Friday, December 03, 2004

Montreal - A Worthwhile Launch

Dear Montrealers,

What would you really, really like for Christmas? The troops to come home? A regime change in the country of your choice? A fierce and enduring love? A single perfect moment? An end to all anguish and fear? A signed copy of Corey Frost’s new book, The Worthwhile Flux?

All this and more can be yours if you attend a small but fashionable event on this coming Sunday at la Casa del Popolo.

Hello. My name is Corey Frost. For five months I’ve travelled the world to bring you the very best in travel literature as well as the latest in performance technique from the far corners of the globe. Now, I’m here - in your city - to share with you what I’ve learned. This opportunity will not come again!

What is The Worthwhile Flux? Quill & Quire calls it “dreamy and erudite, silly and profound.” The Montreal Review of Books says that its juxtapositions “jar and provoke, cracking open the reader’s mind.” Even if you don’t fancy having your mind cracked open, you’ll enjoy reading this collection of performance pieces written in the shape of stories. It contains some of my classic numbers, as well as a handful of stories never seen or heard before in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition, it is lavishly illustrated with photos of airplanes and monoliths. If you liked my first book, My Own Devices, you will find The Worthwhile Flux is twice as funny, twice as cogent, twice as avant-garde, twice as lavishly illustrated, and only about 7/8ths as long.

On Sunday, Dec ember 5th, conundrum press, the distinguished publishers of my book, will be celebrating The Worthwhile Flux and I’ll be celebrating my return from the Antipodes. Please join us! Montreal’s lovably nutty professor Jake Brown will give a brief lecture placing my work in the context of its time. Zany performance artist Victoria Stanton will sing. There will be a slide show of humourous road signs and spelling mistakes from South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and Cambodia. And I will perform a brand new and poignant story from the book, entitled “A Farewell to Q.” PLUS - and this is what has me really excited - The Worthwhile Flux will be available to the public at the low low limited-time introductory offer price of only $10, payable in three easy installments of just $5 each!

It all happens at la Casa del Popolo, 4873 St. Laurent (just below St. Joseph), starting at 8 pm. I’ll be there signing books and handing out souvenir boomerangs, so come by and say, “Hi.” It’s free!

Twice as curious as I used to be,
Corey

PS. Did you find the secret to lasting peace and happiness in this letter? No? Take another look through it, and read carefully this time.