Steve Almond

Fecha de publicación: septiembre 2011 Número páginas: 304 Traductores: Isabel Margelí/Joaquín Fernández «¿Qué hago en un guardarropa con este tío? -Haría mejor en deshacerme de recuerdos, la verdad. -Pues hazlo -responde él, asintiendo-. En serio. Cuéntamelo todo. Yo haré igual. Vamos a contárnoslo todo. -Parece un soldado o algo así, como si estuviera junto a un autobús con un petate del ejército-. Sería como entregar un informe. -Confesiones -digo. -La revelación completa. -Una buena advertencia. Me coge la mano y me besa la palma. -Lo digo en serio. Hagámoslo. Podemos escribirnos cartas. Ahora ya parece cachondeo. -Vale -digo, mientras me pregunto si estamos hablando en serio.-. Nada de e-mails. -En absoluto -dice-. Cartas de verdad: tinta y papel, el lote completo. Seremos como esos colonizadores que esperaban el Pony Exprés junto a la ventana con su gorrito y todo. -Pero no podremos ser sinceros y cortejarnos al mismo tiempo. -Olvidémonos de la seducción. -Ya no es un soldado, sino más bien un scout, peinado con el dedo y responsable-. Me comportaré como es debido. Me ceñiré a las confesiones y al pasado. Y luego, si queremos, volvemos a quedar, después de haber dicho todo lo que necesitábamos soltar. -A lo mejor te arrepientes -le aviso. -A lo mejor tú también.» «La mezcla constante de amargura y dulzura, de romance que te hace suspirar y discurso demoledor y ácido, es el idioma oficial del Reino de la Soltería Moderna. Este dúo de autores utiliza las cartas, con la incursión, de algunas postales que le dan a la lectura un toque de modernidad... las dos voces, tan diferentes, y la dinámica de acción-reacción son tremendamente adictivas.» Entertainment Weekly

A wonderfully observed novel of modern manners, of contemporary mating and dating, written in alternate chapters by two young writers at the peak of their form. A literary equivalent of Lloyd and Ree

Drooling fanatic, n. 1. One who drools in the presence of beloved rock stars. 2. Any of a genus of rock-and-roll wannabes/geeks who walk around with songs constantly ringing in their ears, own more than 3,000 albums, and fall in love with at least one record per week. With a life thats spanned the phonographic era and the digital age, Steve Almond lives to Rawk. Like you, hes secretly longed to live the life of a rock star, complete with insane talent, famous friends, and hotel rooms to be trashed. Also like you, hes content (sort of) to live the life of a rabid fan, one who has converted his unrequited desires into a (sort of) noble obsession. Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life traces Almonds passion from his earliest (and most wretched) rock criticism to his eventual discovery of a music-crazed soul mate and their subsequent production of two little superfans. Along the way, Almond reflects on the delusional power of songs, the awkward mating habits of drooling fanatics, and why Depression Songs actually make us feel so much better. The book also includes: sometimes drunken interviews with Americas finest songwriters a recap of the authors terrifying visit to Graceland while stoned a vigorous and credibility-shattering endorsement of Styxs Paradise Theater recommendations you will often choose to ignore a reluctant exegesis of the Toto song Africa obnoxious lists sure to piss off rock critics But wait, theres more. Readers will also be able to listen to a special free mix designed by the author, available online at www.stevenalmond.com, for the express purpose of eliciting your drool. For those about to rockwe salute you!

How does Steve Almond get himself into so much trouble? Could it be his incessant moralizing? His generally poor posture? The fact that he was raised by a pack of wolves? Frankly, we havent got a clue. What we do know is that Almond has a knack for converting his dustups into essays that are both funny and furious. In (Not that You Asked), he squares off against Sean Hannity on national TV, nearly gets arrested for stealing Sta-Hard gel from his local pharmacy, and winds up in Boston, where he quickly enrages the entire population of the Red Sox Nation. Almond is, as they say in Yiddish, a tummler. Almond on personal grooming: Why, exactly, did I feel it would be sexy and hot to have my girlfriend wax my chest? I can offer no good answer to this question today. I could offer no good answer at the time. On sports: To be a fan is to live in a condition of willed helplessness. We are (for the most part) men who sit around and watch other men run and leap and sweat and grapple each other. It is a deeply homoerotic pattern of conduct, often interracial in nature, and essentially humiliating.On popular culture: I have never actually owned a TV, a fact I mention whenever possible, in the hopes that it will make me seem noble and possibly lead to oral sex. On his literary hero, Kurt Vonnegut: His books perform the greatest feat of alchemy known to man: the conversion of grief into laughter by means of courageous imagination.On religion: Every year, when Chanukah season rolled around, my brothers and I would make the suburban pilgrimage to the home of our grandparents, where we would ring in the holiday with a big, juicy Chanukah ham.The essays in (Not that You Asked) will make you laugh out loud, or, maybe just as likely, hurl the book across the room. Either way, youll find Steve Almond savagely entertaining. Not that you asked. A pop-culture-saturated intellectual, a kindly grouch, vitriolic Boston Red Sox hater, neurotic new father and Kurt Vonnegut fanatic [Almond] scores big in every chapter of this must-have collection. Biting humor, honesty, smarts and heart: Vonnegut himself would have been proud. Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Truth Is the Arrow, Mercy Is the Bow is one of the best books on writing Ive ever read. Its also the funniest by a country mile. Richard Russo, author of the North Bath trilogyThe long-awaited craft book from Steve Almond, based on three decades of writing, failing, and trying again.In Truth is the Arrow, Mercy is the Bow, Steve Almond shares the insights gleaned from three decades as a beloved teacher and mentor, and a considerably less-beloved literary rabble rouser. His tone is irreverent. His ideas are iconoclastic. And his approach is stubbornly, radically, empathic. The goal is to explode the well-meaning but misguided myths that hold us back from writing our deepest and most honest work, to awaken the joys of storytelling while also confronting how grueling the process can be. Truth features chapters on plot, character, and chronology, but travels far beyond the earnest aims of most creative writing books, with essays about humor, sex, obsession, and writers block, as well as prompts to generate new work and a rollicking Frequently Asked Questions section. Youll never think about writing the same way again.