What would you write if no one knew who you were?In the spirit of the demolition derby, where drivers take heedless risks with reckless abandon, welcome to the first convocation of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers. Here is a one-of-a-kind collection by famous authors writing anonymously–and dangerously. With the usual concerns about reputations and renown cast aside, these twelve daredevils have each contributed an extreme, no-holds-barred unsigned story, each shining as brightly and urgently as hazard lights.Unconventional and unapologetic, this publishing equivalent of a whodunit features an eclectic group of fictional characters, including a delusional schizophrenic narrator, an egg donor with second thoughts about her decision, a pharmacist who forms a weird crush on a woman who beat both of her parents to death, and a little girl who understands that an old safe is the threshold to another, ghostly, world. Equally diverse and surprising are the authors themselves: Aimee Bender, Benjamin Cheever, Michael Connelly, Sebastian Junger, Elizabeth McCracken, Rosie O'Donnell, Chris Offutt, Anna Quindlen, John Burnham Schwartz, Alice Sebold, Lauren Slater, and Marc Parent, the editor of the collection. Never before has such a wide-ranging and talented group of authors been assembled to such explosive and entertaining effect.The Secret Society of Demolition Writers is an intriguing puzzle in itself, but it's also an important addition to the careers of some of our finest storytellers–even if we never really know who wrote what. Its boundary-smashing fiction offers exhilarating proof that for an artist, withholding your identity can mean gaining your freedom.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Instead of whodunit, this anthology of 12 anonymously penned short stories asks "who wrote it?" Parent gathers tales by well-known authors (including Aimee Bender, Michael Connelly, Sebastian Junger, Elizabeth McCracken, Anna Quindlen, Alice Sebold and himself) under the premise that freedom from reputation and byline leads to exciting storytelling. The device is intriguing—like a blind taste test—but potentially frustrating: the fun of the blind taste test, after all, is when you learn the name of your favorite flavor. And though many pieces deal with dark subjects, it's difficult to feel that anonymity has encouraged much authorial risk. A man falls in love with a women who's killed her parents; a father-to-be unleashes a ghost into the world; two young travelers are caught in a West African war. The finest story in the collection, "Wonderland," centers on a fashion magazine editor—"a fash-mag hag"—recalling a college affair with a custodian that led to unexpected consequences. The quality of the stories varies, but overall is high: why doesn't everyone just slap their names on what they wrote? Maybe because then it'd be just another anthology. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
About the Author
Aimee Bender is the author of The Girl in the Flammable Skirt, which was a New York Times Notable Book; An Invisible Sign of My Own, which was a Los Angeles Times pick of the year; and Willful Creatures, which was nominated by the Believer as one of the best books of the year. Her short fiction has been published in Granta, GQ, Harper's, Tin House, McSweeney's, the Paris Review, and many more. She has received two Pushcart Prizes and was nominated for the TipTree Award in 2005. She lives in Los Angeles and teaches creative writing at the University of Southern California. A former Los Angeles Times crime reporter, Michael Connelly is the author of over twenty novels and nonfiction books, including The Overlook, Blood Work, and The Lincoln Lawyer. His familiarity with the seamy side of Los Angeles adds a steamy kind of street cred to his hardboiled, gritty detective novels, especially his bestselling series of mysteries featuring dark detective Hieronymous "Harry" Bosch. Winner of several AudioFile Earphones Awards and a multiple finalist for the APA's prestigious Audie Award, Alan Sklar has narrated over 150 audiobooks, including Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden, The Kennedys: America's Emerald Kings by Thomas Maier, and The Looming Tower by Lawrence Wright. Named a Best Voice of 2009 by AudioFile magazine, his work has earned him a Booklist Editors' Choice Award (twice), a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award, and Audiobook of the Year by ForeWord magazine. The Dartmouth graduate's theatre credits include Hamlet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Seagull, and many modern roles. Alan has also narrated thousands of corporate videos for clients such as NASA,Sikorsky Aircraft, IBM, Dannon, Pfizer, AT&T, and SONY. For several years, he has been the spokesman for TracFone Wireless Co. and can often be seen and heard on TracFone radio and TV spots and infomercials."I am so pleased, as is my husband, to have found a narrator that holds our attention so well that we have come to compare every other narrator to him (you). So far we have found none with such a talent as yours. We very much plan to listen to as many of your works as we can find." ---Sandi King, a letter to Mr. Sklar Ellen Archer is an acclaimed audiobook narrator and winner of a coveted Audie Award for For the Love of a Dog (available from Tantor). Her recent audiobooks include the New York Times bestseller Smashed by Koren Zailckas, Unhooked by Laura Sessions Stepp, and Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami. Producers and publishers describe Ellen as versatile, warm, intimate, fresh, fun, intelligent and sultry. She easily covers the spectrum between familiar and conversational and more authoritative and aggressive deliveries.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We wined, dined and discussed.,
By
This review is from: The Secret Society of Demolition Writers (Hardcover)
My book club recently had the pleasure of discussing this fabulous collection of short stories edited by writer, Marc Parent. When he presented such famous writers as Anna Quindlen, Sebastian Junger, Aimee Bender and others with the opportunity to write anonomously and "dangerously" they jumped at the opportunity. We not only enjoyed reading and discussing the intriguing and sometimes odd stories; we also took great pleasure in being detectives by trying to figure out who wrote what. It gave us twice the enjoyment for our money. I would highly recommend this for indivivual enrichment or book club discussion.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting Concept but a Lot of Very Average Stories Within,
By
This review is from: The Secret Society of Demolition Writers (Hardcover)
Marc Parent has edited a collection that is an interesting and unique concept where authors have presented stories to be published that are not in their usual style. So as to avoid public expectations and criticism from hard core fans who are only satisfied with reading more or less the same thing over and over again they have kept their anonymity by not saying which of them wrote which story. Criticism of authors not producing the same old same old certainly does happen. Just read some of the tunnel vision reviews from some Harlan Coben fans of a non Myron Bolitair novels, Alex Cross fans of James Patterson novels, Dr Alan Gregory fans of Stephen White novels and even one of the authors in this collection Michael Connelly when he writes something that doesn't have Harry Bosch is often heavily criticised. So you can understand why being able to submit work in this format of the Secret Society of Demolition Writers would appeal so much to authors.
The problem for Marc Parent is that other than Connelly, Parent has really struggled to come up with anyone else that the casual reader is likely to have come across before, so therefore the whole purpose of the book really means nothing. Also the quality of some of these stories is pretty poor with not really anything happening in a few of stories meaning it is more likely some authors have just submitted work that was rejected by their publishers or they would be ashamed to put their name on. The other problem relates to the good stories like The Safe Man and Good Sport. You have no way of knowing who the author was to check out and enjoy more of their work in the future. Overall this is a very average collection with only a few good stories. The concept is great and should be tried again, but you need more famous authors and you still need to stick to the traditional editing concept of the rejection of average stories.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
What a waste!,
This review is from: The Secret Society of Demolition Writers (Kindle Edition)
The authors were very wise to retain their anonymity. This at least leaves some room for speculation about the specific parentage of the worst stories - in a body of work that was bad to mediocre at best. The concept may have sounded great - but the end result was a total disappointment at every level.
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