Adult Entertainment - Hardcover

Metcalf, John

4.14

7 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0312037902 ISBN 13: 9780312037901

Publisher: St Martins Pr, 1990

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The black humor and gritty irony of one of Canada's best writers are revealed in a collection of short stories and novellas about men and women who confront disaster with consistent wit and endurance

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From Publishers Weekly:

The wit of this Anglo-Canadian writer ( General Ludd ) is acerbic and biting. In two novellas and three short stories, Metcalf chronicles lust, despair, love and a variety of other human conditions. In "Single Gents Only," a naive university student finds that his lodgings are in a queer boarding house, his meager supper includes a slice of ham that has "an iridescent quality, hints of green and mauve," and his roommate requires a bedtime reading from The Wind in the Willows. "Travelling Northward" is the story of a writer who accepts a reading appearance before a pathetic rural literary group. "Was the smallness of the audience still undermining his sense of purpose? . . . Was he, after all these years, still so weak, so pathetically insecure, that he needed to parade himself in North bloody Portage?" Throughout these tales, we meet bitter, ironic, frustrated characters whose rants are both hilarious and profound. Metcalf's glibness is misleading; like Peter DeVries, he drives at essential truths while wowing us with his cunning and virtuosity. A first-rate collection.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

The first U.S publication of Canadian Metcalf's fiction, these two novellas and three short stories portray a particular brand of humor--a humor exemplified, perhaps, in his handling of dialog between a married couple "Travelling Northward." Here, the main character, an aging writer, is shown at home wrestling with domesticity and the demands of his muse. In "The Nipples of Venus," a middle-aged man on vacation with his wife in Rome has a brief soul-rocking encounter with the goddess of eros. "Single Gents Only" finds a young college student trying to adjust to his new home in a working-class boarding house. Metcalf has a great ear for the odd colloquialism. His talent and sureness of craft combined with his tongue-in-cheek approach to character make this a great read.
- Francis Poole, Kentucky Wesleyan Coll., Owensboro
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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