Sex, Bombs and Burgers

2010/03/17

Our society is the product of its technology. And our technology is largely the product of war, porn and fast food, as shown by award-winning tech journalist Peter Nowak in his new book.

The M-word

2010/03/15

Pop Fiction debates magic realism and Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible

God is my co-writer

2010/03/08

And on the second week, the Pop Fiction book club gave its opinion of Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible.

Better than the Good Book?

2010/03/01

The Pop Fiction book club previews its March selection: Andrew Kaufman’s The Waterproof Bible.

The Infinities

2010/02/24

John Banville's latest novel asks, "If mankind is just a plaything for capricious gods, why should it matter what happens to these tormented bipedal sacks of flesh?"

School’s Out

2010/02/22

Wrapping up its February discussion, the Pop Fiction book club gives the gears to John McNally, who answers our questions about his novel After The Workshop

The Value of Nothing: Why Everything Costs So Much More Than We Think, and Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?

2010/02/17

Before that fateful day in 2008 when Lehman Brothers was left to expire, capitalism was as trusted a force as gravity. Now that the banking system — the backbone of capitalism itself — has proven itself far from self-sustaining, left-wingers are streaming into the breach.

Wanna buy a writing career?

2010/02/15

The Pop Fiction book-of-the-month club continues its arguments on John McNally’s satirical account of being an author media escort, After The Workshop.

The Pickup Artist: The New and Improved Art of Seduction

2010/02/10

Viewers of Toronto expat Mystery's VH1 show The Pick-Up Artist will already be familiar with the general thrust of his new book of the same name, but let me boil down the 249 windy pages to a few simple, reasonable guidelines for the uninitiated.

He's a whore!

2010/02/08

The Pop Fiction book-of-the-month club presents its opening arguments on John McNally’s satirical account of being an author media escort, After The Workshop.

February selection: After the Workshop by John McNally

2010/02/01

It's a new month, which means it's time for the Pop Fiction book club to delve into a new title. The February Pop Fiction selection is John McNally's After the Workshop.

We can't handle the truth

2010/01/25

Let’s take one second and consider the magnanimity of Gil Adamson. The author of the bestselling novel The Outlander not only consented to get involved in a book club that breaks down long-held barriers between author and critic, but she did so with a reissue of her first fiction book from over 10 years ago: Help Me Jacques Cousteau. Like all families, Pop Fiction was divided. But after two weeks of debate, it’s time to let the author have her say.

Paul Quarrington, 1953–2010

2010/01/21

Author and musician Paul Quarrington died in the early morning hours today. According to a message posted on his website, he was surrounded by friends and family at his Toronto home. The author of 10 novels, including the Governor General award-winning Whale Music, Quarrington had been diagnosed with stage-four lung cancer in May of last year. EYE WEEKLY Books columnist Brian Joseph Davis pays tribute.

Follow the leader

2010/01/20

Assessing the critical legacies of Amiri Baraka's Black Music and Nas' Illmatic

All families are plotless

2010/01/18

Well book club, what can I say? Two weeks into our first selection, Help Me, Jacques Cousteau, and we’re already more or less deadlocked. Now we enter the filibuster stage.

Punk and place

2010/01/13

When local writer Liz Worth was growing up, listening to The Damned and The Clash, she discovered that Toronto had its own first-wave punk past. “I wanted to relearn the personal and physical geography of Toronto through the history of this scene.” So she did, and has just published Treat Me Like Dirt: An Oral History of Punk in Toronto and Beyond, 1977-1981 (Bongo Beat). We spoke to Worth in advance of Monday's launch party at the Gladstone Hotel.

The life neurotic

2010/01/11

The Pop Fiction book-of-the-month-club dives into Gil Adamson’s rebooted 1990s collection Help Me, Jacques Cousteau.

Welcome to Pop Fiction: the EYE WEEKLY Book of the Month Club

2010/01/04

We’ve all learned a lot from Oprah over the years, with perhaps the most compelling lesson being that a book is best judged by peers, special guest stars and the public at large. That’s our belief as we now launch Pop Fiction: the EYE WEEKLY Book of the Month Club. Each month, the club will debate a single title, with the book’s author taking part in the final week to respond to our praises, or our criticisms. Let's meet the members…

Local lit landmarks of the ’00s

2009/12/22

A look back at the decade in Toronto books

Turning the page

2009/12/16

Our staffers pick their favourite books of 2009, including The Death of Bunny Munro, Chronic City, Corked, The Greatest Show on Earth, The Boy in the Moon

The Anthologist

2009/12/09

It’s nearly impossible to talk about Nicholson Baker without including a lengthy consideration of the art of the foot-note. Yet with its economical prose and tight structure, The Anthologist is a relatively slim offering from Baker, seeming even more so because there is nary a footnote in the entire book.

The big business of big-business books

2009/12/02

We have before us three bestsellers that you almost surely have heard the marketing manager at your office gabbing about — two of them recently released instalments in blockbuster franchises, the other still out in hardcover some two-and-a-half years (and more than 1.5 million copies) after its release.

Duty now for the future

2009/11/25

Cassingle by Jim Hanas is a collection of short stories. It’s free and online in several formats. Besides containing some very good writing, I’m reviewing it here as a departure point for myself.

Atlas hugged

2009/11/18

How to chill neo-cons out with poetry

Eating the Dinosaur

2009/11/11

Eating the Dinosaur is Chuck Klosterman’s sixth book and third compilation of essays, after the Led Zeppelin–titled Chuck Klosterman IV. According to the cover copy, the theme running flush throughout is the way media perception constitutes a fake reality — how seemingly banal subjects like ABBA, the Wildcats’ football formation and Barack Obama actually circumvent the acceleration of culture.