BIG PAT FILLMORE
YOU’RE LUCKY YOU RAN OFF to that island, Edgar, you pinche pendejo. Chin-gada , I’m still pissed and if you ever show your face around here again I’ll kick you in your pajarito. My husband is gay and it was your fault. I’d still like to know what you did to him.
CHULA LA RUE
I’M FAT NOW, EDGAR. I’m a blimp. I married this navy guy, do you believe it, and we’re living at my mom’s house on Mt. Helix. I see you’re still drinking too much. And then you fall offf a clifff and I can’t stop crying. I’m so unhappy. Adrian told me about Bev. It wasn’t your fault. Why do we have to grow old? Why can’t we have another chance?
NORMA PADGETT
God Clobbers Us All
Poe Ballantine
Fiction
196 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-4-1
SET AGAINST THE DILAPIDATED halls of a San Diego rest home in the 1970s, God Clobbers Us All is the shimmering, hysterical, and melancholy story of eighteen-year-old surfer -boy orderly Edgar Donahoe ’s struggles with friendship, death, and an ill-advised affair with the wife of a maladjusted war veteran. All of Edgar’s problems become mundane, however, when he and his lesbian Blackfoot nurse’s aide best friend, Pat Fillmore, become responsible for the disappearance of their fellow worker after an lsd party gone awry. God Clobbers Us All is guaranteed to satisfy longtime Ballantine fans as well as convert those lucky enough to be discovering his work for the first time.
A SURFER DUDE TRANSFORMS into someone captivatingly fragile, and Ballantine’s novel becomes something tender, vulnerable, even sweet without that icky, cloying literary aftertaste. This vulnerability separates Ballantine’s work from his chosen peers. Calmer than Bukowski, less portentous than Kerouac, more hopeful than West, Poe Ballantine may not be sitting at the table of his mentors, but perhaps he deserves his own after all.
SETH TAYLOR
San Diego Union-Tribune
IT’S IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO BE CHARMED by the narrator of Poe Ballantine’s comic and sparklingly intelligent God Clobbers Us All.
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY
GOD CLOBBERS US ALL SUCCEED[S] on the strength of its characterization and Ballantine’s appreciation for the true-life denizens of the Lemon Acres rest home. The gritty daily details of occupants of a home for the dying have a stark vibrancy that cannot help but grab one’s attention, and the offf-hours drug, surf, and screw obsessions of its young narrator, Edgar Donahoe, and his coworkers have a genuine sheen that captivates almost as efffectively.
THE ABSINTHE LITERARY REVIEW
Things I Like About America
Poe Ballantine
Non-fiction
266 pages
$12.95
ISBN 0-9716915-1-7
THESE RISKY, PERSONAL ESSAYS are populated with odd jobs, eccentric characters, boarding houses, buses, and beer. Ballantine takes us along on his Greyhound journey through small-town America, exploring what it means to be human. Written with piercing intimacy and self-effacing humor, Ballantine’s writings provide entertainment, social commentary, and completely compelling slices of life.
IN HIS SEARCH FOR THE REAL AMERICA, Poe Ballantine reminds me of the legendary musk deer, who wanders from valley to valley and hilltop to hilltop searching for the source of the intoxicating musk fragrance that actually comes from him. Along the way, he writes some of the best prose I’ve ever read.
SY SAFRANSKY
Editor, The Sun
BALLANTINE NEVER SHRINKS from taking us along for the drunken, drug-infested ride he braves in most of his travels. The payofff—and there is one—lies in his self-deprecating humor and acerbic social commentary, which he leaves us with before heading further up the dark highway.
THE INDY BOOKSHELF
POE BALLANTINE REMINDS US that in a country full of identical strip malls and chain restaurants, there’s still room for adventure. He finds the humor in situations most would find unbearable and flourishes like a modern-day Kerouac. With his funny, honest prose, Ballantine explores the important questions about being an American: Do I have enough money to buy this bucket of KFC? Can I abide another sixteen-hour Greyhound bus trip? Did my crazy roommate steal my beer again? It’s a book to cherish and pass on to friends.
MARK JUDE POIRIER
Author of Unsung Heroes of American Industry
and Goats
Madison House
Peter Donahue
Fiction
528 pages
$16.95
ISBN 0-9766311-0-5
WINNER, 2005 LANGUM PRIZE
FOR HISTORICAL FICTION
PETER DONAHUE’S DEBUT NOVEL chronicles turn- of-the - century Seattle’s explosive transformation from frontier outpost to major metropolis. Maddie Ingram, owner of Madison House, and her quirky and endearing boarders find their lives inextricably linked when the city decides to re-grade Denny Hill and the fate of Madison House hangs in the balance. Clyde Hunssler, Maddie’s albino handyman and furtive love interest; James Colter, a muckraking black journalist who owns and publishes the Seattle Sentry newspaper; and Chiridah Simpson, an aspiring stage actress forced into prostitution and morphine addiction while working in the city’s corrupt vaudeville theater, all call Madison House home. Had E.L. Doctorow and Charles Dickens met on the streets of Seattle, they couldn’t have created a better book.
PETER DONAHUE SEEMS TO HAVE A MAP OF OLD SEATTLE in his head. No novel extant is nearly as thorough in its presentation of the early city, and all future attempts in its historical vein will be made in light of this book.
DAVID GU TERSON
Author of Snow Falling on Cedars
and Our Lady of the Forest
MADISON HOUSE TREATS READERS to a boarding house full of fascinating and lovable characters as they create their own identities and contribute to early 20th century life in Seattle. Every page reflects Peter Donahue’s meticulous and imaginative recreation of a lively and engaging moment in American history. I loved reading this novel and sharing in the pleasures and labors of the diverse and authentic inhabitants of a remarkable city.
SENA JETER NASLUND
Author of Four Spirits and Ahab’s Wife
So Late, So Soon
D’Arcy Fallon
Memoir
224 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-3-3
THIS MEMOIR OFFERS AN IRREVERENT, fly-on-the-wall view of the Lighthouse Ranch, the Christian commune D’Arcy Fallon called home for three years in the mid-1970s. At eighteen years old, when life’s questions overwhelmed her and reconciling her family past with her future seemed impossible, she accidentally came upon the Ranch during a hitchhike gone awry. Perched on a windswept bluff in Loleta, a dozen miles from anywhere in Northern California, this community of lost and found twenty-somethings lured her in with promises of abounding love, spiritual serenity, and a hardy, pioneer existence. What she didn’t count on was the fog.
I FOUND FALLON’S STORY FASCINATING, as will anyone who has ever wondered about the role women play in fundamental religious sects. What would draw an otherwise independent woman to a life of menial labor and subservience? Fallon’s answer is this story, both an inside look at 70s commune life and a funny, irreverent, poignant coming of age.
JUDY BLUNT
Author of Breaking Clean
PART ADVENTURE STORY, part cautionary tale, So Late, So Soon explores the boundaries between selflessness and having no sense of self; between needing and wanting; between the sacred and the profane. Sometimes heartbreaking, often hilarious, Fallon’s account of her young life in a California Christian commune engagingly illustrates the complexities of desire and the deeply-rooted longing we all feel to be taken in, accepted, and loved. Shame, lust, compassion, and enlightenment—all find their place in Fallon’s honest retelling of her quest for community.
KIM BARNES
Author of Finding Caruso
Dastgah: Diary of a Headtrip
Mark Mordue
Memoir
316 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-6-8
AUSTRALIAN JOURNALIST MARK MORDUE invites you on a journey that ranges from a Rolling Stones concert in Istanbul to talking with mullahs and junkies in Tehran, from a cricket match in Calcutta to an S&M bar in New York, and to many points in between, exploring countries most Americans never see as well as issues of world citizenship in the 21st century. Written in the tradition of literary journalism, Dastgah will take you to all kinds of places, across the world …and inside yourself.
I JUST TOOK A TRIP AROUND THE WORLD in one go, first zigzagging my way through this incredible book, and finally, almost feverishly, making sure I hadn’t missed out on a chapter along the way. I’m not sure what I’d call it now: A road movie of the mind, a diary, a love story, a new version of the subterranean homesick and wanderlust blues – anyway, it’s a great ride. Paul Bowles and Kerouac are in the back, and Mark Mordue has taken over the wheel of that pickup truck from Bruce Chatwin, who’s dozing in the passenger seat.
WIM WENDERS
Director of Paris, Texas; Wings of Desire;
and The Buena Vista Social Club
WIDE - AWAKE AND SENSUOUSLY LYRICAL, Mark Mordue’s Dastgah gets in behind the shell of the familiar, reminding us that the world is vast and strange and that everything is—in case we’ve forgotten—happening for the first time.
SVEN BIRKERTS
Editor of AGNI and
author of My Sky Blue Trades : Growing Up
Counter in a Contrary Time
AN EXTRAORDINARY AND DAZZLING VOYAGE across continents and into the mind. Mordue’s book is almost impossible to summarize—reportage, reflection and poetry are all conjured onto the page as he grapples with the state of the world and his place in it.
GILES MILTON
Author of Nathaniel’s Nutmeg: Or, the True
and Incredible Adventures of the Spice
Trader Who Changed the Course of History
The Cantor’s Daughter
Scott Nadelson
Fiction
280 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9766311-2-1
IN HIS FOLLOW-UP to the award-winning Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories, Nadelson captures Jewish New Jersey subur - banites in moments of crucial transition, when they have the opportunity to connect with those closest to them or forever miss their chance for true intimacy. In “The Headhunter,” two men develop an unlikely friendship when recruiter Len Siegel places Howard Rifkin in his ideal job. Len and Howard buy houses on the same street, but after twenty years their friendship comes to an abrupt and surprising end. In the title story, Noa Nechemia and her father have immigrated from Israel to Chatwin, New Jer - sey, following the death of her mother. In one moment of insight following a disastrous prom night, Noa discovers her ability to transcend grief and determine the direction of her own life. And in “Half a Day in Halifax” two people meet on a cruise ship where their shared lack of enthusiasm for their trip sparks the possibility of romance. Nadelson’s stories are sympathetic, heart-breaking, and funny as they investigate the characters’ fragile emotional bonds and the fears that often cause them to falter or fail.
THESE STORIES ARE RICH, involving, and multi-layered. They draw you in gradually, so that you become immersed in these characters and their lives almost without realizing it. An enticing collection.
DIANA ABU-JABER
Author of The Language of Baklava & Crescent
NADELSON, A TIRELESS INVESTIGATOR of the missed opportunity, works in clear prose that possesses a tremolo just below the surface. His narratives about contemporary American Jews are absorbing and satisfying, laying bare all manner of human imperfections and sweet, sad compensatory behaviors.
STACEY LEVINE
Author of My Horse and Other Stories and Dra—
Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories
Scott Nadelson
Fiction
220 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-2-5
WINNER, 2004 OREGON BOOK AWARD
WINNER, 2005 GCLA NEW WRITER’S AWARD
SCOTT NADELSON’S INTERRELATED STORIES are graceful, vivid narratives that bring into sudden focus the spirit and the stubborn resilience of the Brickmans, a Jewish family of four living in suburban New Jersey. The central character, Daniel Brickman, forges obstinately through his own plots and desires as he strug-gles to balance his sense of identity with his longing to gain acceptance from his family and peers. This fierce collection provides an unblinking examination of family life and the human instinct for attachment.
THESE EXTREMELY WELL-WRITTEN and elegantly wrought stories are rigorous, nuanced explorations of emotional and cultural limbo-states. Saving Stanley is a substantial, serious, and intelligent contribution to contemporary Jewish American writing.
DAVID SHIELDS Author of Enough About You: Adventures
in Autobiography and
A Handbook for Drowning
SCOTT NADELSON PLAYFULLY INTRODUCES US to a fascinating family of characters with sharp and entertaining psychological observations in gracefully beautiful language, remini-scent of young Updike. I wish I could write such sentences. There is a lot of eros and humor here – a perfectly enjoyable book.
JOSIP NOVAKOVICH
Author of April Fool’s Day: A Novel
THERE’S A CERTAIN THRILL in reading a young writer coming into his own. The nuances of style, the interplay of theme and narrative, the keen and sympathetic eye for character—all rendered new by a fresh voice and talent. Scott Nadelson’s stories are bracing, lively, humorous, honest. A splendid debut.
EHUD HAVAZELET
Author of Like Never Before and
What Is It Then Between Us
The Greening of Ben Brown
Michael Strelow
Fiction
272 pages
$15.95
ISBN 0-9716915-8-4
FINALIST, 2005 OREGON BOOK AWARD
MICHAEL STRELOW WEAVES THE STORY of a town and its mysteries in this debut novel. Ben Brown becomes a citizen of East Leven, Oregon, after he recovers from an electrocution that has not left him dead but has turned him green. He befriends 22 year-old Andrew James and together they unearth a chemical spill cover-up that forces the town to confront its demons and its citizens to choose sides. Strelow’s lyrical prose and his talent for storytelling come together in this poetic and important first work that looks at how a town and the natural environment are inextricably linked. The Greening of Ben Brown will find itself in good company on the shelves between Winesburg, Ohio and To Kill A Mockingbird ; readers of both will have a new story to cherish.
MICHAEL STRELOW HAS GIVEN northwest readers an amazing fable for our time and place featuring Ben Brown, a utility lineman who transforms into the Green Man following an industrial accident. Eco-Hero and prophet, the Green Man heads a cast of wonderful and zany characters who fixate over sundry items from filberts to hubcaps. A timely raid on a company producing heavy metals galvanizes Strelow’s mythical East Leven as much as the Boston Tea Party rallied Boston. Fascinating, humorous and wise, The Greening of Ben Brown deserves its place on bookshelves along with other Northwest classics.
CRAIG LESLEY
Author of Storm Riders
STRELOW RESONATES as both poet and storyteller. In creating inhabitants of a town, its central figure and a strong sense of place, he lays on description lavishly, almost breathlessly … The author lovingly invokes a particular brand of Pacific Northwest magic realism, a blend of fable, social realism, wry wisdom and irreverence that brings to mind Ken Kesey, Tom Robbins and the best elements of a low-key mystery.
HOLLY JOHNSON The Oregonian
Soldiers in Hiding
Richard Wiley
Fiction
194 pages
$14.95
ISB N 0-9766311-3-X
WINNER, 1987 PEN/FAULKNER AWARD
TE
DDY MAKI WAS a Japanese- American jazz muscian from Los Angeles trapped in Tokyo with his band mate and friend, Jimmy Yakamoto, both of whom are drafted into the Japanese army after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Thirty years later Maki is a big star on Japanese TV and wrestling with the guilt over Jimmy’s death that he’s been carrying since World War II.
This edition of Soldiers in Hiding includes both an introduction by Nobel Prize Winner Wole Soyinka, and a new preface from the author. Commodore Perry’s Minstrel Show, the prequel to Soldiers in Hiding, is due out from the University of Texas 2007.
A rich and ingenious novel that succeeds brilliantly.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
Extraordinary…a feat of the imagination rendered with surprising skill…you’ll remember this book for a long time.
CHICAGO SUN TIMES
Intelligent and interesting… daring and entirely convincing.
THE WASHINGTON POST
A mature novel…the spirit of Graham Greene is here.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Wonderful… Original… Terrific… Haunting… Reading Soldiers in Hiding is like watching a man on a high wire.
LOS ANGELES TIMES
A work of exceptional power and imagination.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Admirable, smooth, dispassionate …for an American to write from a Japanese standpoint, regardless of how long he has studied their culture, is an act of extreme literary bravery.
CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
September 11: West Coast Writers Approach Ground Zero
Edited by Jeff Meyers
Essays, Poetry, Fiction
266 pages
$16.95
Soldiers in Hiding Page 21