Shakespeare and Co. Booksellers

From Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch:

“They were screaming, ‘Ah, I don’t like it*,’” Davis said. “But after a while, they were numb to that. I guess they were so deaf from the guitar, the A chord, that they were able to sleep. So I put on country music. That worked. They couldn’t stand it. Like, ‘Oh my god, Allah, Allah! Cut it off!’ So that was the music for me. It was Clint Black. I don’t remember the song. All I know is it was slow. He was talking about ‘my doggie’ or something. They have a lot of fans, country music, but not in that cell block. By the time the interrogators would come to take them out of the cells, they were more than ready to go.”

* Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’

There’s a lot of hype (Stephen King loved it! Richard Russo doubts we’ll see one finer!) about a forthcoming novel called The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (Ecco, June), but to me it reads depressingly like a serious early contender for the 2008 MorCrack FerGarthy Award.

Read the first chapter here.

Just in from Lost Horse Press, a final collection of poems by the much-loved Missoula poet, Patricia Goedicke, who passed away two years ago this July.  Gentle yet startling, Goedicke’s masterful poetry brings into light both life and death, ugliness and beauty, in a manner that is universal yet intimate, even for those of us who did not know her.

Some mornings the body wakes to itself
as to an ocean, the soft wash of it
on a shore it wants to love.  Lie back, love, it says,
and let me lift you…

As the great capricious Body above us moves on,
the question,
is a tongue burning
to contain its own dissolving
into snapshots
of what we used to look like: what cells
eventually consumed us
and what we cooked for the picnic, what blessings, how many oysters,
or pancakes or kisses (which are words),

and more kisses, and more words, and more–
even as the great dunes,
their chewed driftwood, and
the entire shoreline falls out from under us.

(excerpts from “The Question on the Floor”)
The Baseball Field at Night, Lost Horse Press, $16.95

and I may have only remained in Brownies for a year or so (mainly for the Thin Mints) but I did learn to always be prepared. And that is why The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection From the Living Dead by Max Brooks caught my eye. Because you never know but you always have to be prepared, right?

Brooks lists possible weapons to use i.e. power tools, crossbows, guns, explosives and the ever-popular flamethrower. He describes how to protect and barricade your house in case of attack. Always one step ahead, Brooks even details different public spaces to hide from zombies if an epidemic should occur. Foolish me thought a grocery store would be one of the better places to hide out but as Brooks describes, supermarkets may not be the best place to go:

“Although they have enough food to sustain your group for years, supermarkets are also dangerous. Their huge glass doors, even when locked and gated, provide little protection. Reinforcement of these entrances would be difficult. Basically, the exterior of a supermarket is a giant display window, meant to show the delicious, fresh food within. With humans on the inside and zombies on the outside, that is exactly what it will do.”

With unlimited survival tips, a detailed history of recorded attacks and an outbreak journal in the back of the book for you to record further indications of zombie influx, this book has everything you need in preparation of a zombie attack whether you’re a Brownie or not.

As someone forever indebted to The Clash for introducing me to punk, I must announce that a totally awesome, comprehensive biography of The Clash’s frontman, Joe Strummer, came out in paperback this month. Redemption Song: The Ballad of Joe Strummer by Chris Salewicz, music journalist and long-time friend of Strummer’s, begins with Salewicz’s experiences at Strummer’s funeral just a few years ago, 2002 to be exact, and goes on to detail Strummer’s tumultuous childhood, the intricate relationship between Joe and his brother, and how The Clash evolved over the years. For anyone who enjoys The Clash or Joe or an in-depth bio, this book is definitely a good one.

“I don’t give a damn anymore. I’ve learned not to take it seriously – that’s what I’ve learned. And I’ve also learned that because what you do is sort of interesting, doesn’t mean you’re any better than anyone else: after all, we’re not exactly devising new forms of protein. If they say, ‘Release this record because otherwise you’re career is finished,’ and I don’t want them to, then I just won’t do it. I’m far more dangerous now because I don’t care at all.”

- Joe Strummer to Chris Salewicz

“So a big chunk of my life is gone I can never get back,” Javal Davis said. “And the privacy that I had, never going to get it back. That was stripped from me. Marriage? Destroyed. I was ostracized on national television, you know? For what? To cover up someone’s lies, to cover up our tactics, procedures, that no one wants to own up to? My son still thinks that I was at work — he’s still too young — I’ll explain to him later on down the line, you know. My daughter, she knows. I explained it to her, and she understood. She won’t be joining the military. I don’t want to be a cop anymore. I’m done. I’m in sales. The career path that I have now, you know — comfortable. I deal with people on a regular basis. I’m not handling anyone’s problems. I’m not dealing with anything violent. So I’m business to business, all personal, ‘How you doing? I’m Javal Davis. Nice to meet you.’ Everyone’s happy. I like that. Sales. I’m a salesman.”

from Standard Operating Procedure, by Philip Gourevitch and Errol Morris (Penguin Press; $25.95)