Saturday, December 10, 2005
Harry's Here!
Keeler's Riddle of the Traveling Skull is finally out in general release -- you can get it at McSweeney's, Amazon and Powell's -- just in time to gift wrap it for your favorite readers of demented literature. Over on his blog Neil Gaiman very kindly dubbed it "undoubtedly the best-looking edition of anything by Keeler ever published," and notes:
He's right. The first time you read Keeler, you either want to track down all his books or you want to throw him clear across the room. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. To get a sense of just who this strange Keeler fellow is, check out my NPR interview or the inevitable Wikipedia entry that I just discovered this morning....
It may start a major Harry Stephen Keeler revival, but probably it won't. (Mostly, I think, because you need to have a certain mindset to find Keeler anything other than unreadable. I think he's worth it, but I know that most people won't -- it's not like a bad film, where you watch it to laugh at it; in Keeler's case it's not so bad it's good -- it's actually good, it just shouldn't be.)
He's right. The first time you read Keeler, you either want to track down all his books or you want to throw him clear across the room. There doesn't seem to be much middle ground. To get a sense of just who this strange Keeler fellow is, check out my NPR interview or the inevitable Wikipedia entry that I just discovered this morning....
