PrettyFakes

Friends! Mark it on your calendars or, if you don’t have a calendar, carve it into your hip with a rusty awl: Today is the last day we can refer to as “pre-apocalyptic.” Not because tomorrow will see the flash of a nuclear strike on Duluth or hear the rumble of the New Madrid fault’s reawakening, but because tomorrow, July 8th, is the official release date for Victor Gischler’s newest and possibly best novel, Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse.

Official (far left) and alternate covers for Go-Go Girls yanked from Lee Goldberg.

Loyal PF readers will recall that I raved about this book a few months back. I said a lot of stuff, including this:

I recently described Go-Go Girls to a friend as “a smart book disguised as a trashy book.” But I’ve decided that’s not quite right. The trash isn’t a disguise. Peel back that first layer of trash and there’s more trash, but soggier and covered with old coffee grounds. It’s a lowdown sex and violence sleaze-fest in the best pulp tradition. It’s a book that imagines the only force for civilization in the wasteland of the future is the go-go club. (Not the “titty bar”! An important distinction, as the book will show you.) But I stand by my claim that it is a very smart book—one whose keen insights into the human condition and the organization of society can be easy to miss, considering the velocity at which the novel rushes past and the bruising force with which some of its best scenes pound you.

And okay, yeah, I know the guy. So don’t feel like you have to take my word for it: You could listen to the folks at Booklist or Library Journal or Newsarama or Publisher’s Weekly or any of the other venerable critics the author has thoughtfully compiled here. And certainly you should read Greg Langley’s profile of the author in yesterday’s Baton Rouge Advocate.

Do you live in Baton Rouge? Well then you should hie yourself to the Barnes and Noble at (I apologize in advance) “CitiPlace”, where Mr. Gischler will be reading and signing Tuesday night at 7:00. I can’t promise you he’ll be reading the blimp rescue scene or the post-apocalyptic Jack Daniels label or any of the bits with cannibals, but maybe he’ll take requests if we’re vocal enough. If you’re in Texas, then he’ll be there too, double-billed with the incomparable Anthony Neil Smith.

Finally, if you need some help getting in the mood for post-apocalyptic mayhem, here’s some multi-media fun . . .

. . . first courtesy of The Onion:

Bush Tours America To Survey Damage Caused By His Disastrous Presidency

. . . and then of the Mountain Goats:

MP3: The Mountain Goats – “Last Man on Earth” (Live at the Black Cat 9/20/2007)

This entry was posted on Monday, July 7th, 2008 at 6:51 am and is filed under Books, Professor Fury, Red Stick, The Rock and The Roll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.