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| Now available at www.burkesbooks.com |
For Notes Toward the Story and Other Stories: “Here
is a collection of mischief and delight. Corey Mesler’s short fictions afford a peek into a parallel universe in which
we find ourselves reflected in new and surprising disguises. At times his writing evokes the subversive surrealism of
Flann O’Brien and at others the lyrical dreamscapes of Richard Brautigan, but Mesler is always his own man, with a sharp
ear for dialogue and a steady eye on the wobbling orbit of modern life. Notes Toward the Story may easily become
one of your favourite bedside companions. “ --Miles Gibson, author
of The Sandman, and Hotel Plenti
“Corey Mesler’s stories
give shimmer and depth to the most outlandish and most commonplace of experiences. By turns piercingly funny and sneakily
heartrending, Notes Toward the Story and Other Stories touches the real corners of life while also showing,
with great tenderness, the way we seek to elevate ourselves, our condition, the everydayness of our everyday lives, to a level
of epic grandeur. And Mesler shows us how the effort itself—the sincerity of it, the yearning behind it—becomes
the grandest thing of all.” —Megan Abbott, author of Bury Me Deep and The End
of Everything
"These otherworldly stories left me haunted not just by their strange
happenings but by the longing that suffuses them. A woman who has her shadow dyed, a child who can't resist the allure
of the dark space behind a door—Corey Mesler's characters glimpse a mysterious and terrible beauty in the world,
and reading these stories I glimpsed it, too."
--Leah Stewart, author of The Myth of You and Me and Husband and Wife
“A remarkably unique collection that both invokes and takes you away from everyday life–part
Raymond Carver, part Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Spare, rich, real, surprising, and absolutely wonderful.”
--Jennifer Paddock, author of A Secret Word, and Point Clear.
“What's so abundantly apparent these days is what an original Mesler has become. His voice is so
recognizably his own… and it's such a bittersweet, always inventive, always beguiling voice that I suspect he should
have gathered a cult following by now. I still wish some major press would take him up and publish a big-ass retrospective
volume, or maybe nice uniform editions of the Mesler oeuvre. He’s amassed such a distinctive body of work by now,
and I can't believe it's not reaching a real audience. Mesler is the real thing, man.”
--Steve Stern, author of the Jewish Book Award winning The Wedding Jester
“Mesler’s
lays out stories here that are alternately funny, shocking, despairing, and sometimes simply surprising….There’s
sex in many of these tales, but it’s not graphic or played for gratuitous shock. Actually, Mesler writes about the pathos
of desire more than mere sex, about the sadness and humor of it…Eros seems to torture, defeat and usually elude his
characters much as in real life…Suffice it to say that Notes Toward the Story and Other Stories and Before
the Great Troubling are evidence that Corey Mesler counts among the best short-story writers and poets currently
working in Memphis.”
--Ross Johnson, in The Memphis Commercial Appeal (10/9/11)
“Notes Toward the Story & Other Stories is a fine assortment of short
works, very much recommended."
--Midwest Book Review
Gardner Remembers: the lost tapes (A Novel)
The
continuing saga of fictitious Memphis musician Buddy Gardner. Available for the first time ever, a mass market paperback from
Pocketful of Scoundrel Press, for only $6.95.
| My new Memphis music novel, published 11.11. |
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| Now available at www.burkesbooks.com |
THE BALLAD OF THE TWO TOM MORES: A TALE OF SEX AND MURDER About The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores"Corey
Mesler's writing is scary, funny, smart, and deeply twisted. There's nobody else like him." – Tom Piazza,
author of City of Refuge and Why New Orleans Matters
"Fast-paced and
funny, ripe with literary references, wry snappy humor and surprising turns of phrase, Corey Mesler's The Ballad of
The Two Tom Mores pulls the reader inexorably along. In the fictional town of Queneau, Arkansas, there exists a salaciously
sexy labyrinth of characters that even Faulkner would have been proud to create. Mesler's humorous ballad ends with a
surprising twist. You will emerge slightly tweaked—and better for it." – Suzanne Kingsbury, author of The
Summer Fletcher Greel Loved Me
"The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores is a riot
from start to finish. Witty, ribald, sometimes profound and sometimes ridiculous, it will frequently make you laugh out loud
and sometimes lead you to scratch your head in contemplation. It is an unvarnished, unapologetic glimpse of small-town Southern
life, as raw and sexually charged as something out of Erskine Caldwell. At the same time, it is a story that is always told
with a grin and a wink by a narrator who is chuckling from beginning to end. With patience and confidence, Corey Mesler manages
to pull off a lovely double feat, writing a novel that is both a steamy Southern sex-and-violence page-turner and a gentle
mockery of the genre." – Greg Downs, author of Flannery O'Connor Award Winner Spit Baths
"A
turgid bratwurst of a story slathered in bawdy humor? A confederacy of Arkansas dunces? Ah, hell, this strange, hilarious
novel needs a new vocabulary to describe it. Half yarn, half romp, half acid trip, a yawp combined with a Tarzan yell? Ah,
double hell. Just read this book." – Tom Franklin, author of Hell at the Breech
“A wondrously southern sex romp teeming with greatly memorable characters, insights and comedy, with
all of this wrapped in an entertaining tale of egos, lust, and the hilarity of a rumor-filled small town.Ham
Acres, who is both the mayor and sheriff, is a delightful character to follow. I could read about Ham all damn day.The romping affairs and sexploits that pace the book are highly amusing and fun to read; I don't think
I've ever encountered that much on-getting without the need of a towel. What I mean to say is: Bravo.Mesler
invigorates The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores with a good peppering of wit, lines that can vault from raunch to soulful
introspection quite quickly and expertly. These moments, never lacking, allude to far more than the simple balance of a character,
they give the characters a sense of mental reality that is a pleasure to read. A wondrous little book from an excellent author.
I'd highly recommend it.”
--Ray Succre, author of Amphisbaena
“Queneau, Arkansas [is] the fictional setting
of Corey Mesler’s hilarious new novel, where the inhabitants are engaged in a non-stop romp of Rabelaisian proportions…This
is not the South of Faulkner and Welty, but of Donald Harington and George Singleton—a pagan place, where people pursue
their passions, which are mostly sexual and illicit, unencumbered by Christian conscience. For all the resemblances to the
work of these humorists, however, this is a novel unique in its vision…[H]owever outrageous the events may be…Mesler’s
tongue is always firmly in his cheek, and because his prose is often pompously satirical, the effect is ironic rather than
pornographic. In short, you have to accept the book on its own terms, as a tall tale, a ribald romp that certainly intends
to make you laugh…In its linguistic sophistication, if not in its tawdry subject matter, the novel is unquestionably
literary, and it poses a question that is too often shunned by somber, earnest intellectuals: is it possible that the purpose
of life is simply to have fun?”
--Garry Craig Powell, in Arkansas Review
My reading from The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores, on you tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJXBcaPlmlg
Bronx River Press: http://www.bronxriverpress.com/
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The astonishing video
Rebecca Tickle made to accompany my reading the opening sections of the novel: Advance plugs for my novel, Following Richard Brautigan, due out March 31st, 2010 from Livingston Press,
the exact same day The Ballad of the Two Tom Mores is due out from Bronx River Press: PLUGS
FOR FOLLOWING RICHARD BRAUTIGAN: “One
always wonders, "What if?" What if Richard Brautigan had taken his own advice and
not gone joy riding in the beautiful car called death. What if he had lived, and kept writing, long into the age where flowing
digits replaced the winsome flowers. Brautigan, maven of the San Francisco countercultural zeitgeist, would have surely continued
to write his spare themes of love, death, and how we are haunted by both. Surely also, he would have embraced the Internet,
publishing his episodic narratives in blogs, chats, and other social networking spaces, holding us all in anticipation, waiting
for the next installment. His poetic prose would have shimmered on our screens like cathedrals made from the crystal bones
of birds. Alas, Richard, we hardly knew ye . . . But wait, here's Corey Mesler, broken hearted, adrift between the living
and the dead, lost, and like so many others, he finds a connection with Brautigan, a lampost on a foggy street, always, magically,
lighting the way to the next corner, and beyond. Mesler's novel, Following Richard Brautigan, answers the "what if"
regarding novels Brautigan might have written. Uniquely individual in style and voice, yet resonating with the tone and whimsy
of Brautigan, Mesler's novel is a paen of the highest order, not to mention a travelogue of his own inner journey. Brautigan
is there, every step of the way, often directing the eccentric life adventures meant to throw off the allure of death, even
though he is but a ghost himself, a spirit with a mission in death as he was in life. If you know and appreciate Brautigan,
read this book. Give it to your friends. Turn them on to both Brautigan and Mesler, who has surely taken up the torch left
burning in the hallway of Brautigan's dark seaside house, and gone exploring the upstairs rooms.”
--John Barber, Archivist and Curator, Brautigan
Bibliography and Archive, and author of Richard Brautigan: Essays on the Writings
and Life “Corey Mesler has summoned up all the sad lost innocence and
wry humor of the best of Brautigan. It’s a wistful, haunting novel that makes you laugh out loud, too.’
--Thomas Dyja, author of Meet John Trow and The Moon in Our Hands "I
am mightily impressed as always with your amazingly graceful combination of whimsy and heartbreak. Following Richard Brautigan is pretty wonderful--a real warm blanket of a narrative.
And what I like is that the blanket is infested with lice and cholera and bloodticks and stinging nettles and death, etc,
but it still warms, which is a bit of a magical trick. I know how it's done though--with
language, language that always amuses and surprises and lends drama to the least event. It's also a language whose
suppleness admits the impossible, which is of course the best trick of all.“--Steve
Stern, author of the Jewish Book Award winning The Wedding Jester and The Frozen Rabbi " If you love Richard Brautigan you'll have fun reading Corey Mesler's fictional tribute, Following
Richard Brautigan. I'm going trout fishing today for short stories about water." --Alice Hoffman, author of Seventh Heaven and The Fisher King “I genuinely
adored this poignant and creatively dazzling novel by Corey Mesler who takes head-on a major narrative challenge and elegantly
succeeds with it. This novel is a paen to youth: consider it "A Portrait of the Poet as a Young Vagabond." ...The
comedy in the narrative, especially the Lone Ranger joke, by his well-named brother, Lark, left me laughing out loud repeatedly.
Initially, as the story is narrated in the first-person singular, I was concerned that the narrative would become overly self-indulgent.
But wisely the author backs away from the creative dangers manifest in a first-person narrative style and focused on his ghostly
foil, a daunting proposition which the author manages to pull off authentically. I was much impressed by Mesler's way
with words and his daunting vocabulary amid a highly accessible, narrative structure. I enjoyed the realism of the dialogue
and the round nuances of the primary characters...I sincerely entreat you to read "Following Richard Brautigan"
as the odds are high that you will see yourself as a youth in your personal existential quest on every page of this great,
dense, big-hearted and welcoming novel.”
--David Lentz, author of Bloomsday: The BostoniadI'll Give You Something to Cry About:
A Gathering of Stories
Queen's Ferry Press ($14.95) Available 11/15/11
Advance
Praise:
“This is what
a collection of stories should be, rich and varied, playful, daring, poignant and always entertaining. Corey Mesler's
children and adults move about American locales both familiar and exotic and the result is an experience as broad and
interesting as life itself.
--Robert Lopez, author of Kamby Bolongo Mean River and Asunder”
“Corey Mesler's story collection I'll
Give You Something to Cry About is a quiver full of picaresque and heartbreak. Half his Lazarillos are agoraphobes but they
all get around, these bankers and bums and biologists. Mesler maps Memphis (-and-environs, -and-beyond) with myth and metaphor,
sends ghost after ghost to haunt the streets, Elvis and Lennon, Pandora and Penelope, and they're all stretching for the
same top-branch chestnuts that sustain the rest of us: peace and love, yes, oh peace and love.”
--Roy Kesey, author of Pacazo and All Over
“ ‘He could think of nothing that he could do to work out the chthonic powers of the thing, to twig to
its abracadabra.’ So writes Corey Mesler of one of his many wondrously perplexed protagonists in the author's new
collection I’ll Give You Something to Cry About, though honestly, Mesler might be describing one of his own
readers. Pursing these stories, is like entering an art gallery filled with the paintings of Rene Magritte—as with every
successive viewing the lines between art and trickery, irony and pathos, magic and prestidigitation grow ever finer."
--Brad Vice, author of The Bear Bryant Funeral Train
| Published 11/15/11 |
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