Welcome to the Weird America

A.G. Pasquella’s Welcome to the Weird America brings together three of his brilliant, fabulist novellas, each of which is filled with strange language and extraordinary surprises. In Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus?, written like a comic-book adventure without the images, a talking chimpanzee becomes a televangelist. In NewTown, the author’s love letter to science fiction, a teenage boy named Sammy joins a motley band of rebels intent on overthrowing the bungling admiral of a huge spaceship. And in The This & the That, Pasquella takes us back to the old weird America, an America of hucksters and hobos, cartoons and carnivals.

From questions about money and God to environmental collapse, to the intersection of humanity and technology, A.G. Pasquella tackles complex subjects with beautifully surreal prose and a deep delight in the tradition of weird fiction. These mesmerizing, upending stories will have readers setting off on a fascinating journey down an unknown road with no destination, or end, in sight.

AUTHOR

A.G. Pasquella

A.G. Pasquella’s writing has appeared in various spots including McSweeney’s, Wholphin, The Believer, Black Book, Broken Pencil and Utne Reader. A.G.’s story “I Was a Teenage Minotaur,” originally published by Joyland, was included in Imaginarium 2013: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. A.G. has published three novellas: Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus? (which also appeared as a thirty-page excerpt in McSweeney’s #11), NewTown and The This & the That. He is the co-editor (along with Terri Favro) of PAC’N HEAT: A Noir Homage to Ms. Pac-Man. A.G.’s three crime novels in the Jack Palace series – Yard Dog, Carve the Heart and Season of Smoke – were published by Dundurn Press. When he’s not writing, A.G. makes music with the bands Miracle Beard and Lasergnu. A.G. was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, and now lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Reviews

A.G. Pasquella’s Welcome to the Weird America brings together three of his brilliant, fabulist novellas, each of which is filled with strange language and extraordinary surprises. From questions about money and God to environmental collapse, to the intersection of humanity and technology, Pasquella tackles complex subjects with deep delight and beautifully surreal prose. In Why Not a Spider Monkey Jesus?, a talking chimpanzee becomes a televangelist. In NewTown, a teenage boy named Sammy joins a motley band of rebels intent on overthrowing the bungling admiral of a huge spaceship. And in The This & the That, Pasquella takes us back to the old weird America, an America of hucksters and hobos, cartoons and carnivals. These mesmerizing stories take us on a fascinating journey down an unknown road with no end in sight.

“Full of Altmanesque observations with a good twist of Hunter S. Thompson but uniquely, completely A.G. Pasquella!”

– Minerva Reader

“. . . giddy disorientation, co-mingled with a sense that an ineffable truth is hiding behind all the esoteric exaggeration, cascading puns and pop cultural references. Pasquella’s hybrid approach draws equally from literary postmodernism and classic comic books.”

– Toronto Star

Pasquella’s fast-paced sequel to Yard Dog explores the seamy side of Toronto through the eyes of former convict Jack Palace. . . . Pasquella vividly captures the dog-eat-dog existence of the Toronto underworld.

– Publishers Weekly