Banner Revised
Newsletter, Vol I, Number 5, December 2009
Why You Should Give HOMER FOR REAL to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most (You know, for Christmas)
Why You Should Give FROM COMPLICITY TO CONTEMPT to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most (You know, for Christmas)
Why You Should Give TOPIARY-A NOVEL to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most (You know, for Christmas)
Join Our Mailing List
Banner Revised 
 ERIC LARSEN, FOUNDER & PUBLISHER 

Why You Should Give Homer for Real to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most

Banner Revised
 
REASON 1: 
Because it's a book for grown-ups (of all ages). Because It's a book about the Iliad where Walt Disney is persona non grata and has to wait outside the door. Because the gods, in this book, aren't gods, but people (unless, say, they're wind, earthquake, or thunder). Because here, Achilleus is less hero than immature bully. And because here, who are the truly heroic figures? Well, how about Priam, Hektor, and--yes--Helen, most beautiful of women and also the most complex, intense, intelligent, and deep.
 
REASON 2:
Because it's a book that corrects the record. Because it shows the unfairness of figures like Jesus, say--at least after the character assassination Paul dished up for him--getting all the praise as life-affirmers while Homer gets "slurs and contumely for being a primitive and uncivilized lover of gore, violence, ruin, and war." Because the truth is just the opposite. Because Homer is the life-affirmer. Because Homer sees the truth. Because he's the one, in actuality, who's civilized. Read the book (here's its Introduction, and here's an excerpt about Homer and truth) and find out for yourself. Then give it as a gift.

REASON 3:
Because it's a book that shows how it's Homer, if properly understood, who can rescue and save civilization, the human race, Earth itself. Because, in other words, there's nothing more urgent or important than understanding Homer correctly--as grown--ups. Because you can read this excerpt about Homer and us and see for yourself. And then? Buy. Wrap. Give.
 
Ask for the book at any bookstore, or buy it here 

 
Why You Should Give From Complicity to Contempt to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most
 
Banner Revised
 
REASON 1:
Because it's written by an author who is to the general population what the spotted owl is to wildlife--a species almost lost. That's the species Writer With True & Authentic Voice. Here, it's the common, honest, totally unaffected, always on-the-mark American voice in the tradition of Ring Lardner, Mark Twain, Abraham Lincoln, and Will Rogers. It's a voice so true you could make it ring by tossing a silver dollar at it.
 
REASON 2:
Because what that voice says is not only funny but also urgent and absolutely dead serious. Because the book is a collection of Tim Gatto's writings on the collapse of our two-party system, on the coming into existence of a congress dedicated no longer to the people but solely to corporate profit, and on the loss of any meaning whatsoever in our national elections. Because these writings are funny? Read this wonderful Tim Gatto Sampler for yourself and find out. Pay special attention to "The Radicalization of Timothy."
 
REASON 3:
Because you don't want to get left behind. Because not only is there going to be a sequel to this Tim Gatto book, but there's going to be a sequel to that one, too. Because you should catch your ride now, when it's just starting out. And because there's something else to keep in mind--Tim's soon-to-be-appearing novel, the hilarious and enormously touching Kimchee Days, about Army life in 1970s Korea. Because anyone with their wits intact will want to be prepared for that book by having gotten to know its author through this one. Because a person should be ready for an author who can write "These corporations don't want things changed. An educated consumer is a pain in the ass." Because Tim Gatto makes an exception to that rule in one case only: When the consumer is consuming the best and truest books around, like those from The Oliver Arts & Open Press.
 
You can ask for the book at any bookstore, or you can buy it right here. 
 Why You Should Give Topiary-A Novel to All the People You Love and Treasure the Most

Banner Revised

REASON 1:
Because it's brilliant, unique, and toweringly skilled. Because its author spent, all told, twenty-three years preparing the novel (that wouldn't be a reason except that the book is so good). Because one of its early readers said, "Topiary is just wonderful. It finished me, I finished it, and this was a terrific experience. A bit later on I'll read it again." Because another one said, "I am almost 100 pages into Topiary and am in a sort of suspended state of continual shock. This writing is incredible--oh how much I wish I had written this! How many poets search and search for authentic language and never find it? Where did you ever, ever find this author?" And because yet another wrote, "Chopped diction indeed. This is not chopped diction; it is what comes out before diction is even formed; it is right at the root of thought, of language. You have a stunning lineup of authors so far."
 
REASON 2:
Because it's significant. Because it's funny ("White page whiter than white, whiter than government. Blank-blank. Changed the background of my word-processor to blue with white words. Then gray, red, magenta, turquoise, violet, midnight black. End result same shit-brown prose, like I'd wiped my ass with the page") and also because it's as deep and serious and pressing as anything can be ("Necropolis stones like dominoes stretched far as eye could see. Names. Names. Lived lives. Ended ends. Three categories of dead: forgotten, long forgotten, so forgotten as if never been").
 
REASON 3:
Because it's a book of a kind and significance you're won't find anywhere else, and you don't want to be left out of this experience. Because it's publication is a literary event--the real kind, the kind that don't exist anymore--and you don't want to be left out of that, either. Because it's a novel with its roots deep in literature from Voltaire and Diderot, Dostoevsky and Pynchon, the New York School of poetry and Gertrude Stein--and you don't want to miss out on that, either. Because you can read an excerpt here. And because you can read Douglas Valentine's wonderful and immensely informative interview with the author. And then? Buy the book, read the book, wrap the book, give the book. It's the book of life, you could say. Read it and see why.
 
Ask for Topiary-A Novel at any bookstore. Or go ahead and buy it right here