American Whiskey Bar

by Michael Turner, foreword by William Gibson

tagged: literary

Description

American Whiskey Bar is a remarkable faux memoir about the un-making of a film--a film which Michael Turner was commissioned to write. However, whether or not this film was ever made is debatable. And only one print is said to exist. Nevertheless, American Whiskey Bar, a film seen by only a handful of people, is well on its way to becoming a curious footnote to cinematic history.

American Whiskey Bar, the book, is an attempt to set the record straight--a story of sex, violence, lies, ambition, power, paradox, dreams, and regret. Consider yourself warned.

The script from American Whiskey Bar was produced as a live film experiment directed by acclaimed filmmaker Bruce Macdonald and aired on CityTV.

When first published in 1997, American Whiskey Bar elicited rave reviews for its anti-aesthetic, postmodern ideas of what constitutes a novel.

This new edition of the book features a new ISBN, a new cover, and a new foreword by William Gibson.

About the Authors

Michael Turner was born in North Vancouver, B.C. in 1962 and spent his teenage summers working in the Skeena River salmon fishery. After high school, he travelled through Europe and North Africa, eventually to the University of Victoria, where he completed a BA (anthropology) in 1986. Between 1987-1993 he sang and played banjo in Hard Rock Miners; upon his retirement from touring, he opened the Malcolm Lowry Room (1993-1997). His first book, Company Town (Arsenal Pulp, 1991), was nominated for a Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize. His second book, Hard Core Logo (Arsenal Pulp, 1993), was adapted to feature-film. Kingsway (1995), American Whiskey Bar (Arsenal Pulp, 1997), The Pornographer’s Poem (Doubleday, 1999) and 8x10 (New Star, 2009) followed. A frequent collaborator, he has written scripts with Stan Douglas, poems with Geoffrey Farmer and songs with cub, Dream Warriors, Fishbone and Kinnie Starr. He blogs at this address mtwebsit@blogspot.com.

Awards

Winner, Quill & Quire Best Book
Commended, Globe & Mail Notable Book
Winner, Coolest Canadian Book of the Year, Chapters

Editorial Reviews

Turner is probably the most original writer BC has produced in a generation.
-Gerogia Straight

— Georgia Straight

. . . conflicts of class, race, gender, and sexuality erupt in hilariously schematic and surreal ways. Professing to be less than it is, it's a surprisingly haunting work--a smutty Pale Fire that, through its dizzying strata of competing truths, may have more to say about our reality than it ever lets on.
-Village Voice

— Village Voice

Tightly packed ... the book weaves its way in and out of various levels of reality. ... There's a bright, playful mind at work here.
-Toronto Star

— Toronto Star

Turner constructs an intense, intelligent, and darkly humorous satire. . . . Too original to be nominated for awards.
-Quill & Quire

— Quill & Quire

A daring reconfiguration of the fictional narrative.
-Vancouver Magazine

— Vancouver Magazine

Brilliant . . . a dazzling, dizzying multilayered blend of fact and fiction, of the plausible and the preposterous, of the real and the hyper-real. It is also screamingly funny.
-The Globe and Mail

— The Globe & Mail

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American Whiskey Bar

by Michael Turner, foreword by William Gibson

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