoln Memorial. The resulting narrative is much more than an entertaining and informative travelogue?it is the disturbing and fascinating story of how American death has been manipulated by popular culture, including literature, architecture, sculpture, and?the author?s favorite?historical tourism. Though the themes of loss and violence are explored and we make detours to see how the Republican party became the Republican party, there are all kinds of lighter diversions along the way into the lives of the three presidents and their assassins, including mummies, show tunes, mean-spirited totem poles, and a nineteenth century biblical sex cult.
 
SARAH VOWELL is the author of The Partly Cloudy Patriot, Take the Cannoli, and Radio On. She is a contributing editor for public radio’s This American Life. She is also a McSweeney’s person, and the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in Pixar Animation Studios’ The Incredibles. She lives in New York City.

Ben Pleasants reads fromVisceral BukowskiSaturday May 7th, 7PM
FREE
 
Ben Pleasants is the author of VISCERAL BUKOWSKI: Inside the Sniper Landscape of LA Writers. VISCERAL BUKOWSKI is a memoir of a 20-year friendship with deep insights into the personal life of Charles Bukowski and the city of Los Angeles. Here are clear chapters on childhood friends, Bukowski?s flirtation with Nazism, how Pleasants and Bukowski together rediscover John Fante, adventures in Hollywood, the women, the jobs, the booze and the writing; the way it really happened without the fiction. Pleasants is also a playwright with five plays produced including “The Hemingway/Dos Passos Wars,” and “Contenious Minds: The Mary McCarthy/ Lillian Hellman Affair.” for a better look at his life and work see “How to Write A Short Story\” or “When Bukowski Was a Nazi” at Hollywood Investigator.com.
 
Ben Pleasants will be reading from the book and discuss the fact that he was Bukowski’s friend for twenty years and the direct link between John Fante and Charles Bukowski. This will be a reading and book signing.

Leslie Stella reads & signsUnimaginable SummerSaturday, May 21st, 7:00 PM
 
Leslie Stella?s third novel, UNIMAGINABLE ZERO SUMMER is a fun and humorous tale of seven thirty-somethings in Chicago who gather together for a round of cocktails, dinner parties, and karaoke over the summer before their fifteen-year high school reunion. As they rehash old times, they uncover the slippery foundations on which they?ve based friendships and marriages, and analyze the shaky criteria for what constitutes as happiness and fulfillment. Stella?s latest work is full of wit, sarcasm, obscure music references, and the charming but eccentric group of characters that she is best known for creating.
 
Verity Presti, on the cusp of thirty-four, is dealing with some issues. She divides her time between an adorably neurotic boyfriend who lives with his parents; her divorced father, who lives alone and is enmeshed in a weird suburban dating scene; and her dead-end job as a bookstore clerk at Barnes & Noble. Verity?s hapless boyfriend, the unfortunately named Charlie Brown?like his namesake, all-around lovable loser? is a victim of the dot-com bust and has recently discovered his true calling as an urban shaman, a modern-day medicine man capable of predicting baseball scores and channeling lost pets. Verity and Charlie are simultaneously on the verge of marriage and a breakup, precipitated by the modern requirement to build a career, save money, have children, settle down, and live free, all at once. Amidst all the turmoil, Verity still sees a happy future for herself, even if no one else does.
 
Craig and Carolyn, the sickeningly perfect high-school sweethearts are now married with the perfect house and kids, although their relationship may be far from the image they project. Stan, once the object of Verity?s affections and desires, is now married to Laurel, a struggling poet who falls under the spell of Charlie Brown. And then there?s Will, a rage-a-holic Karaoke Jockey who still carries a torch for Verity. As the reunion draws closer, the group of seven takes stock of their lives and embarks on a roller-coaster journey to summer?s end, battling the memories of fifteen years of freak-outs and failure. Stella?s quick wit is sure to make you laugh until you cry, and vice versa. UNIMAGINABLE ZERO SUMMER is a quirky, modern comedy about the insecurities, foibles, and uncertainties we all have, and hope nobody else will notice.
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
LESLIE STELLA is a founding editor of Lumpen magazine and the author of two novels, Fat Bald Jeff (Grove, 2001) and The Easy Hour (TRP, 2003). Her work has been published in The Mississippi Review, The Adirondack Review, Bust, and Easy Listener, and anthologized in The Book of Zines (Henry Holt, 1997). She was nominated for a 2004 Pushcart Prize in short fiction.