Carp Fishing on Valium and Other Tales of the Stranger Road Traveled [Hardcover]

Graham Parker (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 23, 2000

The literary debut of one of rock's most critically acclaimed singer/songwriters.

For 25 years Graham Parker has rocked our world, releasing more than 20 albums, including the fabled Squeezing Out Sparks, considered to be one of the great rock and roll albums of all time. Now Graham stakes his claim in the literary world with Carp Fishing on Valium.

Carp Fishing on Valium is the story of one Brian Porker, our Everyman if you will, told in a kaleidoscopic series of episodes from Brian's life: from a nature-loving lad who collects bird eggs to a wannabe musician enduring distasteful jobs; from a husband with a different kind of relationship problem to a high-living rock singer auditioning as the replacement for the "newly deceased" Mick Jagger; and from a homeowner negotiating with country workmen to his final guise as an ornithologist-comedian (yes, you read that right).

Witty, absurd, keenly insightful and full of a wistfulness for what once was and what might have been, Carp Fishing on Valium establishes Graham Parker on the literary scene in the same wickedly incisive way he turned rock on its ear.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

ParkerAan edgy, critically acclaimed singer songwriterAmakes a splendid literary debut with this collection of shorts. The 10 stories, told in the first person, follow the droll and occasionally wistful Brian Porker through a series of hobbies, vocations, girlfriends and drug-fueled exploits. (Porker's misadventures, one suspects, are based somewhat self-effacingly on Parker's own.) And what a hard-knock stew of episodes it is, from growing pains and street fights to drug-induced headaches and humiliations at the absurd hands of the music business. In "The Sheld-Duck of the Basingstoke Canal," young Brian learns a sweaty, bug-bitten lesson about accumulation, social status and the rights of all living creatures. "Bad Nose" is a hilarious John Wayne Bobbit-meets-Gogol inspired story about a tired 22-year-old menial laborer whose refusal to take care of his infected sinuses drives his annoyed wife to take matters into her own hands. In "Well Well Well," a wonderfully vindictive tale about a city slicker trying to hold his own with a couple of hardscrabble well diggers he hires, Porker explains, "I was just some rich yuppie from the city, I wasn't going to lord it over the locals by handing out free herpetology lessons, so I just nodded and looked concerned, not mentioning that he'd have to go to Africa to get bitten by a puff adder." Gruesome and laconic in the tradition of Roald Dahl, Parker's shorts are equal parts wit, invention and sweet cruelty, readers should enjoy frissons of schadenfreude. Author tour. (June)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Kirkus Reviews

From rock music legend Parker comes a debut collection of ten stories, only intermittently engaging, that chronicle the life of a young bird-egg enthusiast who grows up to be a jaded but respected figure in the rock 'n' roll scene.Young Brian Porker's fascination for birds' eggs in all their speckled glory, which is the subject of the first story, The Sheld-Duck of the Basingstroke Canal, turns him into an increasingly rapacious collector, until he accidentally drops one of the eggs, cracking it to reveal the fragile, still living form inside. This theme of real life overtaking fantasy is repeated later in Brian's life, most notably in Me and the Stones, when the now-respected rocker Porker is invited by Keith Richards to audition to replace the newly dead Mick Jagger (run over by a bus after stumbling off a curb stoned), only to be rejected--not for his lack of musical ability but for the way he fills out his leather pants (or doesn't). While several tales deal with the crassness of the music life, others leave it behind to examine decidedly underclass themes, including encounters with thugs and punks, such as the one in the title story, about two skinheads who threaten Brian and a buddy as they drink and dope their way through a midlife fishing trip, until the buddy drops a name that sends the bully boys slinking away. Chloroform, one of the rawest and best pieces here, pits the pre-rock Brian against dead-end working conditions in an animal testing facility with a slow-witted co-worker, to whom Brian sells a motorbike on the installment plan, only to realize that the buyer hasn't understood the agreement.Despite some original touches, mostly in the earlier stories, the collection overall relies on familiar, effortless images of disillusionment and sordidness. -- Copyright © 2000 Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; 1st edition (June 23, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312264852
• ISBN-13: 978-0312264857
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,625,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great rock original now shows real literary talent, August 18, 2000

By 

"jugadora" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carp Fishing on Valium and Other Tales of the Stranger Road Traveled (Hardcover)

I'm not a total Graham Parker fan but am a huge admirer of his best work. The substance of his songs, as well as their music and performance, are amongst the best I know and Parker has never had the credit he deserves, especially for his Stiff work which clearly influenced Elvis Costello. These stories show the same essentially noir sensibility -- wry, involved, bitter-sweet -- which informs the songs. After reading it, my guess is you'll want to go and listen to one of Parker's great albums like Burning Questions. On the other hand you might like to buy an album first -- and then get the book. Either way, you're in for some quality stuff. It reminds me of the vast amount of talent that flowered in the days when Notting Hill was a real place and not just a Julia Roberts vehicle. All Parker's quirky, edgy seminal music is reflected in this outstanding first story collection. Mary Morris

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Clever Name. Bad Book., July 13, 2001

By 

James R. Jenkins "Dorky Teacher" (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Carp Fishing on Valium (Paperback)

Maybe it's just my fast paced brain, but I found that this book often read like a transcript of a conversation between completely uninteresting people. It's slow, it's confusing, and often consists of almost incoherent conversations between people who cuss at each other a lot.

Fans of Graham Parker may find me harsh, and if you're a fan of Graham Parker you may want to give it a try. For me, the book just didn't live up to the clever title.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Starts OK, Goes Astray, January 23, 2003

By 

Jake W. (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Carp Fishing on Valium and Other Tales of the Stranger Road Traveled (Hardcover)

I started reading this as a beach book and I enjoyed the first, maybe, eight stories. The stories about his childhood and adolescence were charming and well-written. I had to put this book down, though, when Parker strayed into the dreaded "live out my unfulfilled rock fantasy" territory. Vignettes are interesting. Reading about some obscure rocker's fantasy to sing with the Stones via a self-gratifying, markedly unclever writing style is *not* interesting. If you must buy this book, tear out the last few chapters before you read it.