The Literary Life
Ah, there was a time when youthful exuberance trumped the practical realities of living (and sustaining) a life of letters. Subsequently, that exuberance also yielded a couple novels: small masterpieces spun in the twilight of post-modernism. Well, maybe not masterpieces. That’s something for posterity to decide. In the meantime, a multi-book deal and perhaps a film rights sale might salve the fierce indifference of the marketplace, and soften those intervening years while posterity withholds her judgment.
Desire
a novel
by Thom Palmer
author of The Florentine Papers
"A tour de force of erotic intellectualism... a novel of brilliant turns." -- Kirkus Reviews [Click here to read the whole review.]
First place winner of the Writers' Digest 2008 International Self-Published Book Award for Mainstream/Literary Fiction, Thom Palmer's comic novel, Desire, is a sprawling, lyrical epic, hopscotching across the literary and cultural landscape of the 20th century. Set in late 1980's, Desire's narrator, a once famous and fashionable American novelist, Anton Lotus, faces down his grave and perhaps fatal illness by embarking on one last great romantic adventure--a tour of all his romantic adventures. Lotus's memoir is a comedy of sex, love, art, and literature, filled with humor, jokes, youthful adventure, excess, exotic settings, and cast of hundreds, both real and invented. Read what other readers are saying about Desire>>
iUniverse
Hardcover: $40.95
Paper: $30.95
615 pages
ISBN: 978-0-595-43235-6
The Florentine Papers
a novel
by Thom Palmer
"The writing is immediately engaging for being so zestful. A passion for, and quickness with, words make for bright coloring and an unusual view of the world... [Mr. Palmer's] first novel... deserves a wide readership. Certainly Mr. Palmer is a writer to watch." --Colin Walters, The Washington Times
"With a connoisseur's attention to the delights of food and love, Palmer handles language in his first novel the way a gourmet cook uses ingredients in an inspired recipe. Palmer eloquently captures the faulty dynamic of imbalanced relationships and misguided affections." -- Publisher's Weekly
From the book jacket: In this meticulously crafted and richly imagined first novel, Thom Palmer offers a funny yet bittersweet examination of three timeless obsessions: food, art, and love. The unnamed narrator of this entertaining and brilliantly conceived farce is a struggling poet who supports himself by hawking paper cups filled with crab and shrimp to tourists on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf. His life takes a dramatic turn when he meets and falls hopelessly in love with the sensuous and intelligent Maria Perpetua, an irresistibly beautiful authoress in the midst of composing a definitive opus on the gastronomic wonders of spinach. What happens when Maria's book becomes a bestseller catapulting her to cult fame is at the core of this mock memoir told in one of the most original fictional voices of recent memory. The Florentine Papers is an auspicious debut and signals the arrival of a major new talent. Read what other readers are saying about The Florentine Papers>>
