AUTHOR
Alexander Laurence
Writer Alexander Laurence has done readings and performances since 1985, sharing the stage with Kathy Acker, Peter Plate, Neeli Cherkovski, Jack Micheline, Ronald Sukenick, Christopher Sorrentino, La Loca, Jon Longhi, and Bucky Sinister.
Based in Los Angeles, he has interviewed over 100 novelists and over 100 rock bands. His book reviews have appeared in The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi, American Book Review, East Bay Express, LA Reader, San Francisco Bay Guardian, McSweeneys.net, and American Book Jam.
Laurence was the editor of Cups from 1993 until 2000 and has contributed as an editor to other magazines including Spec and Siren. He is one of the founding members of Free Williamsburg Online.
Links
Book
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Five Fingers Make A FistEvoking Exercises In Style by Raymond Queneau, where the same story is retold 99 times, Alexander Laurence has taken storytelling as the subject of his book. Five Fingers Make A Fist juxtaposes extreme realism, science, poetry and theater in 28 stories told through various points of view, from a baby narrator in "My Birth" to an old lady waiting to die in "The Ballad of Nariyama." Many of the stories take place in San Francisco in the 1990s, yet they are truly universal. Inspired by pop culture, music, and TV, these stories are too entertaining for any literature to get in the way (it's okay if you don't get the literary references and in-jokes the first time). The characters become so twisted by their own self invention that they start to believe their own made up stories about themselves and the world. Sometimes their self-made fantasy becomes a truer version. What is real? What is a mask? What is good old storytelling? Prepare to have the world turned upside down.
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