Why is Spock wearing a gold uniform in this photo?
Category Archives: Books
Celebrating Edward Gorey’s birthday this Sunday morning with his first “novel,” The Unstrung Harp, one of the greatest books ever written about the writing process. No hyperbole. I try to re-read it every year to remind myself of “the unspeakable horrors of the literary life.”
Miserable Failure
I thought my thrash metal days were over. I was wrong. Check out Iron Reagan’s bandcamp for a neck-snapping jolt of crossover metal that’s a mashup of S.O.D. and Nuclear Assault. And if you’ve ever wanted to kick over a few chairs at a reading, then the video for “Miserable Failure” is not to be missed.
Off to Brooklyn
On Monday March 9 at 8pm I’ll be getting a head start on the paperback release of Forest of Fortune with a reading at Penina Roth’s august and auspicious Franklin Park Reading Series with Michele Filgate, Sarah Gerard, Lev Grossman, James Hannaham & Matt Sumell. This has been in the works for a long time and I’m honored to participate. Come check it out at 618 St. Johns Place, between Classon and Franklin Avenues in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Info about this and other readings is available on my events page.
Tom McCarthy’s Satin Island
I had the pleasure of reviewing Tom McCarthy’s new novel, Satin Island, for the Los Angeles Times. I had a lot to say about this book and had to cut the review back. I think McCarthy says some interesting things about the direction we’re headed and it’s not pretty.
McCarthy’s style is at times reminiscent of David Foster Wallace’s stories of characters caught in the gears of consumer capitalism coupled with the whimsy of Jean Philippe Toussaint’s literary situational comedies in which every detail is microanalyzed. “Satin Island” also owes something to the dot-com-era work novel; an air of catastrophic contemporaneousness hangs over the proceedings as U. is sustained by and trapped in a system he knows cannot possibly last. “The Company’s logo was a giant crumbling tower. It was Babel, of course, the old Biblical parable.”
Read the rest of the review. You might also enjoy this interview at Vulture.
Ghosts of Gin Ling Way (at Chinatown, Los Angeles)
I went to Seven Seas Tattoo in San Diego today and got this tattoo by Sergio Hernandez. It’s inspired by my book, Forest of Fortune, and my time in the casino biz. Some artists like to talk while they work and some are strictly business, which I completely respect, so I usually bring a book to pass the time. Sergio mentioned that his brother, Daniel, is a writer, and as it turns out I met him many years ago while he was working in Los Angeles and he appeared at Vermin on the Mount. Daniel went on to Mexico City where he wrote a book called Down and Delirious in Mexico City that was published by Scribner in 2011. Daniel now writes for VICE and recently wrote this piece about the 43 missing students. It goes without saying, both Daniel and Sergio are extremely talented and it’s a small fucking world, isn’t it?
Pain train coming through.