Kassten Alonso

Dogwalker Arthur Bradford (Knopf) I do lots of things slowly. Like reading books, for one. It took me six months to read The Fountainhead. Maybe longer. But Arthur Bradford’s story collection, Dogwalker, only took me about three hours. This isn’t just because Dogwalker is 144 pages. No, it’s because Dogwalker is 144 pages of cock-eyed […]

Cobralingus Jeff Noon (Codex Books) “Writers are still, with some honourable exceptions, using storytelling techniques invented in the 19th century,” says linguistic provocateur and self-described post-futurist, Jeff Noon. “We need to expand the notion of what a story is, and to seek out new ways of telling these stories. We need to be brave in […]

Looking Good: Male Body Image in Modern America by Lynne Luciano (Hill & Wang) Lard ass. Cue ball. Horse face. Limp Dick and Li’l Smokie. No, these aren’t villains out of Dick Tracy’s Rogues Gallery, but rather, they are You: that proud yet tragically self-involved beast, the American Male. In her book Looking Good, Lynne […]

Brian P. Wallace & Bill Crowley (Northeastern University Press) This book will explain what it takes to become a master thief. These tried-and-true methods will keep the cops and the D.A. and the FBI in fits for years, and elevate you from a small-time yegg to a millionaire ten times over. First, you gotta have […]

WILLIAM FAULKNER’S ass was chapped. Thirty-one and with four novels out in the world, he had yet to receive any acclaim for his work; he was also chronically broke. Tired of bullshit poverty, Faulkner decided to write “the most horrific tale [he] could imagine,” a roman noir contaminated by moral degeneration, sexual depravity and murder. […]