Absolute Disaster: Fiction from Los Angeles (Signed First Edition)

Lee Montgomery (editor); Carol Muske Dukes (introduction); Allyson Shaw, John Steppling, Jerry Renek, Rachel M. Resnick (contributors)

ISBN 10: 0787110523 / ISBN 13: 9780787110529

Published by Dove Books, Los Angeles, 1996

About this Item

First printing, with full number line. A near-fine copy (fine but for slight curling to front cover and light soiling to right corner of lower edge). A clean, tight, unread copy with "Autographed Copy" sticker intact on front flap. SIGNED on title page by editor Lee Montgomery, and contributors Allyson Shaw, John Steppling, Jerry Renek (also on the first page of his contribution), Rachel M. Resnick, and one other (uncertain) above "Absolute" in title.

Seller Inventory # FLAHIVE-820

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Absolute Disaster: Fiction from Los Angeles (Signed First Edition)
• Publisher: Dove Books, Los Angeles
• Publication Date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0787110523
• ISBN 13: 9780787110529
• Binding: Soft cover
• Edition: 1st Edition
• Condition: Fine
• Signed: Signed by Author(s)

About this title

Synopsis

A collection of short stories examines life in Los Angeles through a myriad of disasters by such authors as Harlan Ellison, Rachel M. Resnick, Charlie Hauck, and Michelle Latiolais

Reviews

The 25 tales that make up this collection deal with the spiritual, natural, political and automotive disasters that allegedly differentiate Los Angeles from the rest of the world. The truth is that the subject matter of most of these stories would work just as well in other settings, but the sense of rootlessness, shallowness and keeping up appearances in many of the pieces give the collection a definite L.A. spin. Montgomery, who is both editor of the Santa Monica Review and an editor at Dove Books, has chosen some intriguing pieces by such writers as T.C. Boyle, Jim Krusoe, Sandra Tsing Loh and Harlan Ellison. The weather and landscape are important players in Robert Crais's fine noir tale "The Man who Knew Dick Bong." "It was cooler than I had expected, though," says his 1950s gumshoe. "Only about a hundred and fifteen." Nature is viewed through smog, traffic and tinted windows in most of the contemporary stories until the final story of the collection, Carolyn See's "Light Ages," in which the ultimate disaster-an atomic bomb-is required to return survivors' attention to the land around them. Absolute Disaster is unsettling: Some of the stories are broken up into such small bits that the authors seem to be clicking mental TV remotes. Others deal with people so disengaged and shallow they might be from another planet. The air is murky, things change constantly, the earth rolls and fire comes down from the hills. This book is full of ideas packaged in strange ways. It is the reader's challenge to pick them out.

Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information, Inc.