I'm going to be upfront. I don't want any head shakes of betrayal when you find out from someone else. I am Adam Thomlison's wife and I am reviewing his book and I plan to gush about it, even though some might find that suspect. I have many flattering things to say about this collection of short stories and if you think I'm lying, I challenge you to read the book and call Bullshit. If you're not up to the challenge, you can go eat worms for all I care. Don't really eat worms though. That would be gross and when people find out that you're an actual worm-eater and you haven't read the hottest new book in Ottawa, no one will want to be your friend.
The six stories in this book aren't new to me. I've read them in different stages of undress and redress. I've penciled along their margins. I've seen them as word files and zines and spilled my blood on their half-sewn-together pages. All this familiarity did not rob me of the fabulous kick in the teeth that this collection turned out to be. The author's craftiness deftly muffles the crash as his love of all things Raymond Chandler-esque meets the un-grand streets of today.
These short stoies are wicked good. They're full of drama and romance; that sick-sweet breakup feeling in the pit of your stomach. The knowledge that, suck though it may, this is one of those truthful moments. They're like high school and realizing the flowers you brought home from the market on that stellar day off, seem to be, so suddenly, quite dead.
40 Watt Spotlight, the author's newly formed publishing house, is a press about the the dirty and boring and everyday and from the manic pace of the title story to the drowsy in-between feeling of Set, Sail and Crash, Adam takes those oh-so-everyone feelings and makes them kind of glitter, in kind of an absurd way, but keeps them kind of filthy...and without a speck of that sarcastic malice that's so fashionable these days. Even in Liquid Courageous, as he pokes fun at the sloppy and sad boozers of the world (of which I am one and he is not) he is never cruel and he has no soapbox. He tells it like we tell "My Crazy (insert beloved family member here)" stories.
Have you ever read an author's stuff and instantly known that you love them? Or hate them? Not just their writing, but the actual them? You have, trust me.You totally want to be Kerouac's sidekick and no one wants to be the sucker waiting on Atwood's table. Well, believe this: You will want to write Adam a letter when you finish this book. You will want to invite him bowling. You will want to have him and his charming wife for dinner. All of these impulses are good, because he's as clever and kind as his work. So get to it. Just remember that he's vegan before you start cooking.
That means he, unlike some people, does not eat worms.

- Rebecca Bothwell, for Zygote Magazine

RELEASE NOTES:

In locker #8 (unlocked).

My friend sent it to me! It ain't great literature, but it still made me feel good to read - all that shock of everyday recognition stuff that the best zines do, but in book form.

CAUGHT IN VANCOUVER BC CANADA

Found the book on some stairs on Thurlow late last year. The writing is sweet and well-intentioned, but painfully amateurish. There's one really good story in there near the beginning, about a guy trying to propose to his girlfriend. I couldn't even make it through the last story, though, which is about a dull road trip on a Greyhound... I'd say more but I feel a little guilty since the author's wife is the one who launched this book on Bookcrossing and is no doubt reading the responses. Um, sorry. Cute little book, though. About to release it into the wild again.

CAUGHT IN VANCOUVER BC CANADA