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October 26, 2005

15 Novels, 1 Story Collection

Tonight or tomorrow: I promise to answer some questions and give a brief France overview.

For now, in case you're looking for something to read, here are some random books I like: all novels except the last. All of them are glittering little gems from various years; all are nicely oddball and extremely special.

(Top Row): Graham Joyce, THE TOOTH FAIRY; Stephen Millhauser, EDWIN MULLHOUSE; Elizabeth McCracken, THE GIANT'S HOUSE; and Matthew Stadler, ALLAN STEIN.
(Middle Row): Ken Siman, PIZZA FACE; Mitch Cullin, TIDELAND; Howard Buten, WHEN I WAS FIVE I KILLED MYSELF; and Barbara Gowdy, THE WHITE BONE.
(Third Row): Travis Jeppesen, VICTIMS; Iain Banks, THE WASP FACTORY; Evelyn Lau, FRESH GIRLS (well, sort of a novel-in-stories, I guess); and Steve Weiner, THE MUSEUM OF LOVE.
(Bottom Row): Poppy Z. Brite, DRAWING BLOOD; Laura Kasischke, SUSPICIOUS RIVER; Zachary Lazar, AARON, APPROXIMATELY; and Kelly Link, STRANGER THINGS HAPPEN.

PS-- based on these (and other books I've mentioned in the past) as a kind of all-over-the-place evidence of my tastes, if anyone has other novels to recommend, I'd love to hear about them....

Posted by at 08:16 AM | Comments (4)

October 22, 2005

Tout le monde en parle

Before I forget: yes, tonight I'm supposed to be on the French TV show "Tout le monde en parle"... but I'm worried that I may not be too happy with the result. The guests before me had been irreverently discussing things from pop-music TV shows and Missy Elliot and carefree misspent youthhood, so the sudden one-two-three thorn-in-the-side topics of child molestation, recovered memory, and UFOs didn't seem to sit too well. At least it seemed that way to me when I was uncomfortably trying to answer questions (in French, with an uncomfortable translation through an uncomfortable earpiece in English) from Mr. Ardisson. The host, and producers, and everyone on the crew were really helpful and nice, but I felt extremely self-conscious and negative about the night.

Huge, huge thanks to Anne Vaudoyer and Christophe Grosdidier for making the night worthwhile. More on those two angels tomorrow.

So, anyway, if any of you in France see the show and indeed I come off rather terribly, feel free to break the news to me gently.

Here's one of the photos from a shoot for a Paris magazine this week.

Posted by at 10:50 AM | Comments (9)

Little Lord Fraud-leroy

Since some of you have been asking how I weigh in on the matter....

I don't want to waste any more of my time or effort, to be honest. But if you haven't read Stephen Beachy's remarkable piece in New York Magazine, here's the link: Fraud

Personally, I strongly suspected "hoax" from the time I interviewed "JT" back in 2000 for a magazine; that suspicion was cemented for me during our brief run-ins at the Toronto and London film festivals earlier this year.

I suppose a lot of people will be giggling about this someday. For now, I'll just say, Don't believe the hype. The world's too crammed with honest, struggling fiction writers, and too needful of serious readers, to buoy this kind of crap. "Deceitful," indeed.

Okay, on to more important and worthwhile matters.

Later this weekend: a report from my ten days in Paris....

Posted by at 10:24 AM | Comments (1)

October 09, 2005

A bientôt

Off to Paris tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Dad. Happy birthday John Costango.

Not much time to post something; instead, since some of you have asked about the subject matter of We Disappear, here are six photographs that sort of convey, I think, the theme and atmosphere of the book.

Posted by at 11:49 AM | Comments (4)

October 03, 2005

Pre-France Music Rant

(Well, actually not a rant, just some "shout outs" for cds I've recently liked.)

In exactly a week, Michael and I are off to France, for a week (Michael), and a little more than a week (me). Au Diable Vauvert is publishing the French translation of Mysterious Skin this month, timed to arrive simultaneously with the French DVD. So far I've learned about three French phrases (I was such a numbskull to take German in college instead of French). Thankfully the wonderful guy who translated the book, Christophe Grosdidier, will be along to help me out with the press & publicity duties.

(By the way--the US DVD will be released on October 25th. Please, if you haven't seen the film yet, make sure you watch the UNRATED edition instead of the R-rated!!!)

I'll have my final French schedule later this week, so if I have time I'll post information about the book signings or press schedulings. One place I'm supposed to appear is the Thierry Ardisson television show, about which I'm admittedly a little nervous.

In the meantime, I've been working steadily, still, on We Disappear, and listening to a lot of new music. Of course I've been listening nonstop to TAKK... by gods Sigur Rós . I ADORE the album "Heat" by Colder... sorta like the ghosts of early Factory Records bands, suddenly resurrected for a new CD. Also, one of my favorite bands, Elbow, just released "Leaders of the Free World"--I love it, but it's a bit of a disappointment; their other two records were this incredible mix of prog and "Spirit of Eden" period Talk Talk, and this new one is a little more mainstream than I would have liked. Also, I like, but don't quite love, the new Broadcast disc. And yes, I think it's still cool to like Franz Ferdinand. The new Calla, "Collisions," ain't bad. Ummm... also, if you're a fan of the Arcade Fire, you'll likely love "Apologies To the Queen Mary" by Wolf Parade (a 9.2 from the always pretentious Pitchfork!) and "Birds Make Good Neighbors" by The Rosebuds. I can't stop listening to that latter band's song "Boxcar".

The trio of upcoming CDs I'm most excited to hear are the new Mogwai, "Aerial" by the world's biggest recluse Kate Bush, and "The Campfire Headphase," by the always sublime Boards of Canada. Hopefully these won't "slightly disappoint" like some others recently have.

More as France approaches. Since this entry was about music, I'll leave you with a few photographs of the reason, apparently, why SOME people think I have weird taste: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, f@#$ing great guitarist for The Mars Volta and my current vote for the most beautiful human being on the planet.

Posted by at 12:03 AM | Comments (5)