REVIEW OF CORROSION BY JON BASSOFF

Hi folks,

I want to introduce you to a new book that is one of the best novels I’ve read in decades. First, a disclaimer: I confess I was favorably disposed to like this book even before I opened the pages. It’s by Jon Bassoff, my publisher at New Pulp Press. Jon, in my opinion, is simply the single best publisher on the scene today. I say “in my opinion” because it’s just that. There may well be publishers as knowledgeable, as wise, as talented as Jon out there—and I know several who belong in that upper 2%--folks like Allan Guthrie of Blasted Heath, Brian Lindenmuth of Snubnose Press, Frank Nowatzke of the German press Pulpmaster, and some notable others—but I’ve read every one of Jon’s list of published books and there isn’t a single clunker in the bunch. Not one! I don’t know of any other publisher who has done what he has, and that doesn’t denigrate the ones mentioned nor any others—Jon has just put together an unparalleled list of writers and brilliant work.

 (Click on the picture for the Amazon link.)

That said, even though I was predisposed to like his book, I was completely caught unawares of the brilliance of CORROSION put out by DarkFuse. It absolutely blew me out of the water and surpassed my already-lofty expectations.

By ten miles.

CORROSION is easily one of the best novels I’ve read in the last decade and ranks up there—in my estimation—with the best of Faulkner, Cormac McCarthy, Joe Lansdale and Tom Franklin. And, I read a lot. An average of five novels a week.

It stars a protagonist that I think will end up in the pantheon of the very best of dark characters such as Anton Chigurh, E.O. Smonk, and Joe Lon Makey—the tortured soul of Benton Faulk/Joseph Downs/The Preacher… who are all the same man. Who loves two women enough to torture and kill them—Constance and then Lilith (the name of the first “Eve” in the Bible, which should be a solid clue as to the depth of these characters.).

This is the story told from the fevered and twisted mind of a sociopath/psychopath and when we are in the dark with him, we are genuinely and thoroughly frightened. I think I know something about entering the mind of such a person as I think evidenced by my own character, Truman Ferris Pinter, but Bassoff makes me feel somewhat inferior of my effort with the brilliance he brings to the task of showing us a demented soul. Benton Faulk is indeed, a monster, but Bassoff does what one of my advisers during my stay at Vermont College, Sharon Sheehe Stark, advised us to do when writing a truly despicable character. Instead of that oft-repeated writing “wisdom” others deliver—that “make your villain like kittens”—to gain the reader’s sympathy—she advised the opposite. Don’t do that, Sharon always said, but rather: “Paint your character as black as you possibly can. The light will shine through the cracks.” And this is precisely what Bassoff has done. That light Sharon spoke of, does, indeed, shine through. And not through some blinding beacon but truly “through the cracks.”

I won’t go into the plot—others are much better at delivering plot synopses than I ever will be. I simply urge you to grab onto this novel as soon as you can. If you like truth in your fiction, this is the place to find it. If you believe that in the worst of us a spark of humanity still resides, this is the place to prove that belief. If you simply want to read literature with a capital L, this is where you’ll find it. If you want to read a book that is what Jean Paulhan spoke of in the preface to the infamous STORY OF O, when he said: “Dangerous books are those that restore us to our natural state of danger,” this again, is that book.

Exactly so.

Blue skies,
Les

UPDATE! CORROSION is to be a film! Details at http://www.dreadcentral.com/news/70620/jack-reher-penning-feature-film-adaptation-novel-corrosion

MY COVER FOR "THE RAPIST" PUBLISHED BY BARE KNUCKLES PRESS

Hi folks,

By Danda © Bare Knuckles Press

I have some news to share with you. Here is a treatment of the book cover for my existential novella, THE RAPIST to be published by Bare Knuckles Press which will come out this fall (tentative date is October). The managing editor, Eddie Vega, commissioned the cover to the design firm of Butterflies & Hurricanes in Prague. The artist’s name is Danda. There is a full design team in place and the design director Eddie worked with is Kamil Petr. Danda is the same artist Eddie, Cort McMeel and Alan Ward Thomas are working with to create the cover of their forthcoming magazine, Noir Nation, which is getting lots of buzz among the noir community.

The image at this point is just the treatment of a concept and Eddie, Danda, Kamil and the design team will continue to work on it. It’s a copyrighted image, issued to Bare Knuckle Press… which means, in Eddie’s words, “We have the right to give permission to you and your blog readers to copy it and paste and share it any way you like, reblog it wherever. Put it on Facebook, Twitpics, Flickr, wherever, with the rightful credits: by Danda © Bare Knuckles Press. The copyright notice is for the benefit of the legacy publishers--if they try to use it for one of their covers, we are coming after them with bare knuckles.”

Note: The name “Bare Knuckles Press” was chosen to reflect books the publisher and editor feel are “books worth fighting for.”

Generally, as Eddie tells me, book covers are tightly-held secrets in publishing. In his words, “They want to create suspense and surprise. We at Bare Knuckles Press have a different philosophy. We want discussion. And we mean it. We are not talking about false thermostats that give people the false belief that they can control the temperature in their office, when in fact it’s just a box on a wall that is not connected to anything. Because that image is still just a treatment, we would love to see your readers’ feedback. And we will seriously consider their comments as we continue working on the cover.”

Here are some additional notes, Eddie gave me. “The final piece should be in color, perhaps blue monochrome, though still shadowy. It should also be painterly. Currently, it looks like a panel from a graphic novel. The artistic style of the cover should be consistent with the narrative’s high and serious purpose—Crime and Punishment. Other than those, the only adjustment I would like to see made is turning the hand around so we see the fingers more, with an upturned arc, so they suggest a questioning that softens the combativeness of the heaving chest. Right now, it seems the inmate is simply uttering an existential cry. Turning the hand slightly, would very subtly change it into an existential cry for an explanation. Basically, it becomes Job questioning God in prison. Right now the message is more like Martin Luther at the Council of Worms, 'Here I stand. I can do no other.'”

Eddie went on to say: “Danda's talent really shows here--is in the way the inmate's head is given great attention by the background light. Yet the overall feeling is one of confinement. He is surrounded by bars. Another thing I liked very much, and here I think it is very subtle, is the position of the inmate's body to the open cells. It's not really clear which cell is his. Were he closer to the any one of them, then this sense of uncertainty would not be there. However, the uncertainty remains. Yet, here is the genius of the positioning; there are three places he could go. And each one is as bleak as the other.”

As you can determine, by my editor’s careful remarks, Bare Knuckles Press is paying a great deal of attention to the cover. This isn’t something they’re just throwing to some hack artist to whip out in a day or two. They pay the same meticulous attention to the editing of the manuscript, believe me! I am working harder on rewrites for THE RAPIST than I have for any other book I’ve written. It’s an intense labor and I feel I am in the hands of literary geniuses. We, as writers, often decry the lack of a Maxwell Perkins in today’s literary climate, but I feel I’ve been fortunate and blessed to have two brilliant editors in Eddie Vega and Cort McMeel who operate at the same level as Mr. Perkins did in the golden age of literature.

This novel is unlike any I’ve ever written—before or since. It is a brutally honest novel; one with which I shut out the voices of the censors, both without and within, and dug down deep inside to that dark place most of us avoid, and with one goal in mind—to deliver the best truth I was capable of. Early reviews by accomplished authors I respect, seem to offer some proof that I’ve achieved my objective, as it has been compared to work by such writers as Camus, Celine, Faulkner, Poe, and Bukowski. That’s very heady praise and I have to admit it feels good, but the proof will be when it’s finished and “out there” and how the public perceives it.

I do know one thing—it won’t be a book the politically-correct crowd will endorse. And that, to me, is a very good thing. My aim is that it fit the description, Jean Paulhan wrote in the preface to the infamous Story of O, where he said, “Dangerous books are those that restore us to our natural state of danger.”

I’m hoping that readers will relay to us any ideas they might have to improve the cover. As Eddie says, they’ll seriously consider your input.

Hope you like the cover! Your comments are welcomed!

Blue skies,

Les