cover image THE PORNOGRAPHER'S POEM

THE PORNOGRAPHER'S POEM

Michael Turner, . . Soft Skull, $14.95 (296pp) ISBN 978-1-932360-23-3

An unnamed narrator recounts his sexual awakening as it relates to porn movies in this odd, inventive and overwrought novel composed of recollections, interrogations, letters, lists and screenplay fragments. At 16, the narrator makes a scratchy Super-8 of his neighbors getting down with their dog and also witnesses his first real porno; after that, he enters the business himself, as a filmmaker and a performer. He and his feminist friend Nettie have a volatile relationship—they fight and make love heatedly and endure long separations. After she gets back from school in England, they start work on a new project, Rich Kid Gang Bang , which pokes fun at all the fancy folks in their Vancouver neighborhood. That's when they meet the magnetic and psychopathic Flynn—and that's when their previous pornographic escapades begin to look nice and wholesome. Dirty talk and drugs, dreams and reality all swirl around in a strange and sometimes impenetrable world, relayed to the reader by a character who prides himself on his ability to lie, even as he's being interrogated by a mysterious and threatening tribunal. Agent, Hilary McMahon. (June)

Forecast: Though a bestseller in Canada and a Figaro top 2003 novel, Turner's latest probably employs too much artifice for the average stateside reader—it has potential to be a minor cult hit, but for bang-for-the-buck perviness, there are easier reads.