AICN BOOKS! Frank Bascombe On SPELLMAN FILES And SKINNY DIPPING IN THE LAKE OF THE DEAD! Plus A Giveaway!

I’m doing a couple of things this month that I’ve never really done before: giving readers a chance to get a free book, and handing out some information about a book that I’ve never read (or plan to read sci-fi isn’t my cup of tea), but want to help anyway I can. So, first things first, we’re giving away some signed copies of ‘Running With Scissors’. Here’s the official line: The publisher has 10 signed copies of "Running With Scissors". The movie hits theaters in October and Picador is giving away signed copies of Augusten Burroughs’ book to the first ten people who respond to this address with their mailing address and the subject line "Running With Scissors Giveaway". Okay then, fall books have come and gone and we’re onto Spring ’07, and something that will certainly be buzzing like crazy in the very near future. To be honest, I’m going to review the new Richard Ford, ‘Lay of the Land’. I just don’t know when. I’ve got a new A.M. Homes and the new Keith Dixon waiting for me, plus a really cool book coming in early ’07 called ‘Sweet’, about a lady who works in the NYC film business and takes up pool billiards. Really good stuff, so look on the horizon for that. One last thing: I’m reading this book right now that I’ll review in next month’s column entitled ‘L.A. Rex’. It’s out there in stores right now, so if you want your ass handed to you by this blazing new talent Will Beall, I suggest you go buy it.

The Spellman Files Lisa Lutz Simon & Schuster

I heard about this book when it was acquired last year, or was it this year? Anyway, this book isn’t coming out until 3/07, but I thought it worthy of a review now… This book won’t need any more press than it’s going to get when it hits the street. Lisa Lutz has the second most powerful book publisher behind her (first place still being held by Random House), and a lot of marketing money is going to be thrown at this book, book tours, profiles on all avenues of contemporary culture magazines, and maybe even the Daily Show. This girl isn’t ‘Oprah’ material (thank God). Although I do hope they change the cover art that’s on the advance reading copy, it looks a lot like a piece of non-fiction. But I’m sure they will do whatever makes them happy. Lisa Lutz is an unknown, a non-entity, a narrator of the fringe, obsessively pacing the margins, and she’s making beautiful music that will be heard by all in a few months. After that, she’ll be a household name. This isn’t Chick Lit, or Slut Lit as has been implied by Ms. Prep (you know who I’m talking about), but it reads like Chick Lit for a few pages, and then the flood gates open and we’re exposed to the funny narrative styling and strong-handed control of character all thrown into the wind to create a wonderful and insightful story about a family of private investigators, The Spellmans. If you’re not falling down on the floor after the first chapter where Izzy, our heroine, is interrogated during her youth by her parents for cutting her brother’s hair while he slept, then you’re a lost cause. Trouble is, the Spellmans only work a little bit on outside cases and spend most of their time and this tale investigating each other, which makes for a very exciting story. Scratch that - a very original story. Izzy narrates, flipping around in time, telling the tale of her parents, how the agency got started, her uncle Ray, a drunk and lay about ex-cop, and her sister Rae (I figured out the symbolism of the play on their names by the end of the book) who’s a little snapper, and investigates her family in everything they do. Plus she’s a candy junkie, which makes for great episodes of junk food binge writing. The theme of this book, the arc as it were, is that Izzy is a troubled girl and she wants out of the agency after her parents tap her phone lines, but they ask her to take one last case, that of the missing Snow brother who vanished while on a camping trip. The case is impossible to crack but Izzy finds holes right away, which leads me to believe the parents never really worked that hard on the case the first time around. If she solves this case and she still wants to leave the family business, then it’s ‘don’t let the doorknob catch you in the ass….’. Set on the picturesque streets of San Francisco, ‘The Spellman Files’ is a riveting page-turner. Due mostly to Izzy who’s fast and loose and sour tongued; I’ve likened her to Nancy Drew after a bottle of Jack Daniels. She lords over her little sister Rae, and the whole family takes jobs from their oldest offspring, a lawyer, David Spellman, who is constantly extorted by Rae for money. Remember, the littlest Spellman gets dirt on her entire family, which enables her to feed her junk food habit by using the embarrassing information against them. If this is starting to sound like a Wes Anderson movie that’s okay, because getting compared to that genius isn’t a bad thing. Lutz magically pulls a rabbit out of her hat at almost every turn, but where the seat-of-your-pants thrills go soft, she fills the void with beautiful poignancy (just like Wes Anderson). This is just the start of the Spellman clan, and the jacket copy hints to a series of books forthcoming, which is perfect, because Lisa Lutz deserves a big audience. Just want to change gears here for a minute and tell you about a little sci-fi book that might interest those out there who read the genre. Here is the synopsis: Four centuries after global disaster, the remnants of humanity struggle to survive in the Hypogeum, a polluted and overcrowded city two miles beneath the Earth's surface. To combat the rising tide of corruption, an ancient mythical spirit is resurrected to cleanse the city in a river of blood. The Winnower is a man haunted by sins of his own, whose consequences neither he nor the Hypogeum can escape. Title: Steel Sky Author: Andrew C. Murphy ISBN: 0974573450 Publisher website: http://www.perasperapress.com/ Normally I don’t do this, but the author asked nicely. Check it out.

Skinny Dipping in the Lake of the Dead Alan Deniro Small Bear Press

A while ago ‘Time’ magazine ran a piece on modern literature, books, and who they thought was making waves. Kelly Link’s name came up and I was surprised. Not because she’s not worthy of a mention but that ‘Time’ magazine would mention her at all, as their goal is to please the masses with the likes of popular commercial fiction, and not highly literate stylists of magical prose, like Ms. Link. Is there a shift in tastes these days? Could the magazines that our parents once read for insights to their own culture be changing, morphing, and shifting? That article certainly seems to make perfect sense, and sounds the alarm that a shift may be coming, at least a passing of the pendulum. This lead me to look closer at Small Bear Press and I discovered that they do some really exciting things, namely, Alan Deniro’s book of short stories which I promptly requested a review copy of, and they kindly followed up with me after I’d not reviewed it in a timely manner. Fortunately I don’t get paid for this gig, so things come and go at my own pace, as frustrating as that might be. My apologies. Now, I don’t go in for experimental fiction. Sam Lipsyte comes to mind, and then I’m out of control and cursing up a storm. So when I discovered Mr. Deniro’s book wildly alive with experimentation, the kind that makes me angry, I set the book down for a while to gain some perspective, which is exactly what a person like me should get when reading something outside of his comfort zone. I’ve always said I review and read only what I like. So I can’t say I love this book, but I’m honestly trying to tell you that it’s something vibrant and essential, if only to vary your reading palate. In the story ‘The Keeper’, a painter greets us who may be insane - or at least he appears to be in an asylum, as it’s his job to cover the walls with his work. But, and this is a big BUT, his boss has given him a blow job and left him with a disease that he can only find a cure for at a market that sells dogs. Confused? I am. Deniro’s swirling prose, long-limbed style and magical disconnections are confusing and beg for repeat readings; this story is a case in point. In the first story of the collection, my confusion became fully realized and I can safely say that I don’t know what happened, or what I read, or what it meant, if anything. There is a polite blandness, an almost aloof tone to the narrative of a college town that is being attacked by aliens? I think? Some reviews have called Deniro the future of Sci-Fi? That doesn’t say much to me as I’ve never read much of that stuff, but Hannah Tinti and Jonathan Lethem also praise his writing so it’s worth a look. If you can figure out what’s going on, let me know. Otherwise, this trip to the discomfort zone is over. Write me if you have something to say.