America lies in ruins during an age of decline, despair, and death. The year is 1975 and a radical far-left group has kidnapped a young woman from one of America's richest families. Using the memoir format just enough to spin off into a crazed, bawdy, and seditious charge through pop culture and politics, this is a highly fictionalized true story of the rise and fall of the Symbianese Liberation Army, as it never happened.
Brian Joseph Davis is the author of Portable Altamont, a collection that garnered praise from Spin magazine for its "elegant, wise-a** rush of truth, hiding riotous social commentary in slanderous jokes." Slate called I, Tania, his first novel, "the book of your fever dreams." His music and radio productions have been acclaimed by Wired, Pitchfork, Salon, and LA Weekly, which wrote, "Davis has an amazing head for aural experiments that are smart on paper and fascinating in execution."
Davis is co-founder of Joylandmagazine.com , which the CBC called "the go-to spot for readers seeking the best in short fiction."
Review excerpts
Slate.com on I, Tania (2007)
"When I first pulled Brian Joseph Davis' I, Tania from the new arrivals shelf, I narcissistically wondered if it was an elaborate hoax. Its apparent themes coincided so perfectly with my personal obsessions--the Symbionese Liberation Army, 1980s sports stars, Marxist-Leninist linguistics, kidnapped heiresses, suicidal rock stars--it seemed like a custom Build-a-Bear of a novel created just for me. ..Rarely have the rules of narrative been more imaginatively ignored--the book is full of guest lists for parties that never happened, urban guerrilla fashion tips, and a glimpse at what a truly revolutionary sex-toy catalog would look like.I, Tania is for people who like comic books but don't care for the drawings, for readers who enjoy '70s television and Donald Barthelme, and for fans of The Bad News Bears. If you've ever wondered what it would be like to argue the merits of punk rock versus Detroit techno with Katie Couric live on daytime TV, it may well be the book of your fever dreams."
SPIN on Portable Altamont (2005)
"An elegant, wise-a** rush of truth, hiding riotous social commentary in slanderous jokes. In Davis' lyrical aphorisms, celebrity is a dazzling mirror of our most regal fears and dreams, as well as a dinky death rattle...It almost feels like he's leading a palace coup."
