quips and clips

FIfty Shades of Lousia May

finished reading the gem of satirical literotica, 50 SHADES OF LOUISA MAY. the smartest funny book or the funniest smartest book i’ve read in recent memory. when this sordid 50 Shades fad has died off, this book will be the only worthwhile vestige. any guesses as to who might’ve penned this? i’m thinking Michael Chabon…

Thomas Ligotti ~ Noctuary

just finished reading the latest reprinted volume of weird fiction king, Thomas Ligotti: NOCTUARY. loved it not quite as much as his GRIMSCRIBE, SONGS OF A DEAD DREAMER or MY WORK IS NOT YET DONE, but these are earlier works, and he still invokes an existential dread not approached by even the best of Lovecraft…

Fredric Morton ~ Thunder at Twilight

During my Beijing stay, I finished reading the riveting Thunder at Twilight, Fredric Morton’s chronicle of Austro-Hungarian days Of 1913-14 leading to World War I. Haven’t been so enthralled with the writing in a history book since the days of Barbara Tuchman. Brilliant.

Paul Tremblay ~ No Sleep Til Wonderland

just finished reading Paul Tremblay‘s riveting NO SLEEP TILL WONDERLAND, featuring the narcoleptic private eye, Mark Genevich (also the center of Paul‘s first novel, with a title other noirists could only envy, THE LITTLE SLEEP), NO SLEEP follows Mark through his support group meetings, surveillance jobs gone terribly wrong to murder and always being the…

Jo Nesbo ~ Headhunters

just finished reading HEADHUNTERS by one of the leading lights of Nordic noir, Jo Nesbo. i came upon this work in conversation with Mark Danielewski and our mutual bemoaning of the terrible state of contemporary film, most specifically the execrable PROMETHEUS. Mark told me of this Norwegian film (a writer recommending a film based on…

Lucius Shepard ~ Louisiana Breakdown

just finished another sui generis novella by Lucius Shepard, LOUISIANA BREAKDOWN, set in a Gulf Coast town beset by bad juju; really bad juju. another winner from Lucius.

Lucius Shepard ~ Trujillo

just finished another novella by the incomparable imagination of Lucius Shepard, TRUJILLO, set in the eponymous Honduran coastal village; a tale of variously menacing possession, uncatoregizable as all of Lucius’ great work, consistently evocative and redolent in every page. brilliant.

Ken Bruen ~ The Devil

just finished reading Ken Bruen‘s latest, greatest and genre-birthing brilliant installment of his Jack Taylor series, the hapless Galwegian PI tangling with his most formidable and bitter opponent in a prose poem tapestry of Zen koans, pop references, indelibly Irish aphorisms, things pondered and not said, in a read that begs to be done at…

Ken Bruen ~ American Skin

just finished reading Ken Bruen’s most symphonic tapestry, his novel, AMERICAN SKIN, crime and retribution traveling from his Galway/London turf to New York and the desert West. psychos, romantics, promises made and hearts broken. a brilliant work. hard to move on from Ken, now having read every one of his published works save the one…

Ken Bruen ~ Rilke on Black

just finished reading the noir master, Ken Bruen‘s RILKE ON BLACK; one of the few i’d not read (though THE DEVIL has come out in the last year, so i’ve got that on order, and i may have missed one of his artful collaborations with the extraordinarily talented Jason Starr). i surely needed a slamdunk…

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