Swell

My friend Cory Ericson’s debut novel, “Swell” is finally (!) available today. The publisher has put together a pretty comprehensive web site with all the details here.

It has been receiving some great press, but this comment from the head buyer at City Lights Books in San Francisco captures the book as well as anything else I’ve read:

“This is a book about whales, in much the same way that The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is a book about a travel guide. It riffs on the Norse sagas while creating more of its own, myths so convincing I even wikipediad them. It subverts the shared histories of the peoples of the American northeast and of northern Europe in exactly the same way a William Vollmann book wouldn’t. It is a masterpiece of the comic novel: sarcastic, self- deprecating, Candide-esque, with an absolute love of the English language, especially its poor American cousin. If you’ve ever hoped there would be just one more Douglas Adams novel….”

Cory is the guest blogger at Powell’s Books this week. You can get a feel for his style in this tale of his bare-assed abutter.

I’ve seen a few early drafts, but am looking forward to reading it again in its final form. Good luck Cory!