Date: July 18th 2008

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If anything, summer is the season of distraction. The daydreams of island vacations, the wild impulses to quit the continent and move to Antarctica, the endless tyranny of the neighborhood ice cream man, and the fascinating array of reality television shows presented to us each evening on network television – the world seems hell-bent on prying our focus away from what REALLY matters in summer. When your daily agenda is reduced to a desperate, scrambling search for air conditioning, staying in the loop with the more important things in life (like, say, your favorite indie press) just isn’t the priority it once was.

We here at Soft Skull sympathize with your plight, and to make the whole “keeping informed” thing a bit easier, we’ve rounded up here for your perusal and enjoyment the cream of this summer’s crop – highlights from reviews, choice quotes from authors, and a potpourri of news bits from the Soft Skull sub-universe. Give it a read-though and you’ll find yourself caught up in no time.

IN RECENT NEWS…

July 12^th saw the LA release party for Josh MacPhee and Faviana Rodriguez’s “Reproduce and Revolt.” Held at Los Angeles’ Crewest, the party celebrated both the release of the book, which collects originally commissioned graphics and international street art to be used for revolutionary purposes, and the opening of the exhibit “Write and Revolt,” which features some of LA’s most politically active graffiti writers.

Faviana Rodriguez is herself all over the West Coast these days, chatting up Berkeley’s KPFA, tellin' it like it is on the SF Bay Guardian Art’s & Culture blog, and arranging other general launch-party fantasticness.

…in other West Coast Soft Skull news, the Bay Guardian praises Erik Lyle’s On the Lower Frequencies for “its intense curiosity about various subcultures and its sheer enthusiasm for discovering how the city does (and doesn't) work.” Take a look at an excerpt from the book featured in the Brooklyn Rail…if you like what you see, snatch a copy off the digital bookshelf at Soft Skull’s online store. Erik has been busy criss-crossing the country in support of Frequencies, with recent appearances at Bluestockings and Goodbye Blue Monday here on the East Coast, along with a fantastic radio spot with Portland’s KBOO. And he is nowhere close to stopping – check out the Soft Skull Events Calendar for more chances to catch our globetrotting wonderboy, Erik Lyle.

Colleen Mendor of Bookslut called Martin Millar’s Lonely Werewolf Girl “a breakout novel that defies any and all fantasy stereotypes” in her July round-up of “Things that Bite” books. Keep a lookout for even more Martin Miller goodness coming to you this fall and winter from Soft Skull... 

Jonathan Evison, of All About Lulu fame, has been a constant source of entertainment and fascination this month. His interview with Powell’s sprawls from a discussion of his recent projects to chit chat about literary pilgrimages and the naming of future landscape architects…Evison breaths wildfire and probably eats whole bears for dinner…it’s seriously worth checking out... The Inside Cover also caught up with Evison for some good old fashioned gloating about the “general buzz” surrounding Lulu. Speaking of buzz, you can get a taste of it for your own filthy self over at the manly love-fest that is Three Guys One Book. If there’s anyone that can tame the wily Evison, it’s these gents, who will take you “into a place of shock and awe” in their discussion of the text.

Publisher’s weekly has been sending Soft Skull some recent love as well. In a starred review, they had the following to say about the aforementioned All About Lulu: “Evison’s debut-of love and loss, growing up, throwing up and moving on-is a stunner....Evison provides readers a viciously funny and deeply felt portrayal of a blended family and one man's thwarted longing” …

…and, speaking of David Ohle’s The Pisstown Chaos, they add that “Fans will rejoice—in their own dystopian way—at the arrival of this mesmerizing installment.... Ohle’s creation of a vivid world, both familiar and foreign, dark and slyly humorous, makes the book a grim delight.”

We could spend hours wading through all the love Shannon Burke’s Black Flies has received this summer - here’s a brief, balanced selection of some of the best. Sort of like a Whitman’s Sampler, but with delicious insects instead of caramel.

First came the fantastically gory NY Times Book Review from Liesl Schillinger, which called the book “Searing and morally resonant… for anyone who has flirted with fashionable jadedness or suffered disappointments that led to a sullen fascination with the darker side of human experience, Burke blows apart the pose.”

Then we were hit with a review from the Chicago Tribune’s Paul Goat Allen, who praises Burke’s “excellent job of re-creating the social and political atmosphere of early 1990s Harlem, and his main characters are meticulously and realistically developed, but it's the insights associated with being a paramedic that make this such a powerful read.”

The icing on this praise-cake came courtesy of Time Out New York: “A gifted stylist, the author makes a thoughtful stab at showing what constant danger can do to an ambulance worker and to a neighborhood’s inhabitants. He also knows when to step back to provocative effect, prompting readers to grapple with the horrors as if they were experiencing them firsthand.”

Outside of the critical realm, Burke’s novel has made an impression on the electronic masses. Check out this paramedic’s blog post about Black Flies, along with the ensuing discussion, and Shannon's own thoughts.

While this outpouring of verbal love leaves us grinning ear to ear, reading through it all left us anxious to get back to what the internet is REALLY all about: PICTURES! Filling our need for visual stimulation this month was New York Magazine, who set up a fantastic exclusive excerpt from the beautifully illustrated Dead in Desemboque.

The historieta has also received recent praise from The Boston Globe, who, looking at the trio of fantastic illustrator's who bring author Roberto Arellano's story to life, had the following to say: "Will Schaff's ornate images evoke the Mexican days of the dead; Richard Schuler's more regular art evokes a rougher Robert Crumb; and Alec Thibodeau's calculatedly primitive, open style compliments the psychedelic landscape Arellano conjures in three tongues: English, Spanish, and forked."

Garnishing to this critical goulash was provided by the El Paso Times'  take on the graphic novel: "This marvelous chronicle of a death foretold is a stunning achievement that invites comparisons to Homer's "Odyssey" -- also a story about a love disrupted by the trials and tribulations during one man's dangerous journey back to the arms of his beloved." Epic indeed!

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