James Greer

Screenwriter (Unsane) and bass player (Guided by Voices) James Greer returns to the literary fold with a hilarious novel about the perils and pleasures of promiscuous translation.

Bad Eminence

Twenty-One Years of Hunting Accidents in the Forests of Rock and Roll

Guided by Voices: A Brief History

Jim Greer

James Greer's fiction debut is the latest in Dennis Cooper's groundbreaking "Little House on the Bowery" series.

Artificial Light

Three wee Ulster lassies; or, News from our Irish cousins

A tale of a slacker, an MIT professor, and a heist: “A writer of considerable talent whose techniques, tropes, and wordplay recall Thomas Pynchon” (Booklist). Set in Los Angeles, this novel tells the story of a sibling rivalry, a get-rich-quick scheme, and two guys who conceive and badly execute a plan to rob a Korean check-cashing store in order to finance the prototype for an impossibly ridiculous Internet application. “I defy anyone to come up with an equation to explain how this book’s first impression as a ridiculously clever, funny crime story can gradually disclose a metanovel built from far more encyclopedic scratch only to reveal upon its conclusion a central, overriding thought so heartfelt literally it trembles your lower lip. This is one stunning piece of work.” —Dennis Cooper, author of The Marbled Swarm

A Novel

The Failure

The true story of the fourth-grade teacher in Dayton, Ohio, who created one of the most influential bands of our times. Devoted fans have followed Guided by Voices for decades—and critics around the world have lauded the band’s brain trust, Robert Pollard, as a once-in-a-generation artist. Pollard has been compared by the New York Times to Mozart, Rossini, and Paul McCartney (in the same sentence) and everyone from P. J. Harvey, Radiohead, R.E.M., the Strokes, and U2 has sung his praises and cited his music as an influence. But it all started rather prosaically when Pollard, a fourth-grade teacher in his early thirties, began recording songs with drinking buddies in his basement. In this book, James Greer, an acclaimed music writer and former Spin editor—who also played in the band for two years—provides unparalleled insight and complete access to the workings of Pollard’s muse.

A Brief History

Guided by Voices

“Artificial Light beats the bejeezus out of the last dozen Thomas Pynchons, the last nineteen Don DeLillos, and the last forty-three Kurt Vonneguts.”—Richard Meltzer “In his ambitious and intriguing debut novel, indie rock expert Greer, author of Guided by Voices, employs one of literature's oldest gambits, the book-within-a-book structure, three times over. A young librarian calling herself Fiat Lux fills a set of notebooks with her passion for books and an enigmatic account of her interlude with Kurt C, a famous indie rock star who appears unheralded in Dayton, Ohio, and buys the long-abandoned Orville Wright mansion. A member of the rock group Whiskey Ships is trying to write about his musical odyssey but longs to return to his book about Orville Wright, whose long-lost diaries also feed the narrative stream. Greer picks the lock on the Kurt Cobain mythos and the rapid commercialization of indie rock…Strong writing and shrewd perceptions prevail, backed by wry humor, compelling stumblebum characters, a true-blue louche atmosphere, and arresting insights into the dream of art, be it literature or rock and roll.”—Booklist

Experimental stories by novelist and musician James Greer accompanied by the surreal art of Guided by Voices frontman Robert Pollard.

James Greer

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