My review is a tribute to the twenty-five authors included in this collection whose writing is a rebellion against main stream, conventional American fiction. As Joel Rose and Catherine Texier, editors of Between C & D, the Lower East Side magazine that originally published each of these short stories stated in the book's introduction, their magazine gave writers on the fringe a forum, writers who were inspired by the likes of Genet, Burroughs, Céline, Barthes, Foucault and Henry Miller rather then Updike, Cheever, Carver or Joyce Carol Oats. Their stories are frequently gritty, urban, ironic, sexy, violent, deadpan and sometimes whacky, offbeat and out-and-out strange.

This Penguin edition was published back in 1988. Authors included are David Wojnarowicz, Lisa Blaushild, Rick Henry, Kathy Acker, Dennis Cooper, Catherine Texier, Peter Cherches, Susan Daitch, Darius James, Tama Janowitz, Gary Indiana, Lee Eiferman, Reinaldo Povod, Joan Harvey, Don Skiles, Lynne Tillman, Barry Yourgrau, Roberta Allen, Patrick McGrath, Craig Gholson, John Farris, Ron Kolm, Emily Carter, Bruce Benderson and Joel Rose. Chances are nearly all of these names are unfamiliar to anyone reading this review. And for good reason. It has been nearly thirty years and all of these authors have retained their fresh, original vision rather than conforming to any established status quo.

Initially I planned to offer my own critique but, on further reflection, in keeping with each author's singular personality and unique literary voice, I think it more appropriate to include a number of author photos with quotes from their story:


Kathy Acker - "As long as I can remember wanting, I have wanted to slaughter other humans and to watch the emerging of their blood." from Male


Gary Indiana - "That night I fucked Candy Jones for something like three hours. My nuts ached the whole next day and I couldn't get her out of my mind." from I Am Candy Jones


Lynne Tillman - "Sex is important but like anything that's important, it does or causes trouble. Arthur didn't watch television, he watched me. People thought of us like a punchline to a dirty joke." from Dead Talk


Darius James - "The Maid is a monstrous manny-sized cookie jar with doughy animal features and crazed incandescent eyes. Her nappy bleached-blonde Afro is a crown of spiky thorns matted with sweat and splashed with large leaf-like patches of missing melanin." from Negrophobia


Ron Kolm next to one of his avid readers - "Duke and Jill do drugs. They live on the corner of Avenue A and 10th Street, in a mostly burnt-out building. Bad things keep happening to them. Their best friend, a junkie, rents a truck from a company on Lafayette Street, backs it up over the curb, kicks in their apartment door, and takes all their stuff." from Duke & Jill


Peter Cherches -"Your windows are dirty," she said to him. "It's not my windows," he replied. "It's the world outside." from Dirty Windows


Catherine Texier - "Jimmy is standing a few feet away from me, playing with his knife, testing its sharpness with the palm of his hand, He paces back and forth, his tension rising every time he turns around. I'll get them, he says. I'll get the fuckers." from The Fedora


Dennis Cooper - "He stood on the sidewalk and stuck out his thumb. A trucker chose him. The guy seemed friendly enough, but he kept asking personal questions. "Do you have a girlfriend?" he leered at one point. "Look. I'm on acid, so leave me along, all right?" That shut him up. George hallucinated in peace." from George: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday