Rauan Klassnik said this about my chapbook, When I Moved to Nevada:
"this book is very and wonderfully Denis Johnson. Good Denis Johnson. If you're a fan of Jesus' Son then Jamie's chapbook is definitely for you."
That's spot on---as Jesus' Son was a major influence on me as a writer and on this book indirectly.
One lady at a press said that the book--the complete manuscript, and not just these chaps--glorified drugs and drug life, and because she'd had too many lives shattered by drugs in her world, she couldn't justify publishing it, despite the fact that she liked it. I wonder if she actually read the fucking book. My feeling is that she read some of it, and took away from it that this guy really likes drugs. What she didn't see is that the speaker eventually finds that the life he's been leading ain't working out, and he moves on to--well--I guess responsibility. Anyway: she sucks. She clearly did not read the book, but Rauan did--a chap part of it anyway.
If you read Atlanta, then When I Moved to Nevada is The Empire Strikes Back, or episode II, and Atlanta is Return of the Jedi, or episode III. If that makes sense.
I had a special press run of When I Moved to Nevada done for AWP, thanks to Carl, who is a god. The "official" time of release on the book won't be til March, me thinks.
My cat is dying and so I've been drinking whisky.
4 comments:
i don't know if you said hi yet. either way, it was great meeting you and getting dinner with at awp. i look forward to reading atlanta.
Hi Daniel. I hope Atlanta doesn't suck. It was very nice meeting you in Chicago.
Sorry about your cat. Many of us, and I saw this as being a functioning part of the human race, have been there.
Thanks Matt. Yeah, it sucks. But, that's the way this shit goes.
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