Mulligan Stew

Widely regarded as Sorrentino's finest achievement, Mulligan Stew takes as its subject the comic possibilities of the modern literary imagination. As avant-garde novelist Antony Lamont struggles to write a "new wave murder mystery," his frustrating emotional and sexual life wreaks havoc on his work-in-progress. As a result, his narrative (the very book we are reading) turns into a literary "stew" an uproariously funny melange of journal entries, erotic poetry, parodies of all kinds, love letters, interviews, and lists—as Hugh Kenner in "Harper's" wrote, "for another such virtuoso of the List you'd have to resurrect Joyce." Soon, Lamont's characters (on loan from F. Scott Fitzgerald, Flann O'Brien, James Joyce, and Dashiell Hammet) take on lives of their own, completely sabotaging his narrative. Sorrentino has vastly extended the possibilities of what a novel can be in this extraordinary work, which both parodies and pays homage to the art of fiction.

Veteran broadcaster Terry David Mulligan has been a fixture on the Canadian music scene for some four decades, and in this book the entertainment and pop culture icon shares stories of his life in, around and behind the media spotlight. He reminisces about growing up in the North Vancouver neighbourhood known as Skunk Hollow and working as a Mountie in Alberta in the early 1960s. About the difficult transition from policing to spinning records. Vancouver in 1967 at the height of the Summer of Love and hanging with Cheech and Chong at the famous and now-gone Oil Can Harry's club. Prepping feverishly, as a newbie to television, for an interview with Jimi Hendrix and shopping on Davie Street with Jim Morrison, who was looking for early Hemingway books and Beatle boots. He's a man who's followed his passions, and they've taken him from the music world to the actor's studio to the wine industry. From Mountie to MuchWest, The X-Files to The Tasting Room, Terry David Mulligan has found his way through ups and downs, changes and defining moments. He reveals the highlights and the lowlights of his personal and professional journeys in this engaging, chatty memoir.

Veteran broadcaster Terry David Mulligan takes readers on a galloping romp down the roads he’s travelled, from busting bad guys as a Mountie to spinning records as a DJ to sampling fine wines around the world. He reminisces about growing up in the North Vancouver neighbourhood known as Skunk Hollow, and about the hard price he paid to leave the Mounties for music. He shares what it was like in Vancouver in 1967 at the height of the Summer of Love, about preparing for interviews with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, about living in California and about finding a dream home in “10 Chickens” (Penticton) BC. Here are his candid reflections on the personal and professional journeys he’s taken in his life . . . so far.

Dirty Windshields is the long-awaited memoir from CBC host and award-winning author Grant Lawrence, baring all the salacious and hilarious details from his touring days as the lead singer of Vancouver-based rock and roll band The Smugglers. Formed when most of the members were still in high school, The Smugglers came of age during the height of the grunge explosion in the early 1990s, when Grant, working as a concert promoter, put on shows for Nirvana, Green Day and Bad Religion, among many others. In Dirty Windshields, Grant chronicles the band’s booze-fueled, sweaty, broke and wayward attempts at rock and roll glory as they trekked across Canada, the United States, and eventually, Europe and the Pacific Rim. In their sixteen years of touring, the Smugglers experienced all the highs and lows the road can offer, from playing a gig at New York’s legendary CBGB club to starting a riot in a Denver nightclub to having their performance tuxes stolen in Australia. Through the fights, sexual misadventures, new friendships, dance contests and mayhem, the band grew up together on the road. Told with Grant’s signature self-deprecating wit, the anecdotes develop into a compelling story of the growth of an independent, do-it-yourself touring band, a community, and a musical movement. So crack open a semi-cold can of Black Label beer, stick a Smugglers tape into the cassette deck and let the good times roll.