Books & Authors : September '12 - Book Club Selection - 'Broken Piano for President' by Patrick Wensink

I once had a hamburger that was served between two grilled cheese sandwiches instead of a bun. A Pepto  would have been a nice followup.

I finished this on the bus home last night. I hope there's another installment of Dean Deshler's life in the pipeline. Maybe a tofu version for us vegetarians this time...

Yeah it was surreal, wasn't it? I was a bit shocked when it ended! 

Deshler's an accidental sort of rebel, isn't he? He doesn't really even realise he's doing it. And I was envious of his ability to drink his way through a relationship. I wish I'd blanked out that much with my ex.

Josh/Pete: I'm thinking Pepto milkshakes.

A shot of pepto in a pint of beer the next morning, yeah Deshler would have been all for it. 

JOSH: The cassette is sold out anyways. The digital version is available at iTunes and Audible. I think Amazon has a purchase option on BPFP's page, too.

Pete: Awesome! Can't wait. 

Michael: You've got to be the only person on Earth to ever jump from reading McCarthy to Wensink. I hope you are not the last.

Pete: My feelings are not hurt. :) 

I also love Lazy Fascist (I know, I know: "duh"). We're having an LF night here in Louisville on Sep. 28 if anyone is in the area. I'll be reading with Sam Pink and Scott McClannahan at Second Story Books. 

Second Story is my favorite bookstore in Louisville. Jon, the owner, is a funny dude. You'll like it!

This is a long discussion for a discussion that hasn't started yet.

Out of curiosity, how long is the paperback? I think I messed up the formatting on my ebook copy -- it was 1014 pages, and when I read it on my Nook, each page counted for three pages.

Strange. I thought I'd fucked it up because each page was perfectly sized for the Nook app on my phone -- it was exactly 1014 pages that fit perfectly on my phone, so each page was one. How weird.

It made me feel badass, though. "I just knocked out three pages in under a minute! Beat that!"

Is it acceptable to start discussing stuff that includes spoilers now that it's September?

It was interesting that there was a nameless narrator. 
The references to Iggy Pop were interesting, really shaped Deshler's personality a bit. 

Although, I'm not so sure Iggy Pop would have went as far as to throw bag of urine on his fans. 

Am I still allowed to jump in if I haven't finished the book? 

I haven't read much about Iggy but from his interviews it sounds like they did some crazy stuff. 
Had a flashback to Velvet Goldmine for a minute there.. which would explain some of the character's sexual orientations. 

The character progression in this novel is one of my favorite kind. Like Mad Men for example, they almost get to the point of redeeming their selves and for a while they do, but end up becoming even more degenerate then before. 

I've been ripping through this in order to get to the discussion. Glad to see we're not too deep into it just yet!

I enjoyed the hell out of this book. Exactly two women asked, "Jason, what are you reading?" and I handed it to them, they read the back cover. One said, "I couldn't have described a better 'Jason' book" and another asked if Wensink was my ghost writing name. So people that know me well, can tell this is a book that's right up my alley (as I previously stated, I'm a burger enthusiast and actually have a loosely formed "Beef Club", I'm in a band that likes to make some noise rock, I do the occasional rock n' roll review, I'm the occasional cliff drinker...I unfortunately do not have an unknown 6 month relationship or a potential record contract.

This was obviously a fun read for my personal tastes. But aside from all that, I enjoyed the way the chapters bounced around the how the mysteries and character development were slowly unraveled. By the final 1/3 of the book, it just had a frantic pace to it all where it was tough to put down.

I also loved the concept - burger joints with spies and the clean & healthy joint lurking in the background ready to pounce. It was all really well done. 

I loved the last paragraph. Nice ending. Passion or Corporate America...."people are listening." Nice final point, Patrick.

JASON: That's awesome! I can't tell you how cool it is to know I wrote the "Jason Book". Especially, because I wrote it as the "Patrick Book". I put all those things into the book--noise rock, drinking, burgers, black comedy--because I felt like I wasn't finding anything anywhere else that met those desires, or if I did, I was dissapointed. [Most rock novels tend to get boring fast]

JACKS: The cover was supposed to be done in August, but, as often happens with these things, it has been delayed a litlle. It should be released in a week or two, I'm told. There are tons of moving parts and different people involved in redoing a cover. It's a logistical nightmare and one I'm glad I don't have to be in charge of. :) My editor at Lazy Fascist Press, Cameron Pierce, is handling it. 

I was reading over your blog and noticed something..

You got married in a doughnut shop?! That is badass! Please, do explain.

Looking forward to the essay collection. LF Press always does good stuff, can you go into what the collections about?

Hey Jay,

Yeah, I'm always excited to see what LF puts out next. Cameron is doing some cool stuff.

The collection is called Everything Was Great Until it Sucked. It's a collection of essays I've written for Huffington Post, Smalldoggies and even some elaborate emails I wrote to friends (the doughnut shop wedding, for example). They cover all the weird shit I've done for the last decade, from touring a federal penetentiary, failing at selling my own BBQ sauce, taste testing in KFC's secret lab, the time my infant son broke my nose and a bunch of other stuff.

I announced this way back when, but Cameron, my editor, promises me he'll give everyone who participates in the LitReactor discussion a PDF of the book before it's released in October. I don't have any specifics yet, though.

I wish. 

I really want someone to make a tribute demo for Lothario Speedwagon. Like a faux video recording. I think it would be so fucking cool.

I really enjoyed it. I'm also confused by it. It was definitely different than most things I read.  About halfway through I really warmed up to the idea that the reader and Deshler both have no idea what the fuck is going on.  My brain works really logically, so that was hard to deal with at first. Once I just accepted the fact that it was just going to be a confusing ride so buckle up, it was great.

I loved the coporate espionage amongst burger companies and the ridiculousness (although it didn't seem like that far of a stretch) of it all. Also as someone who has definitely done his share of cliff drinking, that feeling of "what the fuck happened last night? Where the fuck am I? Who is that? What the fuck is going on?" was spot on. 

Overall I thought it was a really funny, interesting ride of a book.  I've reccomended it to a few friends already and a few more I know will like it.  I think it'd be a really interesting book to read a second time, once you lose some of the what the fuckness I think it would still be a great read and a different perspective. Thanks for participating in the discussion.