Ted News & Reviews

Hey, it's Ted Pelton's blog, what about Ted Pelton himself, his writing, his new novel, his upcoming gigs?

Glad you asked, Mom.

My new novel with Spuyten Duyvil Books has been getting good buzz in the blogosphere, and good reviews all around. Here's a sampler:

"Ted Pelton's new novel Malcolm & Jack takes a daring and ambitious approach to a well-documented era in American history. Because it is told from many points of view, it doesn't simply follow one or two characters through momentous events in their lives." - Douglas Manson, The Brooklyn Rail, September 2006.

"Pelton does the period magnificently: New York, he says, is a 40s town, and his lens - because a lot of this book lingers like a camera well-handled - zooms in on all the grays and the grillwork, the municipal weight. Kinsey, he of the famous sex poll, shows up as a reincarnation of Freud, who earlier in the book counsels David Kammerer (not smart or attractive enough to be gay as Allen Ginsberg was gay), killed by Lucien Carr after making unwanted advances. Carr runs to Bill Burroughs, ten years his senior, who advises him to get a good lawyer. Kerouac helps Carr bury the weapon. Kammerer sinks into the Hudson. Though many of Pelton's stories retold are well-known, they've never been said better (especially his disquisition on Billie Holiday jailed). Malcolm & Jack is art history pure, as it once was, total story, the oral-thing, returned to the campfire to spark." - Joshua Cohen, Blatt.

"There is a sense that despite America’s ambition for some kind of utopia; some kind of perfection; some sense of fairness and equality; some genuine believe in its ability to 'win through', somehow, seemingly through no fault of its own, it's going to get in a car-wreck. This is a brilliant book and I recommend it." - Alan Roche, The Cusp of Something.

"Intricately detailing the short-lived friendship between two high-school drop-outs, Malcolm And Jack opens readers to the reality of the post-war fifties and the pretentious mentality of Americans as the era neared revolution. An original, superbly crafted, imaginative novel, Malcolm And Jack is very strongly recommended as an engaging (albeit fictitious) tale in which several of America's great historical icons meet and mingle with one-another." - Midwest Book Review, June 2006.

And here where I'll be on the road during the remainder of the Fall, 2006:

Wednesday, Oct. 25 - Buffalo, NY. Talking Leaves Bookstore, Main St. store, 7pm.

Friday, Oct. 27 - Detroit, MI. Small Presses Dicsussion Panel, with Jeffrey Levine from Tupelo Press, Peter Conners from Boa Editions and Peter Markus from Marick Press. The Simon Room, Purdy-Kresge Library, Wayne State University, 1-4pm.
- Reading in Poet's Follies series, with Sean Thomas Dougherty, Peter Conners, Jeffrey levine, and Peter Markus.

Saturday, Nov. 4 - Albany, NY. Behind the Egg Reading Series, reading with Pierre Joris. The Capital District Federation of Ideas, 383.5 Madison Avenue, 4pm.

Friday, Dec. 1 - Syracuse, NY.  Contributors to PP/FF: An Anthology reading from their (prose) poetry, (flash) fiction, and in-betweens: Peter Conners, Sean Thomas Dougherty, Geoffrey Gatza, Chris Kennedy, Ethan Paquin, and Ted Pelton. Syracuse YMCA, 7pm.

Friday, Dec. 8 - San Francisco, CA. Small Press Traffic Reading Series, reading with Camille Roy. Timken Lecture Hall, California College of the Arts, San Francisco campus, 7:30pm.