dollar store realism

If Raymond Carver's dirty realism is K-Mart realism, then perhaps Barry Graham's The National Virginity Pledge could be called Dollar Tree realism. His short, spunky stories arrived in my mail slot with Ben Tanzer's This American Life. Tanzer hasn't told me that his new marketing strategy is to get sued by NPR and made famous thusly, but his title story does tackle this concern in part. I did get a chance to tell Ben that his productivity and pace of publication is amazing. He's written a lot of books. And he just burst through the doors of Powell's and got all of his paperbacks on the shelf. He's an animal. I fear for his wife.

But back to Graham, a couple writers his dirty themes and spare prose remind me of would be Dan Fante and Mark SaFranko, and both of these guys were recently seen in the cyberworld. SaFranko's No Strings Attached, a new novel, arrives this fall from Black Coffee Press:

And Dan Fante was found signing books in Barcelona this week:

And then it was time for writers all over the world to have a relaxing weekend that includes at least one good, long nap. I'll go out on a limb and call that a code for success.

Fight for Your Long Nap!