Not wanting to be anything even close to late for my 7:00 reading last night, I rushed out of the office at around 5:35, despite the fact that I was only fifteen minutes away. This hasty decision had consequences, as I soon discovered on the ride downtown, when I realized that a piece of food was caught in my teeth and I was without dental floss; moreover, I feared that none would be available for sale in the part of Soho where I was headed, given my suspicion that so many of the stores are high-end fashion boutiques.
My fears proved groundless, however, and I found a small grocery store less than a block away from the bookstore that sold four varieties of dental floss; I set aside my disdain for downtown Manhattan and wished that I lived here. (Which is not to say I don't love Washington Heights, of course, but it's difficult to travel anywhere in New York City and not be overcome with regret that you have never experienced life in a particular neighborhood; or it's difficult if you're me.)
I positioned myself next to an old wall I've admired for years and flossed away the offending item from my teeth. This done, I felt like the night was already a success. (I felt it was important to have modest expectations.)
Because I had plenty of time, I spent some time outside admiring the lovely display of books. McNally Jackson is one of those stores where you could easily spend two or three hundred years happily browsing the offerings, which are always displayed with great care and attention. Books clearly rule this corner of the world, which is also nice to consider.
Even better, my book was prominently displayed in the window; I remembered the many nights when I was on tour in Saturnine, and we would arrive at a club where the owner or booking agent almost seemed surprised to find us there, which never boded well for the evening ahead, at least in terms of an audience. (We always seemed to find ways to amuse ourselves, even when playing just to the bartender and the sound guy -- a term I use without regard to gender, although most of them were in fact male.)
And still even better than that, McNally had made lovely posters promoting the event. (The posters were so nice, in fact, that it induced a new anxiety about whether I could deliver a successful event; I didn't want to disappoint!)
Inside the store all of a sudden seemed cavernous; I tried not to worry too much as I drank a cup of coffee.
Everyone on the staff was very friendly, which helped calm my nerves. One of them used this crazy machine to print and bind a book downloaded from somewhere on the internet (okay, ____). This 'robot' is pretty amazing, because you can get a copy of pretty much any out-of-print book within minutes.
Time passed and soon enough, it was time to read. There was actually a great crowd, and they were very enthusiastic and attentive. (I wondered if I had died and gone to heaven, honestly.) I read a short chapter from the book, and was then joined by Sasha Frere-Jones for a conversation/Q&A.
Interestingly enough, Sasha and I had never met 'IRL' before -- we'd only traded e-mail messages -- but we share many friends and contacts from our respective years playing in rock bands during the 1990s. We digressed into many topics including the record store where I used to work -- Rocks In Your Head -- just down the street on Prince, and also some of the rock bands we both loved, including Bedhead and Slint. Sasha told a story about how when he was reading the book, he had a moment that I would describe as sort of akin to one of Baudelaire's 'correspondences' (if I can say that without sounding too pompous!) during which he remembered how he had been listening to Spiderland, the Slint masterpiece LP, on 9/11, and how it made his head spin a bit to see Spiderland referenced in The Metropolis Case (which also has a 9/11 plot arc). As a writer, it was exactly the kind of reaction I was hoping to inspire in readers (with the chapter titles in particular, even though I couldn't have described it with any specificity when I was choosing them). Also discussed: the difficulty of parenting, the relative 'freedom' of nonheterosexuals in the 19th and 20th centuries, cool-dad rock (in the context of nostalgia), cat ladies (in the context of cool-dad rock), and -- of course -- lots of opera.
The hour passed and everyone dispersed into the night, a consensus (I think?) having been formed that a good time was had by all. (Stay tuned for news about upcoming events, both in and out of New York City.)
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01/20/2011
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ORDER HERE
A RADICAL NEW MYTH ABOUT SEX, FAITH, AND THOSE OF US WHO WILL NEVER DIE
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an uorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case, the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet inspired satire—#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world. With each turn of the page, #gods will leave you increasingly reborn.
Praise for #gods
“#gods is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory—and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature—it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance.” —Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
“Matthew Gallaway’s #gods is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn’t stop writing OMG WTF I <3 THIS SO MUCH in its margins. It’s rare to find a novel that so dazzlingly reinvigorates age-old meditations on faith and f&!*ing, art and eros. Luminous, enterprising, and sublimely cheeky, #gods tells the story, the myth, the dream of the human soul in all its glorious complexity.” —Suzanne Morrison, author of Yoga Bitch
“Matthew Gallaway’s storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry.” —Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
“If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #gods is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming.” —Jacob Bacharach, author of The Bend of the World
'It’s to the credit of Matthew Gallaway’s enchanting, often funny first novel that it doesn’t require a corresponding degree of obsession from readers, but may leave them similarly transported: the book is so well written — there’s hardly a lazy sentence here — and filled with such memorable lead and supporting players that it quickly absorbs you into its worlds.'
-- The New York Times
Music: Death Culture at Sea and Saturnine
Listen or download songs and records from my indie-rock past with Saturnine here and Death Culture at Sea here.
Music Video: Remembrance of Things Past
Watch the rock opera Remembrance of Things Past written and performed by Saturnine and Frances Gibson, starring Bennett Madison and Sheila McClear.
Video: The Chaos Detective
The Chaos Detective is a series about a man searching for 'identity' as he completes assignments from a mysterious organization. Watch the first episode (five parts) on YouTube.
Such a great time! More events, please!
Posted by: msnowe | 01/21/2011 at 10:02 AM
Thanks, MSnowe!
Posted by: Matthew Gallaway | 01/21/2011 at 10:26 AM
You were superb the other night. I am intently
reading your magical novel.
Fondly, Blanche Sterling
Posted by: Blanche Sterling | 01/22/2011 at 07:27 AM
Thanks, Blanche!!!
Posted by: Matthew Gallaway | 01/22/2011 at 09:28 AM
Sounds like a very nice and successful evening. Glad you found your dental floss stress-free. ;-)
Posted by: Paz | 01/22/2011 at 11:51 PM