About the Book:
American
Whiskey Bar
was named one of the best books of the year in Canada by The
Globe & Mail,
Toronto
Star,
and Quill
& Quire.
American
Whiskey Bar is a remarkable faux memoir about
the un-making of a notorious
underground film – a film which Michael
Turner was commissioned to write. However, whether or not this film
was ever made is debatable. And only one print is said to exist.
Nevertheless, American
Whiskey Bar, a film seen by only a handful of
people, is well on its way to becoming a curious footnote to
cinematic history.
American
Whiskey Bar, the book, is an attempt by
Michael Turner to set the record straight. His
resulting screenplay, American
Whiskey Bar
takes place entirely in a cocktail bar, focusing on the intensely
personal conversations of those gathered them. American
Whiskey Bar
the book is in fact several books in one: the wistful memoirs of an
artist co-opted by greed; a biting satire of the movie industry; and
the
complete screenplay
American
Whiskey Bar
– a story of sex, violence, lies, ambition, racism, dreams, and
regret. It was produced as a live film
experiment directed by acclaimed filmmaker Bruce Macdonald and
aired in 1998 on Toronto's CityTV during the final weekend of the Toronto Film Festival.
When first published in 1997, American
Whiskey Bar elicited rave reviews for its
anti-aesthetic, postmodern ideas of what constitutes a novel. This
new edition of the book features a new cover and a new foreword by
William Gibson.
What people say:
"Tightly packed… the book
weaves its way in and out of various levels of reality…. There's a
bright, playful mind at work here. — Toronto Star
"Turner constructs an
intense, intelligent, and darkly humorous satire… Too original to
be nominated for awards." — Quill & Quire
"Turner is probably the most
original writer BC has produced in a generation." —
Gerogia Straight
"Brilliant… a dazzling,
dizzying multilayered blend of fact and fiction, of the plausible and
the preposterous, of the real and the hyper-real. It is also
screamingly funny. A daring reconfiguration of the fictional
narrative." — Vancouver Magazine
"…conflicts of class, race,
gender, and sexuality erupt in hilariously schematic and surreal
ways. Professing to be less than it is, it's a surprisingly haunting
work – a smutty Pale Fire that, through its dizzying strata of
competing truths, may have more to say about our reality than it ever
lets on." — Village Voice
About the Author:
Michael Turner lives in Vancouver, where, in addition to
novels and screenplays, he writes art essays. He has won a BC Book
Prize for fiction and a Genie Award for Original Song.