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After World War II, American literature faced extinction. With the sorrowful decline of John O'Hara, the typewriter shortage of 1946, and the advent of television, it was apparent that American writing, so dominant in the first half of the century, was about to fade into a cruel oblivion. But then Neal Pollack manifested himself in our national conciousness as the pre-eminent American writer, a position he has not relinquished except for a brief period in 1972, when the title belonged to Erica Jong. Incredibly, this is the first comprehensive collection of his work ever published, largely because the government is afraid of his ideas. Contained within are excerpts from his most popular novels, such as Leon: A Man of the Streets, and his most significant nonfiction works, including his landmark essay on U.S. foreign policy, "The Decision to Invade New Zealand and How It Wasn't Made." This book is pointed and funny, moving and eloquent, but more importantly, it is a comprhensive chronicle of the world in which we live, have lived, and are yet to live. It is a must-read for every American with access to a computer, and also those who go to public libraries. Book jacket.
With the publication of Alternadad, Neal Pollack became the spokesperson for a new generation of parents. Pollack, a self-styled party guy known mostly for outrageous literary antics, recounts how he and his wife became responsible parents without sacrificing their passion for pop culture. From an ill-fated family trip to the Austin City Limits Festival, to yanking his son out of an absurd corporate gymnastics class, to dealing with the child’s ongoing biting problem, Pollack captures the wonders, terrors, and idiocies of parenting today. Alternadad is both an engaging and amusing memoir of fatherhood, and a fascinating portrait of a new version of the American family. From the Trade Paperback edition.
"Renowned author Neil Pollack chronicles his journey from marijuana addiction to marijuana recovery in this eye-opening memoir"--
The most important document in the history of rock 'n' roll since the liner notes to Killroy Was Here.(This paperback includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested readings, and more.) Never Mind the Pollacks, the first novel from acclaimed humorist Neal Pollack, is an epic history of rock-and-roll told through the eyes of two rival rock critics. The novel spans the decades from the 1940s to the present day, and includes such real-life characters as Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Lou Reed, Iggy Pop, Bruce Springsteen, Joey Ramone, Patti Smith, Kurt Cobain, and many more. Pollack deploys his trademark roasting of literary pomposity, but his narrative ...
"Originally published by Neal Pollack in October 2011."
Blessed with uncanny deductive skills and a blasé disregard for authority, Matt Bolster was a rising LAPD homicide detective by the age of thirty-five. He was also overworked, divorced, near-alcoholic, and miserable. Then, to impress a girl, he agreed to try yoga. And with a single savasana, everything changed. Now Bolster has traded his badge and gun for a scraggly beard and the life of an itinerant yoga teacher, dabbling in P.I. work to make rent. He mostly handles missing-persons cases, credit-card fraud - nothing too messy. But that's before Ajoy Chaterjee, the billionaire founder of one of the world's leading yoga-business empires, is found murdered inside his West L.A. flagship studio...
"Through strange metaphysical circumstances, failed screenwriter Brad Cohen finds himself caught in an infinite time loop, forced to relive the first forty years of his life again and again. Each "repeat," Brad wakes up in the womb on what was supposed to be his fortieth birthday, with full knowledge of what's come before. In various timelines, he becomes a successful political pundit, a game-show champion, a playboy, and a master manipulator of the stock market, but none of them seem to lead him out of his predicament. As he realizes he wants to break out of the loop and find the love of his life - the one he hadn't appreciated the first time around - Brad tries, fails, and tries again to escape the eternal cycle of birth and rebirth. Repeat answers the question: If you could live half your life over, would you do things differently? Be careful what you wish for! Repeating is enough to drive a dude crazy."--P. [4] of cover.
“If ever a city was made to be the home of noir, it’s Chicago. These writers go straight to Chicago’s noir heart” (Aleksandar Hemon, National Book Award finalist and New York Times–bestselling author of The Lazarus Project). Chicago’s rough-and-tumble tough-guy reputation may have been replaced in recent years by the image of a tourist- and family-friendly town—but that original city isn’t gone. The hard-bitten streets once represented by James Farrell and Nelson Algren may have shifted locales, and they may be populated by different ethnicities, but Chicago is still a place where people struggle to survive and where, for many, crime is the only means for their survival. The ...
A collection of original essays by young writers considers the cultural impact of the Star Wars films, from a young man's repeated viewings during the summer his mother died to a young woman's comparison of Jedi teachings to the martial arts.
Following in the footsteps of the late great Lester Bangs -- the most revered and irreverent of rock 'n' roll critics -- twenty-four celebrated writers have penned stories inspired by great songs. Just as Bangs cast new light on a Rod Stewart classic with his story "Maggie May," about a wholly unexpected connection between an impressionable young man and an aging, alcoholic hooker, the diverse, electrifying stories here use songs as a springboard for a form dubbed the lit riff. Alongside Bangs's classic work, you'll find stories by J.T. LeRoy, who puts a recovering teenage drug abuser in a dentist's chair with nothing but the Foo Fighters's "Everlong" -- blaring through the P.A. -- to fight ...