Friday, June 27, 2008

I Love Dollars


Saw this at Three Lives Bookstore a few weeks ago and it jumped right out at me. This jpeg doesn't do it justice--the spine and back cover are fully integrated into the design. So cool!

Here's the publisher's description:

An immediate sensation upon publication in China, I Love Dollars is a hilarious send-up of China’s love affair with capitalism by one of its most gifted new writers. In the title story, a young man, acutely aware of his filial duty, sets out to secure a prostitute for his father, only to haggle his old man out of a good time. Here, gleefully exposed, are the inanities of everyday life in contemporary China. As penetrating as Kafka, as outrageously funny as Larry David, and with a slangy swagger all Zhu Wen’s own, I Love Dollars is priceless.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

John Gall? Love and Hydrogen

This is from Vintage so I'm guessing Gall, but will correct later if I'm wrong. Sounds AWESOME (from Booklist):
In the extraordinarily imaginative title story, (Shephard) vividly re-creates the flight of the doomed Hindenburg airship, on which two male crew members conduct a taboo affair. Elsewhere, Shepard enters the minds of The Who's John Entwhistle, the creature of the Black Lagoon, and John Ashcroft.