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| The legendary author of Motorman is back. In The Age of Sinatra, David Ohle is so attuned to reality that he has invented a brand new world to reflect it. Whereas what is generally called realistic fiction is busy cataloging what we wear and buy, Ohle is documenting our last secrets, and he's doing it with droll hilarity, brilliance, and a genuinely original vision. —Ben Marcus, author of Notable American Women,
The Father Costume, and The Age of Wire & String |
Ohle's visceral world splices together such diversities as Rabelasian
humor, schizophrenia, science fiction, a twisted version of the Kennedy assassination, necronauts, conspiracy theory, aphasia, genetic manipulation, surrealism, the Titanic, cyperpunk, the French sewers, gland eating, hair smoking, pig hearts, and a constantly shifting system of law to create a hilarious yet compelling dystopia. A beatifully strange novel, imbued with nervous laughter and serious social critique, The Age of Sinatra is a startling book, excessive in all the right ways.—Brian Evenson, author of Altmann's Tongue and Dark Property |
| "The 'heroes' of literature held up for worship and emulation are so dismally disappointing and boring that one is amazed at the ready complicity of writers and readers everywhere to celebrate them. Their names are their names; they are well-known ones. It heartens me then to hear that Bradford Morrow is planning to schedule a special issue of this magazine devoted to 'Secret Heroes,' or writers less favored by national attentions, but clearly deserving of them. David Ohle would fit this rubric perfectly. His stunningly inventive novel, Motorman, appeared in the early seventies, and in this issue we are fortunate to have a selection from his new novel, [The Age of Sinatra, formerly called] The Flum, a work of remarkably comic and bizarre beauty." —Ben Marcus, from the introduction to Conjunctions 26 | |
The Age of Sinatra
David Ohle
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| Paper | 4.5" x 7.5" | 168 pgs. | ISBN: 1-932360-32-8 | List: $11.95 | 08/1/2004 |
Available on Powells.com, Amazon.com, from your local BookSense store, and bookstores everywhere!
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About the book: After the most recent Forgetting, Ohle's luckless protagonist Moldenke is in possession of only his name and the bare facts of his former life. He finds himself cruising on the Titanic through a bizarre alternate reality where elective deformation is a fashion trend, neuts and human settlers do their best to live together in relative harmony, and the only available sustenance is stomach-churning fare. Everyone agrees the Stinkers are troublesome and something must be done. President Ratt not only fails to control the Stinker problem, but he also has a penchant for decreeing absurd laws and issuing random vouchers of innocence. Violators with valid vouchers defer their punishments to guiltless bystanders--regulations that land Moldenke and his fellows in prison more than once.
Rumours are circulating that another Forgetting is imminent, and that the Forgettings are induced by Ratt's radio broadcasts. The prison guard Montfaucon emerges as Ratt's political rival, and Moldenke, ever the yes-man, finds himself inadvertently involved in a plot to assassinate the president. The rebels hope to return to the Age of Sinatra, "when happiness was not only considered achievable, but hailed as the ideal state of being."
About the author: David Ohle's first novel, Motorman, was published by Knopf in 1972 under the now-legendary editorial aegis of Gordon Lish. His short fiction has appeared in Harper's, Esquire, the Paris Review, and elsewhere. He compiled and edited Cursed From Birth: the Short Unhappy Life of William S. Burroughs, Jr., forthcoming from Grove-Atlantic. A native of New Orleans, Ohle now lives in Lawrence, Kansas, and teaches at the University of Kansas. His last name rhymes with "holy." The Age of Sinatra, his long-awaited sequel to Motorman, is forthcoming in the fall of 2004 from Soft Skull Press and is timed to coincide with the reprinting of Motorman in paperback by 3rd Bed Books.
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