Tall Tales And True Confessions

Mr. Palumbo imbues American poetry with the sort of high octane insight and heart it has lacked for decades; and in so doing, is very much grounded in the everyday hopes and aspirations that rise to the fore, continually, in questioning both existence, love and faith itself. As in so many other ways, this intensely lyrical, muscled work is very much like re-entering the world again with a new found friend and guide who is destined to lead you home at last more enlightened, toughened, and that much better understood! THE EDITORS

Shane Gordon is the author of two books, Dear Baby Boomers and The Tenth Man. This book is Short Stories, Tall Tales And True Confessions. Something for everyone from 16 to 65 plus, some funny, some serious, some just stories.

B.N. Napoleon is a female Private Eye who sometimes, when the situation warrants it, becomes a male by dressing in a man's suit, shoes and wearing a false moustache. Her hair is cut short and fortunately she is under endowed. She does this when it becomes apparent that a prospective client conveys he or she is looking for a male private investigator at which time Barbara Napoleon informs them that her brother will be back in town in the morning and if they will leave a phone number, she will inform her brother B.N., and he will call in the morning upon his return. Thus the transformation the next morning to B.N. Napoleon, P.I.

Billy Coldwell was product of the 60's. He lived in the projects of LA with his Russian immigrant parents who were unsuccessful in life. He was determined to escape the projects and 'make it' at all costs. Friends who could help him up the ladder of success fell by the wayside, because money was the answer and he would get it somehow. He lived by the moto he learned early in life: "One For the Money, don't be so slow, Grab for the Gold Ring and Go, Go, Go!"

In a world of lip synching, breast implants, and staged reality shows, it's hard to know the real from the fake. Now "hoaxpert" Boese offers the essential field guide to today's "Misinformation Age."

Made-in-Canada-Humour is an interdisciplinary survey and analysis of Canadian humour and humorists in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The book focuses on a variety of genres. It includes celebrated Canadian writers and poets with ironic and satiric perspectives; oral storytellers of tall tales in the country and the city; newspaper print humorists; representative national and regional cartoonists; and comedians of stage, radio and television. The humour gives voice to Canadian values and experiences, and consequently, techniques and styles of humour particular to the country. While a persistent comic theme has been joking at the expense of the United States, both countries have influenced one another’s humour. Canada’s unique humorous tradition also reflects its emergence from a colonial country to a postcolonial and postmodern nation with contemporary humour that addresses gender and racial issues.

The secrets of the confessional are too important to be kept secret, and Jonathan Romain shares them all in this rollercoaster of crises, emotional traumas, moral dilemmas, attempts at seduction, multiple murders, machiavellian families, hijacked weddings, catastrophic funerals and a maze of other people's sexual fantasies. Rabbi Romain's previous careers - as a radio agony uncle, prison chaplain, postman and nightclub bouncer - have helped him navigate the human jungle, and now he takes us with him on a remarkable journey spiced with wit and wisdom. Revealing the extraordinary stories of ordinary people, Confessions of a Rabbi is a candid, poignant and often hilarious insight into the human condition.

Enchanted Objects investigates the relationship between visual art and contemporary fiction, addressing the problems that arise when paintings, deluxe books, porcelains, or statues are represented in contemporary novels. The distinction between objects and art objects depends on aesthetics. While some objects are authenticated through museum exhibits, others are hidden, broken, neglected, coveted, hoarded, or salvaged. Allan Hepburn asks four broad questions about aesthetics and value: What is a detail in visual art? Is all art ornamental? Does the value of an object increase because it is fragile? What defines ugliness? Contemporary novels, such as Tracy Chevalier's Girl with a Pearl Earring, Barry Unsworth's Stone Virgin, and Bruce Chatwin's Utz offer implicit answers to these questions while critiquing museums and the determination to invest objects with value through display. Addressing current debates in museum studies, cultural studies, art history, and literary criticism, Enchanted Objects develops an extensive theory of how contemporary literature engages with and relates to aesthetic objects.