Hi folks,
Couple of recent publications in which I’m involved.
First, is the notice by Grift Magazine that their second print issue of the
magazine is now available. I’m very proud to be included.
Grift #2 is available now!
Posted by John
on July 14th, 2013
The second
issue of Grift is now available!
Believe
me, it was worth the wait. The issue includes an exhaustive (yet incredibly
captivating) interview of Les Edgerton, another with Stuart Neville, and a look
a the film noir woodcuts of Loren Kantor.
The
fiction section is beefed up considerably from the first issue with stories
from Erik Arneson, Jack Bates, Matthew Brozik, Lawrence Buentello, Holly Day,
Salvatore Falco, Andy Henion, Davin Ireland, David James Keaton, Jon McGoran,
Chad Rohrbacher, Helen Maryles Shankman, and Martin Zeigler.
The second is the highly-regarded blog by Ben Lelievre, Dead End Follies
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
Book Review : Les Edgerton - Just Like That (2012)
Benoit Lelievre
"Jake"
I said,
"Huh?"
"You got
three weeks, huh."
He was talking
about my parole hearing. "That's right"
"You'll be
back, Jake. I can guarantee it."
Everybody always says that. It's jealousy, that's all it is.
If you've followed
my
coverage of the release of
Les
Edgerton's THE RAPIST, you know he's an unusual creature in the
crime fiction landscape.
He is half-writer, half-character. Your run-of-the-mill writer could never
imagine a character who has lived through what Les lived. I know what you're
thinking. This calls for a memoir, right? Well, Edgerton has one...or he almost
does.
JUST
LIKE THAT is many things. It's a novel, first and foremost, but it's also a
memoir, a thinly-veiled true crime book and a user guide to separate what's
real from what's
bullshit
in today mainstream fiction portrayal of prison environment.
Fortunately, it's also a pretty good story.
JUST LIKE THAT
doesn't really have a beginning or an end, dramatically speaking. It's not a
construction, built from a series of events, that reaches a confrontational
boiling point. It's just a chunk of time in protagonist
Jake Mayes' life where he was in and
out of prison. Edgerton mentions in the foreword that several parts of the
novel were published as short stories and it shows. Every chapter is so
well-defined, it could be a story in itself. Better yet, I'm sure some could
craft a novel using one of
JUST LIKE THAT's
chapters as an inspiration prompt. Since every chapter/stories share the same
protagonist and that they are in chronological order, it works fine as a novel
also.
You could call
JUST LIKE THAT
metafiction,
I suppose. The foreword and the afterword are an integral part of the novel's
enjoyment as Edgerton explain most of this kind of happened and he refuses to
tell you
what's real
and what's fiction. That gives the reader perspective on his own
crime fiction culture
and adds a layer of fun to the reading process as you're always trying to guess
where is the line between reality and fiction. Reading
JUST LIKE THAT
is an active process. It's not a story that delivers itself to you
straightforwardly. It's something that's anchors in reality, in
Les Edgerton's persona, and
finishes on the pages of the novel. Yeah, I guess it's
crime metafiction after all.
"You ever get
scared?"
"Well,
there's time's when I'm more cautious than others if that's what you
mean."
"Fuck it,
Jake. I'm askin' you a serious question. You ever been scared of
anything?"
Before I could
answer and maybe because he really wanted an answer and knew I wouldn't admit
it - having fear, that is - he said, "I been scared most of my life, Jake.
You believe that?"
There are a lot of quiet, almost
intimate moments to
JUST LIKE THAT,
which were my favorite parts (see what I just quoted). Parts where Edgerton
seems to break the fourth wall and explain his philosophy on things himself. I
have never seen the borderline animalistic nature of the
criminal spirit
explained so well. That surrender to your darkest impulses of destruction. It
sets the tone for the whole novel, which is light on outward emotion, but not
without a heart. That's just how I like fiction. Seldom tender, but never
mushy. Male friendship is also a strong theme in
JUST LIKE THAT,
the peculiar, reticent way men show appreciation towards one another and stick
together.
You can't really put an etiquette
on
JUST LIKE
THAT. Just stick it it on the mystery section shelves of your bookstore and
let the readers make up their mind.
Les Edgerton often says he
went to the
Jack
London School of Writing, so it makes
JUST LIKE THAT
his master degree thesis. No matter how you want to call it :
metafictional,
autobiographical,
picaresque or
criminal, it's
mostly a great story about being a human being in the darkest corners of
America. It's not anything precise, yet it's not difficult to love.
Posted by Benoit Lelievre
Thanks, Ben!
"JUST LIKE THAT is yet another Les Edgerton winner. Mr. Edgerton in his prison memoir conjures up in honest, Bukowski-esque prose a mad dog life lived behind and beyond the bars of institutional correctional facilities. Literature's version of Johnny Cash, America has yet another gifted bard to sing the blues of time served.
I have long believed Mr. Edgerton to be an American original, who has for too long remained one of our best-kept literary secrets. As a publisher I want to put to print whatever he writes, as a reader I want to devour the pages, as a writer, I'd be happy to pilfer just a few of his lines."
-Cortright McMeel, author of Short (St. Martin's), Co-publisher, Bare Knuckles Press, Co-editor, Noir National, International Journal of Crime Fiction
Blue skies,
Les
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