March 7, 2010
Copenhagen
by Katrine Marie Guldager (Book Thug, 2009, Translated from the Danish by P.K. Brask)
Eleven short stories that twist geographically, socially, restlessly, and perspicaciously through the city. Often mundane, then suddenly tragic, related with a matter-of-factness that is also forgiving. You can read all 82 pages in one sitting, which for that reason (and the fragility of the characters and also the unassailable whiteness of Copenhagen) makes me want to compare the book to a stack of rice cakes. In a good way. I like rice cakes. Or else I wouldn’t be recommending the book.
$20
February 21, 2010
Boons & The Camp
by David Ohle (Calamari, 2009)
Double feature. Two Ohle novellas in one.
$12
Hello Failure
by Kristen Kosmas (Ugly Duckling, 2009)
I’m no drama critic, but what I love about the playwright Eugène Ionesco I also love about Kristen Kosmas’ Hello Failure. (Satire and wit without embitterment.) But George Hunka says it better:
“Kristen Kosmas is one of the most exciting and accomplished new voices in the American theater… Her story of seven submariners’ wives marries Chekhovian realism to a language reminiscent of Gertrude Stein for one of the best new plays of the season.”
$12
The Difficult Farm
by Heather Christle (Octopus, 2009)
When is too much honesty not enough?
$12
February 7, 2010
Ex Machina
by Jonathan Ball (Book Thug, 2009)
“This book is a machine. It will use you to generate poems.”
$18