Tuesday, December 2, 2008

'Yo mammy and yo pops, man, they bout to find yo body'

Rauan Klassnik, author of the really brutal and beautiful HOLY LAND, just posted a long process-oriented interview with me about EVER, including 'Physics, The Universe, Charles Simic, Cormac McCarthy, Tea or Coffee' and shit. Ron also interspersed some critical thinking on the book's text as well as some quoted sections and etc. His questions were really on point.

I think Ron is the first person besides Derek and those who blurbed who has read the book, excluding Peter and 2 or 3 who saw a really early draft. Thanks to Ron for the really nice words, and for the interview. Please have a peek.

And then (inhale), you can still buy EVER for $12 plus a buck and a half for shipping, which will come with free new life and maybe a cheat code for Arkanoid and some other things.




If anyone else is interested in doing an early review or other, I can probably get you a pdf version to checkout. Other press people please drop me a line for paper version when it arrives.

Thanks again to everyone who has checked it out so far, the response has been really nice for just a few days on the block.









If you feel like getting one of the best deals I've ever seen on amazing books Dalkey is doing a huge amazing sale. I already spent $60. If I didn't already own a huge portion of their catalog I would probably have done the 20 books for $110 twice. Amazing.

For $60 including shipping I got:

Geometric Regional Novel by Gert Jonke
Homage to Czerny: Studies in Virtuoso Technique by Gert Jonke
Pigeon Post by Dumitru Tsepeneag
The Bathroom by Toussaint
The Complete Butcher’s Tales by Rikki Ducornet
Temple of Texts by Gass
The Conversions by Harry Mathews
Romancer Erector by Diane Williams
The Obstacles by Eloy Urroz
The Mirror in the Well by Marcom

They have also released some of my favorite books ever, including The Tunnel, Magnetic Field(s), several of Markson's, Ben Marcus, the new Stanley Crawford rereleases, Nightwork, Coover, Barthelme, Elkin (oh god I should fill in my Elkin gap: THE MAGIC KINGDOM is one of the all time greats). Just too much.








I read the first half of Jesse Ball's THE WAY THROUGH DOORS last night. It is utterly insane. Sort of like IF ON A WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER if it had been written on even less sleep. Be excited for it.







twitter is actually kind of calming

10 comments:

Ken Baumann said...

really enjoyed that interview

Darby said...

man I loved arkanoid

BLAKE BUTLER said...

thanks ken

arkanoid is one of the greatest, if not THE

Brad Green said...

Jesse Ball has a really great story in the latest Paris Review. Archon LLC. Check it out.

His approach to the "strangeness" that's popular in fiction now is still very much grounded in a reality that I understood. It didn't feel as if he just mashed together a series of disparate events and called it a story. For people like me that have hiccups in their confidence and intelligence, those types of stories always make me feel like the butt of a joke or that I'm too stupid to understand it.

I'm looking forward to Ever. My hope is that I find it not only entertaining, but instructive as well.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

hi brad, yeah i want to read that story. i need to go sit at b&n with it.

i will be interested to see what you think of his new book. it is very twisted, in a different way i think.

i also look fwd to hearing your thoughts on ever. thanks again for delving in.

jereme said...

who gives a fuck about dubai.

what the hell is twitter?

is it another damn facebook thing for young people?

p said...

twitter scares the jesus out of me. like a dog fetus.

Jon Cone said...

The interview is a find piece of collaborative invention and should be included as preface or afterword in subsequent printings. Dalkey Archive is a brilliant press. Harry Mathews a criminally unheralded writer. His novel TLOOTH is unique in the best sense of that word, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

Jon Cone said...

Of course, I meant a'fine piece of collaborative invention.' A miserable keyboardist am I.

BLAKE BUTLER said...

thanks jon. i like prefaces. i will add TLOOTH to my order when i do another swoop, as its just too good to miss.