Lord Vishnu's Love Handles
by Will Clarke

Travis Anderson is losing his mind.  His wife is a slut, or so he thinks, no, he pictures it.  Travis sees visions.  Violent visions of his son's death and visions of killing vampire imitating goths.  To add to his psychosis, his business is failing miserably, the IRS is ready to send him to prison for tax evasion and his wife won't stay with someone who's not rich.

This book is brilliant.  Well crafted storytelling amidst hilarious commentary regarding middle class America.

Page 21:

"I look around this living room with its big red walls and gold pillows.  And all I see is death.  Zombies with trendy haircuts.  A bunch of Banana Republicans on Prozac and cocaine.  We're all hiding in this alphabet soup of a status.  Our IPO's.  Our BMW's.  Our Starbuck's CD's.  Our kids' high IQ's.  But it's not working.  Because we're all going to die.  Because we're all the sons and daughters of Eve.  And she ate that fucking apple.  She swallowed the seeds whole and from them grew the toil of men and the pain of women.

"Jesus, I sound crazy.  Sons and daughters of Eve?

"Please.

"Where do I get this shit?  No wonder I drink so much.  I can't stand to hear myself think sometimes."

LVLH is great fun.  I highly recommend it.

Literary love,

Tony DuShane

also recommended:

A gin-pissing-raw-meat-dual-carburetor-V8-son-of-a-bitch from Los Angeles
by Dan Fante

Los Angeles poetic grit from the second generation of Fante brilliance. 

I find most poetry and books of poetry really suck.  They lack soul.  But I come from the school of Bukowski, and Dan's poems continue where Buk left off.

Dan is the son of John Fante who was a writer and screenwriter.  John Fante wrote the classics ASK THE DUST and WAIT UNTIL SPRING, BANDINI.

Dan bears his soul regarding drug and alcohol abuse, his relationship with his mother and father and the darkness of a Los Angeles where it's easy to lose your mind.

I savored this book, reading one or two poems at a time, then drinking a bit of scotch or taking a walk or drawing.

Is this the best book of poetry to come out in the past ten years?  Yes, I think so.  I'm now on a quest to hunt down and read every other book Dan Fante has written.

Thank God there's still some great poets out there.