Kitty Snacks Book Klub
So, we're starting a book club. Each month we'll pick a new or reprinted book from an independent press, read it, then talk about it (and by talk about it we mean you can post online or we can get together for a beer or something). The books will be available at Square Books and anyone that signs up will get a 10% discount on that month's title. The books will usually be paperback and inexpensive (10-15 bucks). This is a great way to support independent literature and we're looking forward to finding some great titles.
Our first selection, which will be available next week at Square Books, is THE RED TRUCK by Rudy Wilson (Ravenna Press). You can check out their website at http://www.ravennapress.com. Feel free to order from them if you don't live in Oxford or come by Square Books to get the bookclub discount.
This is the first Ravenna Press edition of Wilson's novel, a cult favorite originally published in 1987 by Knopf, with a new Introduction by Marc Kipniss. It is a great piece of evidence in the controversy over the influence of former Knopf editor Gordon Lish (who edited The Red Truck). Lish edited Wilson as he edited Raymond Carver and Barry Hannah, with dazzling results.
To sign up for the bookclub (so we can figure out how many books to order) please respond to this facebook event as "attending" or write in the comments section that you'd like to join. The book will be about $12.
Here's an excerpt from the book:
"Christ"
Teddianne ran out of the house from the backdoor and up over the front yard hill. Parked on the street was Christ. It looked like a red truck.
It sat, facing down the hill.
"It's too big!" she cried. "I can't get in it. It hurts; the truck, it's too big for my heart."
She pressed her hand to her chest.
But then Teddianne fit in it. She got in it. She opened up and got in it.
In the South, in the wintertime, the ground sometimes sparkles with the morning frost. It didn't snow very often and the thin white would be gone by noon. They shot off firecrackers and Roman candles around Christmastime.
One year Teddianne got the flying bird, with the painted face. One winter she got a tattoo put on. It would be there forever. One year she tied a long red ribbon to the wooden gate in the back, down by the shed. And one day, in the winter, when she came outside, she saw a red truck.
