Spitting Off Tall Buildings

Author	John O'Brien
ISBN	0802134459

Leaving Las Vegas, the first novel by John O’Brien, is a disturbing and emotionally wrenching story of a woman who embraces life and a man who rejects it. Sera, a prostitute, and Ben, an alcoholic, stumble together and discover in each other a respite from their unforgiving lives. A testimony to the...

Author	Denis Johnson
ISBN	0060975776

Jesus' Son, the first collection of stories by Denis Johnson, presents a unique, hallucinatory vision of contemporary American life unmatched in power and immediacy and marks a new level of achievement for this acclaimed writer. In their intensity of perception, their neon-lit evocation of a strange...

Author

James Dickey

The setting is the Georgia wilderness, where the state's most remote white-water river awaits. In the thundering froth of that river, in its echoing stone canyons, four men on a canoe trip discover a freedom and exhilaration beyond compare. And then, in a moment of horror, the adventure turns into a...

Author	William Shakespeare
ISBN	0192839934

Richard III is one of Shakespeare's most popular plays on the stage and has been adapted successfully for film. This new and innovative edition recognizes the play's pre-eminence as a performance work: a perspective that informs every aspect of the editing. Challenging traditional practice, the...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	0060822554

Ask the Dust is the story of Arturo Bandini, a young Italian-American writer in 1930s Los Angeles who falls hard for the elusive, mocking, unstable Camilla Lopez, a Mexican waitress. Struggling to survive, he perseveres until, at last, his first novel is published. But the bright light of success is...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	1841956198

Henry Molise, a 50 year old, successful writer, returns to the family home to help with the latest drama; his aging parents want to divorce. Henry's tyrannical, brick laying father, Nick, though weak and alcoholic, can still strike fear into the hearts of his sons. His mother, though ill and devout to...

Author	Mark SaFranko
ISBN	0061979198

“A book of quiet horrors and beautifully expressed longing. . . . SaFranko’s prose is precise, flawless, and the work of a man who truly loves and understands great writing.” —Tony O'Neill, author of Sick City and Down and Out on Murder Mile

“SaFranko writes from the heart, and the...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	0876855826

A high two stars. There are a couple of really good stories in here (Scoundrel, In the Spring, A Kidnapping In the Family) that bring to mind Fante's best work, but there's also a lot of corniness and false sentimentality. I like Fante, I really do, but most of this showcases his worst tendencies. For example,...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	0876856776

West of Rome's two novellas, "My Dog Stupid" and "The Orgy," fulfill the promise of their rousing titles. The latter novella opens with virtuoso description: "His name was Frank Gagliano, and he did not believe in God. He was that most singular and startling craftsman of the building trade-a left-handed...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	0876855281

My first collision with fame was hardly memorable. I was a busboy at Marx's Deli. The year was 1934. The place was Third and Hill, Los Angeles. I was twenty-one years old, living in a world bounded on the west by Bunker Hill, on the east by Los Angeles Street, on the south by Pershing Square, and on the north...

Author	John Fante
ISBN	0876856555

I have read this book standing.
Because Fante is a magician.

He lines up words so they become fireworks.
He manages to populate the hardships and the hopes next door - in back to back sentences.
You root for any character he wants, immediately.
He orchestrates how many crescendos...

Author

Ian McEwan

That morning, Jim Sams, clever but by no means profound, woke from uneasy dreams to find himself transformed into a gigantic creature.

Jim Sams has undergone a metamorphosis. In his previous life he was ignored or loathed, but in his new incarnation he is the most powerful man in Britain –...