Pulp Books

One in, one out. Three at a time sometimes handy.


3.5 out of 5

A SUBLIME READ

Grubisic, Brett Josef, "The Age of Cities". Arsenal Pulp Press, 2006

Amos Lassen and Literary Pride

The Age of Innocence returns in "The Age of Cities", a wonderful new novel by Brett Josef Grubisic. When a manuscript is found in an old economics textbook, we are suddenly returned to a period in history when everything was quite different. The found document tells the story of a librarian from small town Canada who moves to the metropolis at the height of the Cold War in 1959. Having finally managed to escape the mentality of a small town, he is enraptured being able to be in a pace where he can be who he really is. He no longer has to hide his sexual identity and he is like a kid in a candy store. But of course it is not that easy. The new gay subculture that he finds himself a part of leads him to adventure that he never dreamed of and a crisis that he has trouble dealing with.
To say much more about the plot would be to give away the wonderful story. Grubisic has written a book which is quite literally perfect. Everything fits perfectly, the prose is exciting and literate, the detail is fascinating and most of all, the plot is quite simply amazing. The author shows great insight into the gay mind that I found it painful at times but what beautiful pain it was. The only problem I had was identifying with the Canadian backdrop.
A read like thus does not come along very often. It is always a pleasure to be able to so completely lose yourself in a novel that at the time you are reading, nothing else matters ans you are aso engrossed that you do not here the phone ring and you ignore the dog's pleas to go out. Because of the way I feel about thi book, my review is very short in hopes that I have piqued the interest of some of you who will go out now and read it. Those of us that lived through that period will have our memories rekindled. For me it was an experience I will not soon forget.

This is the sort of book that you can sit down and read in one sitting. I picked up the book and read the first few paragraphs to get a feel for the author's style. Robeson writes in a crisp, concise style that allows you to fly through the book. Before I knew it, I had read several pages and wanted more.

The plotline may sound cliched, but Robeson develops it in a way that makes it interesting. A mysterious lab developed a secret weapon that can cause the death of millions. A top executive is plotting to sell the weapon to a rogue nation. Of course, all hopes rest on the Avenger! The character development is pretty good, and there are other aspects of the book to keep the plot interesting, including a murder and an innocent being framed. There is also plenty of action.

The biggest problem I have with the book, is the Avenger's uncanny ability to do almost anything. No matter what situation he finds himself in, he does the near impossible to defeat the enemy and save the innocent. Although some might like this in a book, to me it was not very believable at times.

Overall though, this book is a fun, quick read. I read it in one sitting and would recommend it.

I like vampires and i like this book.It is infomative and interesting.

A Science Fiction Story

Light staple perfection.


4 out of 5

Your book is very good, but it is too expensive to Asian people who his country has financial crisis.

Basically, this is a compilation of the stories of five different disabled people in Canada and how being involved in networking groups has helped their lives. It's very short, with small snapshots of daily life interspersed (literal and figurative) with background information about the five people upon whom the book focuses, as well as some information about their families and support groups.

At first I was worried that this simply would be an attempt to raise money for the organization that funded the book and assisted some of the people featured (PLAN), but the further I read the more I realized that not all of the five people were being helped by this particular organization and, even if they were, so what? Clearly lives of the disabled are enhanced when they live as "normally" as possible and interact with non-disabled people, and of course this is the case for people beyond the five mentioned in this book.

Also, the best part, for me, was reading about how for the people who are supposed to be "helping" the featured disabled ones mentioned the reverse is the case: interacting with the disabled made their lives better. I couldn't help but get just a little emotional while reading this; I feel encouraged when I read about people who selflessly help others simply for the sake of doing do.

This is a wonderful collection of poetry. Fragmentary, and highly charged, it is a fictional account of the last days of a Salmon Cannery along the Sheenan River in British Columbia. The narrative takes a number of forms; lists, declarattions, snippets of gossip; but slowly, in their own voices, the miriad characters of the "Company Town" step forward, and have their say. The writing is wry and razor-sharp. A wonderful book, a wonderful read, and a fantastic document of the working class experience -- Even if it is fictional!

Dennis Denisoff is an intelligent, intuitive writer, and this early work shows tremendous control and confidence. An intelligent, provocative, harrowing work of AIDS literature, set in beautiful Kiev, Ukraine, and in Vancouver, Canada. The similar/contrasting landscapes are an important part of the narrator's negotiation with his identity. He furthermore considers his identity as shaped by his HIV status, nationality, language, and romantic history. Laurie Anderson once famously said "Language is a virus." This is a work obsessed with language, with the spread of culture compared to the spread of HIV. The narrator shares both HIV and language with Larion, both of which change the characters in many ways. The narrator speaks English and Ukrainian with equal facility, and the characters are constantly moving between the two languages as they struggle to reveal and conceal their innermost thoughts and dreams. The pale, wan Larion is like a character from a Mikhael Kuzmin work, shadowy and mysterious, grey eyes almost always brimming with tears. The unfolding global catastrophe of AIDS is set against the backdrop of the Chernobyl disaster, which the author lived through while in the Ukraine in the late 1980s. This engaging, important novel would merit 5 stars but for the self-conscious narratorial intrusions which demonstrate the author's intellectual background but are otherwise unnecessary and disturb the rhythm of the narrative. This is a lovely, gentle novel, as multi-layered as a matrioshka doll, and as intricately-crafted as a pysanka. A recommended read, particularly for afficionados of AIDS literature or Canadian literature.

i would recommend this book because it is good