Literary Nonfiction. Memoir. "In this hilarious and poignant tour de force, our hero is caught in a maze of simulacra, the mirrored hallways of America gone mad. The hero's quest is to smash the mirrors around him--will his sword work? Could a guitar's chords shatter the glass with its rising duende? How can he demolish the specular artifice to find the scene of his real selves? But what is the real? And how do we get there, when there is no one to drive the car"--Eleni Sikelianos. "In Peter Grandbois' `hybrid' memoir the materials of his suburban anomie are cut apart and thrust into arresting and disturbing juxtapositions. Passages of spiky adrenalin play against a melancholic, duende-driven introspection as identity is assembled and re-assembled in a strobe-lit chamber"--Sven Birkerts.
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Review
In The Arsenic Lobster, Peter Grandbois demonstrates a hard-won understanding of Lorca's avowal that 'The true fight is with the duende.' In this formally innovative and lyrically stunning memoir, Grandbois transports us through a series of obsessions with disciplines of the utmost rigor--the sword, the guitar, the pen--until the self achieves immolation in the service of art. That trace of smoke we smell at the book's conclusion announces the baptism of a newly created thing. --Joshua McKinney
In Peter Grandbois' 'hybrid' memoir the materials of his suburban anomie are cut apart and thrust into arresting and disturbing juxtapositions. Passages of spiky adrenalin play against a melancholic, duende-driven introspection as identity is assembled and re-assembled in a strobe-lit chamber. --Sven Birkerts
In this hilarious and poignant tour-de-force, our hero is caught in a maze of simulacra, the mirrored hallways of America gone mad. The hero s quest is to smash the mirrors around him--will his sword work? Could a guitar's chords shatter the glass with its rising duende? How can he demolish the specular artifice to find the scene of his real selves? But what is the real? And how do we get there, when there is no one to drive the car. --Eleni Sikelianos
In Peter Grandbois' 'hybrid' memoir the materials of his suburban anomie are cut apart and thrust into arresting and disturbing juxtapositions. Passages of spiky adrenalin play against a melancholic, duende-driven introspection as identity is assembled and re-assembled in a strobe-lit chamber. --Sven Birkerts
In this hilarious and poignant tour-de-force, our hero is caught in a maze of simulacra, the mirrored hallways of America gone mad. The hero s quest is to smash the mirrors around him--will his sword work? Could a guitar's chords shatter the glass with its rising duende? How can he demolish the specular artifice to find the scene of his real selves? But what is the real? And how do we get there, when there is no one to drive the car. --Eleni Sikelianos
About the Author
Peter Grandbois is the author of The Gravedigger (Chronicle Books 2006), which was chosen for both the Barnes and Noble 'Discover Great New Writers' and the Border's 'Original Voices' programs and the PEN nominated translator of San Juan: Memoir of a City. His short stories have appeared in numerous journals and been shortlisted for the Pushcart Prize. He is a professor of creative writing and contemporary literature at California State University in Sacramento.
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More About the Author
Peter Grandbois is the author of The Gravedigger (Chronicle Books 2006), a Barnes and Noble "Discover Great New Writers" and Borders "Original Voices" selection, The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir (Spuyten Duyvil 2009), selected by Sacramento News & Review as one of the top five memoirs of 2009, and Nahoonkara (Etruscan Press 2011). His essays and short fiction have appeared in numerous magazines and received an honorable mention for the 2007 Pushcart Prize. He is currently a professor of creative writing and contemporary literature at Denison University in Ohio.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
A worthwhile read, highly recommended,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Arsenic Lobster: A Hybrid Memoir (Paperback)
Fencing has never been the pastime of the United States. "The Arsenic Lobster" tells the story of a young man who tells his own story of Americana, growing up in a family which encouraged him to become a musician and to take up fencing. Critical of current American society, Peter Grandbois comes at readers with a unique sort of memoir that'll entertain as well thought-provoke. "The Arsenic Lobster" is a worthwhile read, highly recommended.
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