Archive for the 'fiction' Category

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CHRIS CONNELLY READS FROM ED ROYAL

Published on September 7, 2010 0 Comments
Nov ’10
6
7:00 pm

ED ROYAL COVER

Ed Royal is Connelly’s third book and first work of fiction. In this new book, Connelly has written a coming of age story for the criminally insane, a passionate romance for the sociopath-at-heart, set in early 1980’s Edinburgh, through deserted streets and up ancient hills, straddling the silent divide between the polite silence of the middle class and the stark violence of the working class, navigated crudely and clumsily with hallucinogens around enough twists to keep you reading ravenously until the stunning conclusion.

Chris Connelly is the author of the books Confessions of the Highest Bidder and Concrete, Bulletproof, Invisible & Fried. He grew up in Edinburgh where he formed his first band THE FINI TRIBE in 1980, before fleeing Thatcher’s Britain for gainful employment as the lead singer for The Revolting Cocks and countless other hedonistic rock bands. He now divides his time between writing fiction, making solo albums, and playing in his band The High Confessions.

For more info: www.ed-royal.com / www.chrisconnelly.com

Michael O’Flaherty Reads Shiny Shiny

Published on September 2, 2010 0 Comments
Oct ’10
2
4:00 pm

ShinyShiny

Shiny, Shiny: A Novel by Michael O’Flaherty is a retooled, rocket-fueled Alice In Wonderland for the grandchildren of Marx and Coca-Cola.

In his critical essays on rock and roll for The Baffler, Michael O’Flaherty investigated the complex attempts of human subjectivity and imagination to transcend the political and social constraints of everyday life. Now, in his novel Shiny Shiny, that exploration broadens and deepens into the realm of dreams and possible worlds. The narrative tracks the protagonist, Jane, as her quest for a place to open up and become one takes her from memories of her ‘70s/‘80s girlhood, to exurban family life, to armed communist revolution, only to end in the one destination she never expected….

When put on the spot, O’Flaherty will cite writers like Jane Bowles, Alain Robbe-Grillet, Jean Rhys, and Eduardo Galeano as having influenced his work.  But comic books, punk rock, and the wide world of TV (sometimes observed while semi-conscious) have played an equally important role in his writing.

For more info: http://www.goodbaitbooks.com/index.htm

Jean-Christophe Valtat Reads From Aurorarama

Published on August 19, 2010 0 Comments
Sep ’10
22
7:00 pm

Aurorarama

Info about the book: Set in the glittering Arctic city of “New Venice,” Jean-Christoph Valtat’s Aurorarama imagines an intricate “steampunk” society populated with anarchists, hypnotists, rock stars, drug-addled bohemians, dapper secret police, and a secret society of subterranean garbage collectors. French author Jean-Christophe Valtat has drawn on a wealth of research about Arctic exploration, Victorian mysticism, and 19th-century technology to create a truly unforgettable literary adventure tale that calls to mind Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the graphic-novel classics of Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, and such genre-bending literary sensations as Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell or Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series.  Smart, playful, sexy, and surreal, Aurorarama marks the first book in an enchanting new trilogy.

So whether you’re into science fiction/fantasy or just fiction, whether you’re into steampunk or neo-Victorian, or you just want to come out and support an independent bookstore, you should come. And! Wine will be served. At least one french accent will be there for your enchantment. And of course there will probably at least one person with brass goggles. Come wearing your steampunk gear, and the best costume gets a prize! Need some help with understanding what steampunk is? Here’s some helpful info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steampunk

[Valtat] has a magical sense of shape, and a gift for lyrical prose that are rare in modern writing.

—La Croix

Jean-Christophe Valtat is a writer of “beautiful energy.”

—Le Monde

Nabokovian.

—Words Without Borders


For more info: http://mhpbooks.com

Tao Lin Reads From Richard Yates

Published on July 29, 2010 0 Comments
Sep ’10
15
7:00 pm

RichardYatesTaoLin

Richard Yates is a startling change of direction for Lin: his trademark minimalism takes on a much darker edge as he narrates the story of a young man dealing with the consequences of an affair with an underage girl.  But buried within Lin’s work is a more troubling question—what exactly constitutes illicit sex for a generation with no rules?  Tao Lin’s second novel tracks the relationship between writer Haley Joel Osment, a New Yorker in his early twenties, and Dakota Fanning, his 16-year-old lover.  Moving between Fanning’s suburban home and Osment’s Wall Street apartment, the couple increasingly shuns the outside world as they work to navigate the moral ambiguity of their love. But as they grow more obsessive and become more intimately involved, Fanning reveals her increasingly self-destructive personality.  Osment’s own guilt and anger entrap him as they find the relationship—and their lives—hurtling out of control. 

“Richard Yates is hilarious, menacing, and hugely intelligent. Tao Lin is a Kafka for the iPhone generation. He has that most important gift: it’s impossible to imagine anyone else writing like he does and sounding authentic. Yet he has already spawned a huge school of Lin imitators. As precocious and prolific as he is, every book surpasses the last. Tao Lin may well be the most important writer under thirty working today.”
—Clancy Martin, author of How to Sell

For more info: http://www.mhpbooks.com and http://richardyates.info

Author Kyle Smith Reads from His New Novel 85A

Published on July 24, 2010 0 Comments
Sep ’10
4
7:00 pm

85A

Kyle Smith will read from his Chicago-set coming-of-age novel out this summer from Bascom Hill Publishing Group. Set in late 1980s Chicago, 85A follows its half Johnny Rotten, half Holden Caulfield antihero, Seamus O’Grady, through a watershed day in his adolescent life. As a gay teen from a conservative Catholic home—in one of the most racist neighborhoods of a notoriously segregated city—Seamus begins to seek his niche in 1980s Chicago’s multicultural punk and bohemian circles.

Originally from Chicago, Smith infuses 85A with the rich detail of his own experiences with the Chicago punk scene as his protagonist struggles with universal themes of identity, rebellion and belonging. Today, Smith lives in Brooklyn, New York and regularly contributes to Edge, The Brooklyn Rail, and WhiteHot Magazine.

“Like Holden [Caulfield], Seamus serves as an important reminder of the universal urge to self-define in a world hostile to anyone who dares to be different.” – Edge on the Net

“[Seamus’] treatment at the hands of his family and his teachers is heart-wrenching.” – Booklist

For more information, visit: http://85anovel.com/events.htm