Dear Listener,

Recently I have been rereading portions of Joseph Heller’s 1974 sophomore novel that satirizes the American Dream Something Happened.  Simply put, this is not a book for an impatient reader.  In fact, I would be willing to attest to the fact that the plot (or lackthereof) lies almost entirely in the hundreds of pages of character development.  That being said, I love this book.  (I love this book so much I wanted to share a song by Sharon Van Etten called “Save Yourself” from her 2010 album Epic which coincides with Americana and hopelessness. Listen to it here:

I even love it enough to read about it.  Shortly after finishing Something Happened the first time, I read that Kurt Vonnegut had written a review for the New York Times Book Review.  Lord knows I trust Kurt Vonnegut.  After scouring the internet in search of the review, I eventually purchased a used copy (which turned out to be a first edition!) of Vonnegut’s 1981 collection of short stories, essays, letters, speeches, and reviews Palm Sunday from a library in Michigan.  Lemuria currently has a copy of Palm Sunday on the shelf, and I greatly recommend you take a look at the glowing review.

I love this book so much I decided to keep searching the internet for more literature on this piece of literature.  What I found was astonishing.  In May of 1992 Playboy Magazine published an interview, which can be found here, with not only Kurt Vonnegut, but also Joseph Heller!  I reckon satirists really do stick together! A short sample of this can be found here:

PLAYBOY: What are you working on, Kurt?

VONNEGUT: On a divorce. Which is a full-time job. Didn’t you find it a full-time job?

HELLER: Oh, it’s more than a full-time job. You ought to go back and read that section in No Laughing Matter on the divorce. I went through all the lawyers. But yours is going to be a tranquil one, you told me.

VONNEGUT: It seems to me divorce is so common now. It ought to be more institutionalized. It’s like a head-on collision every time. It’s supposed to be a surprise but it’s commonplace. Deliver your line about never having dreamed of being married.

HELLER: It’s in Something Happened: ”I want a divorce; I dream of a divorce. I was never sure I wanted to get married. But I always knew I wanted a divorce.”

VONNEGUT: Norman Mailer has what–five divorces now?

And I found this pertinent as well:

PLAYBOY: Let’s turn to books. Are you alarmed about the corporate role in publishing?

HELLER: ”Alarmed” is a strong word. I’m aware of it and I don’t think the effects will be beneficial toward literature. As I get older, I begin thinking that not only are certain things inevitable, everything is inevitable.

PLAYBOY: How about censorship in publishing? What about when Simon and Schuster decided not to publish a book it had contracted for — Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho — because of pressure?

HELLER: The allegation was made that the decision came from the head of Paramount which owns Simon and Schuster. But the book was published. I don’t think censorship is a widespread threat in this country.

VONNEGUT: You can publish yourself. During the McCarthy era, Howard Fast published Spartacus. Sold it to the movies. Nobody would publish him because he was a Communist.

PLAYBOY: Are writers supportive of one another or resentful?

VONNEGUT: Writers aren’t envious of one another.

HELLER: We may be envious of the success but not of one another.

So whether you’re a fan of hard-nosed, dense, realism satire like Joseph Heller, or you prefer a more whimsical, snarky satire like Kurt Vonnegut (I recommend his 1965 opus God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater), the important thing to remember is that we are all finding fault and dealing with it in the same way.

by Simon

I’m here to tell you all about a happening that I am extremely excited about and feel pretty damn lucky and  thankful to be a part of. Chuck Palahniuk is coming to Jackson!  It’s true, he really is coming. Chuck Palahniuk has been one of my favorite authors for many years now so I intend to make his visit to Jackson memorable.

Palahniuk uses shock and awe to make social commentary in his writing.  He tries to broaden what is culturally acceptable through exaggeration and abnormality.  By writing about situations or issues that make the general population uncomfortable or uneasy he makes those situations/issues more accessible and not quite so mysterious.

Chuck Palahniuk is the author of 12 novels and two collections of short stories.  He is best known for his 1996 novel, Fight Club, which was made into a movie staring Brad Pitt in 1999.  Palahniuk is more than just an author; he is what I refer to as a “rock star author.”  This is partly because he’s had two of his books made into movies and also partly due to the spectacle he creates at his readings.  According to Palahniuk’s Wikipedia page, his public readings of the story “Guts” (which is a chapter in his novel Haunted) caused a grand total of 73 people to faint.  Chuck Palahniuk commented in a interview with Downtown Express:

“At a reading a few weeks ago, we had thirteen people faint,” he says. “It was glorious.”

Fainting should be the least of your worries for the night we have planned.  Our event, Chuck Palahniuk’s Damned Book Night, will be taking place at Hal & Mal’s on Thursday October 20th 2011 and will get started at 5:30.

Here’s what you can expect:

* One night only art show hosted by Fischer Galleries featuring several local artists who created pieces specifically for this event starting at 5:30

* Musical performances by: Bloodbird (starting at 6:00 accompanying the art show), SPACEWOLF (starting at 7:00 on the patio) and The New Orleans Bingo! Show (starting at 9:30 on the main stage).

* Chuck Palahniuk will be on stage at 8:00. His schtick will include a reading of an original story, interactive games with the audience and question answering.

* Pre-signed copies of Chuck Palahniuk’s newest book Damned will be available for purchase. A limited number of back list titles will be available at the event.

* Musical performances by SPACEWOLF, Bloodbird and The New Orleans Bingo! Show.

* One night only art show hosted by Fischer Galleries featuring several local artists who created pieces specifically for this event.

* Hell themed specialty drinks provided by Cathead Vodka.

* Hell themed culinary delights will be provided by Parlor Market.

*** Please note that Chuck Palahniuk will not be signing books at the event (so please don’t bring books from home to get signed…it will not happen).  This is not a ticketed event.  Admission is free. This event is 21 and up!

Expect the unexpected and be warned, the popcorn balls on the floors and ceilings are not edible.

*     *     *

Get directions to Hal & Mal’s

Order your event t-shirt (your choice of gray or red)

Check out our Facebook event page.

Follow us on Twitter: @lemuriabooks And we’ll also be posting updates and all things Palahniuk under this hashtag: #palahniukatlemuria

If you are not attending the event, pre-order your signed copy of Damned here or call the bookstore at 800/601.366.7619.

The Official Chuck Palahniuk Website

cpcp

Dear Listener,

More often than not, a book cannot be defined or exploited by just one song or just one album or just one musician.  This being the case, choosing certain albums for certain sections can be rather difficult, especially when the characters and scenes carry a similar aura throughout the book.  And that is exactly why I am going to cop out and discuss a book that separates itself in a way that easily allows me to mention a couple different artists of varying tastes.

If you read the title, it’s clear I can’t keep this a secret anymore.  The book in question is Cloud Atlas (2004) by British author David Mitchell.  If you haven’t read Cloud Atlas (which would be your first mistake) you wouldn’t know that there are six different stories ranging from the 1850s to the 19oos to the recent past (kind of) to the present to a futuristic world to an even more futuristic post-apocalyptic world.

I’m going to start in the middle and work from there.   In the futuristic section the protagonist is a clone who was made to be a servant but turns out to be more intelligent than anyone suspects.  Her story is being told to a documentarian before she is put to death.  The prose itself is far more inviting than I’m making it out to be, but it is dense.  And it is suspenseful.  And it sure does feel futuristic.  That is exactly the way I feel about post-dubstep soul hero James Blake (not the tennis player).  His self-titled United States debut was released this year to much critical acclaim. (http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/15081-james-blake/) (His song Unluck is track eight on Issue #3).  Blake creates a tension between his crooning and his startling, unpredictable laptop noise.  The tension adds suspense to a chapter that was already suspenseful.  The electronic quality of Blake’s music adds “future” to a chapter that was already “futurey.”  Like two peas in a pod, these two.

Another chapter I want to mention takes place in the present.  It’s about an older man who has to flee some thugs and accidentally ends up in a retirement home that he can’t leave.  The general feeling is light hearted and rambunctious.  Although it never veers away from hilarity, the plot itself moves the way an old man would move: calculated and slow.  I have recently revisited this chapter while listening to a band from Chicago called Maps & Atlases, most specifically their 2010 album Perch Patchwork. (Israeli Caves from Perch Patchwork is track six on Issue #3)  Although they can and will slow down songs, they are a band who are clearly most comfortable watching the audience’s feet tap.  Not only did the music and prose share a riotous attitude, the high-paced complex workings of Maps & Atlases pushed the old man to move a good bit faster.

Hopefully the beginning of August will see the “release” of Issue #4, and perhaps a look back at the chapters that I didn’t touch.  There are still a few (FREE!) copies of Issue #3 in the fiction room at Lemuria.

by Simon

Last week I went to see the new Woody Allen movie Midnight in Paris. It really is delightful, and I highly recommend you go see it. I’ve posted the trailer just below, but I’ll sum up the plot for you. An aspiring novelist (played by Owen Wilson) visits Paris with his fiancee and longs for Paris of the 1920s–the heyday of Ernest Hemingway, Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, need I go on? Well, the twist of it all is that once the clock strikes midnight in Paris (hence the title of the film), our main character finds himself schmoozing with the Fitzgeralds while his novel in progress is being read by Stein and Hemingway.

What doesn’t sound delightful about that?

Seeing this film naturally lead me to wanting to read the expatriates, but I need a little bit of help with where to start.  Whenever I come to a classic genre of literature, I find it so difficult to just choose one novel or short story collection  and dive into it.  How can I choose one?  These are classics.  I want to read them all.  Things were much easier when I was in school and my professors did the choosing for me.

So now I’m turning to you blog readers, expatriate fanatics, lovers of all things Hemingway.  Please tell me where to start! I beg of you.  Here is what I’ve read thus far in the “Lost Generation” department: Nightwood by Djuna Barnes, A Farewell to Arms, The Sun Also Rises, and Garden of Eden (which I wrote about last summer here) by Ernest Hemingway, and The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Any suggestions, comments on your favorite expat writer, artist, or even on Woody Allen’s new film are more than welcome. Merci beaucoup in advance for your input.  -Kaycie

Not often does a life long advertising executive put his pen to paper and yield, on the first try, a captivating work of fiction, but David Abbott from the United Kingdom, meets this challenge in the newly released The Upright Piano Player. Those readers looking for  a provoking summer read, but not typically a “beach read”, will be gladdened by reading this smallish novel. In fact, it is published in such a small format that it fits perfectly in a tote bag or a satchel or a purse, but that is where the typical summer vacation book similarity ends.

As the novel opens in a short Part One, which actually serves the purpose of a preface, the reader is actually taken forward in time to pique his interest, for the rest of the novel jumps back to play out the story, not in a linear pattern, but certainly in a well crafted way in Part Two. As the protagonist, aging Henry Cage, enters the last part of his life, he is ready, as most people are, to have some peace and to enjoy some relaxing times in the sunset of  his life. But as life itself usually unfolds, this is not what happens. If good fiction mimics reality, then this novel qualifies as superlative fiction.

A series of unfortunate events flow rapidly toward Henry Cage’s life, and he is caught by surprise multiple times, often ignoring the danger and/or the possibilities. An ex-wife becomes gravely ill, and he has the opportunity to set some things right.  A violent stalker starts threatening his life and well being, and he initially refuses to contact the police. A beloved grandchild is snatched from him, and he can’t face the pain and reach out to his own son.

The reader suffers with him but wishes he would stop the long series of denials and step up to the plate to make some things right in his life. Yet, in spite of his ineptitude, the reader becomes fond of Henry and wishes the best for him.  Is Henry Cage an “everyman”? Is he simply a victim of life’s fickleness? He has seemingly done most things “right”, but he seems to have an disproportionate amount of pain heaped upon him in his old age. Will he find happiness ever, or only moments of fleeting joy?

I was reminded in a slight way of Philip Roth’s Everyman, which I read last summer, even though the characters themselves have quite different personalities. What the reader gets here is a look into the life of a character who could live anywhere at any time making life long choices, some right, some wrong. The British author does get it right, however, in the telling of this provoking story.

Once again, I thank Liz, our Random House rep, who put the advanced reader’s copy of  this little novel in my hands a few months ago. I’ll be recommending it to readers at Lemuria this summer, and I’ll probably choose it for book club when it comes out in paperback next year. A contemplative book it is.  -Nan