It was an honor to take part and read with five great writers: Steve Langan, Timothy Schaffert, Kate Sommer, Rebecca Shaw, and Zachary Schomburg.

Click here to view my reading: “If I Didn’t Love You I Wouldn’t Lie to You.”

Happy Holidays!

Arjouni picks up the tradition of “hardboiled” private eye crime fiction Hammett and Chandler made popular in the 1920s and 1930s, respectively, creating a dark, seedy world and an unorthodox private detective whose morals and actions may be as suspect as the criminals he pursues for money.

The story of Happy Birthday, Turk! revolves around the stabbing death of Ahmed Hamul, a Turkish laborer, on the steps of his “junkie prostitute” girlfriend’s apartment building. The case is brought to Kayankaya by Ahmed’s wife after the police prove themselves unwilling, or unable, to conclude their investigation. In pursuit of the killer, Kayankaya dives into the seedy world of Frankfurt’s red-light district, overindulging in Scotch and caffeine, brawling, mouthing off indiscriminately, making enemies on both sides of the law, all the while slowly gathering together pieces of the puzzle.

Read the full review at MakeMag.com

Publisher’s website: Melville House

Set during the Civil War in the Hudson River Valley town of Roundout, New York, Red Rain begins just after the Union Army defeat at Cold Harbor, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. While not a principle driver or the plot, the battle’s shadow hangs heavy over the town and the principle characters of the novel as they go about their lives, trying to move on in the face of the destruction and death surrounding them. This endeavor is met with varying degrees of success and failure.

Red Rain is composed of plot lines as numerous and free flowing as the rivers that snake the western lands which Will Harp, the story’s principle character, has run from. But as all rivers eventually converge in the sea, so too do Murkoff’s plot lines link, coming together in a primordial swamp entombing the bones of a giant mastodon.

Read the full review at MakeMag.com

Set in an alternate version of the early 20th century in the city of New Venice, “The Pearl of the Arctic,” this is a world of frigid temperatures, stunning architecture, outlandish technology, dandies, secret societies, top hats, swords concealed in canes, and anarchists in dirigibles. Elements of the supernatural and the fantastic mix and coordinate seamlessly with the, for lack of a better word, realities here. In New Venice, in winter, the light from the sun – as it peeks its head above the horizon, only to duck back under a few hours later – creates strange, odd angled shadows across the city, and novel. Winter and the near constant night that accompany it at this latitude set the stage for what is a dark, quirky story, with about as many characters, twists and turns as there are Eskimo terms for snow.

Read the full review at MakeMag.com

Also, check out the book’s wonderful trailer at the publisher’s website: Melville House

I had a wonderful time and was honored to get to share the stage with four terrific writers: Steve Langan, Timothy Schaffert, Kate Sommer, and Dan Wuebben.

Click here to view my reading: “It’s Christmas When We Get There.”

Happy Holidays!

Wednesday, December 22

I will be doing a short reading – something brand new for the holidays, and will be joined by award-winning novelist Timothy Schaffert, Dan Wuebben, Kate Sommer, and poet Steve Langan.

Please plan on attending! This is a benefit for MAKE, a non-profit literary magazine based in Chicago.

Capgun Coup frontman, Sam Martin, will DJ the event.

$5 suggested donation.

Complimentary Lucky Bucket beer (while it lasts), food, raffle, drink specials, discounted magazines!

Looking for a book to read for your book club? Choose Beneath the Plastic and I’ll send a few free copies your way. Send an email to scott@sdallison.com and let me know.

Coming in around 240 pages, what this little number lacks in length it makes up for with… nothing really. It lacks all around.

The story’s protagonist is Cassandra, a down-on-her-luck tabloid reporter who purportedly has talent but has squandered it due in part to a failing marriage, a series of mischarges, a list of bad decisions, and, oh yeah, she’s an alcoholic too. This barely tolerable cliché of a woman is a Korean orphan raised by a strict Jewish woman in Mesopotamia, Tennessee. Can anyone say “issues?” Or, how about “who cares.”

Here is an excerpt from a review by David Pitt from Booklist, the review journal of the American Library Association, which sums it up almost perfectly:

“…a down-and-out reporter stumbles onto the story of a lifetime and risks everything she has to solve a series of murders that will blow the lid off a small-town scandal. Ho-hum, right? Wrong.”

No, not wrong – dead on. Goodnight.

Pitt continues, “No reader is going to look at this book and think: Oh, well, another story about a homeless, broke, alcoholic tabloid reporter of Korean descent, a couple of dead Elvis impersonators, and a tax attorney’s missing wife.”

No, I think people are going to think much, much worse. The book had potential. The story could have been funny and quirky, but a few potentially interesting characters and plot elements is no excuse for uninspired, lazy writing.

Exhibit A:

“If I didn’t find this chimerical man tonight, I was going to risk a confrontation with the venomous Major.”

While it’s not fair to pull a sentence out of context, Nersesian’s use of ridiculous adjectives to populate meaningless sentences should be called out.

The Major referenced in the excerpt above, “Snake Major,” is just one of the ludicrously named yokels hanging around the Elvis-themed bar around which the story hovers. Others include: Roscoe, Zek, and Vern. Entering stage right are Jericho “Jerry” Riggs, and Floyd Loyd. The yuppie children of Cassandra’s two Jewish sisters are: Yale, Downer, Swan, Seven, Theobald, and the girls are Curtis and Micah.

To coordinate with the awful character names, Nersesian creates uninspiring characters. The protagonist is far from lovable, and even harder to like. Her epiphanies, sprinkled throughout the book, are hardly insightful and about as deep and pure as a dog bowl.

The supporting cast is your run-of-the-mill collection of rednecks: drunk, violent, drunk, and stupid. The only character of interest, a disfigured, kind man with a few secrets and surprises fails to add any air to this flat old ball of a story.

This novel, as far as I can tell, is either a brilliantly crafted joke that didn’t need to be told – a parody of a southern who-done-it – or just a book that was churned out too fast by a writer that failed to give the reader reasons to give a shit about his characters.

Arthur Nersesian is the author of nine novels, and is published by Akashic Books, which puts out some great stuff, e.g., Joe Meno. This is the first book I have read of Nersesian’s, and possibly the worst review I’ve ever written, which is fitting. I plan on reading something from Nersesian’s earlier body of work at some point. The man has a solid reputation. He must be good. There must be something in the back catalogue that’s worthy of the praise he gets.

Right?

Links:

Akashic Books: http://www.akashicbooks.com/mesopotamia.htm

For my review of Jay Ryan’s new collection of work, Animals and Objects In and Out of Water, published in Make Magazine, please go to:

http://makemag.com/review-ryan/

 About the book:
150 pages with 140 color illustrations by Jay Ryan, with a foreword by Andrew Bird and an essay by Joe Meno.
 

Links:

Akashic Books: http://www.akashicbooks.com/animalsandobjects.htm

The Bird Machine (Jay Ryan’s screenprint shop): http://www.thebirdmachine.com/

MAKE Magazine: http://makemag.com/

If the life of a band and the mood of an album can be encapsulated in one song, then “Arrived”, the lead track from Mal Madrigal’s forthcoming From the Fingers of Trees would be a fitting choice.

Electricity builds instantly from the opening cord as Spanish-style guitar gently pulls back the curtains revealing a stark, vast expanse of desert.  Gray, dirty mountains loom in the background.  Tumbleweeds and rattlesnakes enter stage left, prodded by a hollow electric guitar.  The camera pans to the right.  A village sleeps uneasy.  Smoke rises in the distance. 

Ennio Morricone is cracking his Italian knuckles somewhere, sitting on the edge of his seat.

Wispy acoustic guitar blends into rhythmic picking and strumming as the electric continues to poke.

A soft voice appears.  Drums fade in low. 

The scene builds lyrically and sonically in a pattern that will be repeated throughout the album.

The wind kicks up.  Prayers are whispered. 

Three minutes in and repeating the words “Will you arrive? Will you arrive?” the electric guitars do just that.  Like a storm rolling in across the plains, it opens up, unleashing the attack you knew was coming.  From over the hills the bandidos flood in.  Hidden soldiers are waiting for them, and a world that was quiet and eerie erupts into fire.

Lyrically, nothing like this is going on.  I’m ruining everything, I know and I’m sorry, but Mal Madrigal’s music has so many cinematic qualities you can’t help but watch the pictures that project on the screens in your mind. 

You feel this album in your stomach.  You feel this album on your scalp and on all of your little mammalian hairs as fireflies float from the speakers and descend upon you, hovering gently just above your skin.  

Diving into the lyrics you see things you weren’t picturing.  This world that spins as a CD and on vinyl is full of canyons, concealing treasures in caves and in shadows.  

The dust settles.  The camera pans away slowly.  The scene in front of you darkens.

Mal Madrigal’s From the Fingers of Trees, will be released far and wide on January 5^th, 2010.

You can pick up early copies at the release show on Saturday, December 26th at the Slowdown in Omaha. 

They will be playing this Sunday, November 22nd, at the Slowdown.

Links:

Official site: www.malmadrigal.com

myspace: www.myspace.com/malmadrigalmusic

Saddle Creek store: http://store.saddle-creek.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=SCOS&Category_Code=Mal_Madrigal

the Slowdown: www.theslowdown.com