The Age of Sinatra & A*hole

I haven't mentioned much about the novels I've been editing for Soft Skull here, but I just gotta today, because Shelley Jackson has written an absolute rave about my main man David Ohle in the latest BookForum. We hooked up with Vincent Standley at 3rd bed to time the release of The Age of Sinatra with their reprint of Ohle's 1972 prequel Motorman. Motorman is simply unlike any other novel I've read, and has been credited by Jackson and Ben Marcus as the precursor to much of today's speculative literary fiction. The Age of Sinatra could certainly be called science fiction, but it's also political and social satire, in which the President's radio broadcasts usher in a series of "Great Forgettings" and criminals are pardoned by virtue of generic vouchers that transfer their guilt to the nearest innocent bystander. Check it!



Also, A*hole by Hilton Obenzinger has just been released with that ubercool visual-poem cover by Charlie. I LOVE this book and jumped at the chance to publish it. Obenzinger is a poet (see New York on Fire) this experimental novel slides from prose to verse and back again as the story accrues with bits of Dante, Abraham & Isaac, Patty Hearst, Danny DeVito, a psychic movie reviewer, and more. This one's hard to summarize, but recommended for sure, especially for you poets feeling a need to scratch that fiction itch.



All puffed up with pride, I am. I'm so lucky to get to work with these authors and make these books!