The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense
The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense
by Tim Kinsella
Reunited for a funeral and leery of one another, a family compares splintered memories. Will bathes his grandmother. Mel gives her wig a haircut. Norman is not prepared to take over his father’s club. Jesse has never known how old he is. They each cope with limited options and murky desires. An irreducible collage, as intuitive as it is formal, The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense drifts between story lines and perspectives. Long bus rides through a post-industrial Gothic Midwest, Classic Rock, and compulsive brawls hum a requiem for the late night life of Stone Claw Grove.
Size: 7"x4.25"
Pages: 370
ISBN: 9780983186304
Publication date: October 11, 2011
Praise for The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense
“Shit-your-pants brilliant”
“I’m going to go out on a limb here and say this might just be one of the best novels of the year. I compared this book to The Corrections, but this family lives on the other side of the tracks to Jonathan Franzen’s dysfunctional family and would have beaten the shit out of The Corrections kids when they were in school.”
More reviews coming soon
About the author
Tim Kinsella is the author of two novels, Let Go and Go On and On (2014, Curbside Splendor) and The Karaoke Singer’s Guide to Self-Defense (2011, featherproof). Since 1996, his band Joan of Arc and its related projects have released dozens of albums, and they continue to tour internationally on a regular basis. In 2015, he is Joyful Noise Recordings' artist-in-residence. He teaches at the MFA program at Roosevelt University. Recent projects include collaborations with Every House Has a Door and commissions for the MCA Chicago and The Museum of Contemporary Photography.
