Overview

In three comic novellas, three unlikely hero-narrators insist their respective ways into revisionist stories --- imagined or real --- of rescue, resistance and ironic retribution. Darkly funny and politically urgent, their clumsy, self-conscious if sincere attempts answer our absurdly sadistic recent civic despair with complex if almost, if not quite imaginable, empathy. In The Dairy of Anne Frank, a community college student's spelling error inspires his adjunct writing instructor to stage an alternative theatrical pageant rehabilitating grammar and syntax, love and brain injury, biography and history. In Not Enemies, But Friends, another teacher simultaneously takes on liberal fatalism and the organized complacency which enables both the virtual and actual kidnapping of public education by right-wing fundamentalists. Finally, in Going Clearer, accidental exposure to a single if singular book on Scientology transforms an otherwise illiterate and uninitiated nobody into an avenging disciple of reason and humanity against coercion, hucksterism, superstition and the limits of his and perhaps our own collective imagination.

Full Product Details

9780997125733

Table of Contents

Reviews

In these unsteady times I reach out to Andrew Tonkovich's stories as I would for a handrail. They manage to be funny, cranky, smart, observant, and moral (yes moral!), all at the same time. Most importantly, they come with a ton of compassion for our collective failings and, while wisdom does not seem to be a word that has gotten us very far these days, it's a comfort to find it here, in these most excellent tales. Jim Krusoe, author of The Sleep Garden I don't know anyone who writes like Andrew Tonkovich, whose ruminative convolutions circle and prod at the catchwords of our culture. I shake my head with admiration as the sly darts of his prose puncture so much foolishness, so many untested beliefs, and explode on the page without aggression, without noise, but with humor and much light. Diane Lefer, author of California Transit, winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction Andrew Tonkovich challenges us to examine America-the-familiar--post 9/11 mega-churches, Bed Bath and Beyond wedding registries, the development of a genius California highway system through the center of wilderness (one its developers claim actually creates two wildernesses, therefore doubling it). But it's through his deftly warped, brutally poignant, and very funny lens that America becomes less familiar. The banal 'stuff' of our everydays--governing systems, relationships to neighbors, the slogans and products and souvenirs--are transformed in the worlds he renders. This is the book you've been waiting for. Ryan Ridge, author of American Homes

"""In these unsteady times I reach out to Andrew Tonkovich's stories as I would for a handrail. They manage to be funny, cranky, smart, observant, and moral (yes moral!), all at the same time. Most importantly, they come with a ton of compassion for our collective failings and, while ""wisdom"" does not seem to be a word that has gotten us very far these days, it's a comfort to find it here, in these most excellent tales."" Jim Krusoe, author of The Sleep Garden ""I don't know anyone who writes like Andrew Tonkovich, whose ruminative convolutions circle and prod at the catchwords of our culture. I shake my head with admiration as the sly darts of his prose puncture so much foolishness, so many untested beliefs, and explode on the page without aggression, without noise, but with humor and much light."" Diane Lefer, author of California Transit, winner of the Mary McCarthy Prize in Short Fiction ""Andrew Tonkovich challenges us to examine America-the-familiar--post 9/11 mega-churches, Bed Bath and Beyond wedding registries, the development of a genius California highway system through the center of wilderness (one its developers claim actually creates two wildernesses, therefore doubling it). But it's through his deftly warped, brutally poignant, and very funny lens that America becomes less familiar. The banal 'stuff' of our everydays--governing systems, relationships to neighbors, the slogans and products and souvenirs--are transformed in the worlds he renders. This is the book you've been waiting for."" Ryan Ridge, author of American Homes"

Author Information

Andrew Tonkovich is the longtime editor of the West Coast literary journal Santa Monica Review and host of Bibliocracy, Pacifica Radio KPFK's weekly books show. His essays, reviews and original short stories have appeared in Ecotone, Juked, Faultline, ZYZZYVA, Best American Nonrequired Reading, the Los Angeles Times, and Los Angeles Review of Books. He is co-editor, with Lisa Alvarez of the first-ever survey of literary Orange County, and a regular contributor to the OC Weekly.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available