From Publishers Weekly
ParkerAan edgy, critically acclaimed singer songwriterAmakes a splendid literary debut with this collection of shorts. The 10 stories, told in the first person, follow the droll and occasionally wistful Brian Porker through a series of hobbies, vocations, girlfriends and drug-fueled exploits. (Porker's misadventures, one suspects, are based somewhat self-effacingly on Parker's own.) And what a hard-knock stew of episodes it is, from growing pains and street fights to drug-induced headaches and humiliations at the absurd hands of the music business. In "The Sheld-Duck of the Basingstoke Canal," young Brian learns a sweaty, bug-bitten lesson about accumulation, social status and the rights of all living creatures. "Bad Nose" is a hilarious John Wayne Bobbit-meets-Gogol inspired story about a tired 22-year-old menial laborer whose refusal to take care of his infected sinuses drives his annoyed wife to take matters into her own hands. In "Well Well Well," a wonderfully vindictive tale about a city slicker trying to hold his own with a couple of hardscrabble well diggers he hires, Porker explains, "I was just some rich yuppie from the city, I wasn't going to lord it over the locals by handing out free herpetology lessons, so I just nodded and looked concerned, not mentioning that he'd have to go to Africa to get bitten by a puff adder." Gruesome and laconic in the tradition of Roald Dahl, Parker's shorts are equal parts wit, invention and sweet cruelty, readers should enjoy frissons of schadenfreude. Author tour. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
The New York Times Book Review, Charles Taylor
There's not a story in Parker's first book, Carp Fishing on Valium, that I wouldn't trade for "Fool's Gold" or any of his best songs.
--Ce texte fait référence à une édition épuisée ou non disponible de ce titre.
