Monday, April 12, 2010

Flint Portraits: Paul A. Toth

Flint Expatriate Paul A. Toth has a new work of fiction coming out soon called Airplane Novel. You can read the first chapter here. If you can't wait for the entire book, you have plenty of other options. Check out Paul's other novels Fishnet, Fizz, and Finale, described as a "whipsmart coming-of-age story" by Time-Out Chicago.

Paul, who now lives in Florida, has also been published in dozens of literary journals. Here's an excerpt from a story called Psychologically Ultimate Seashore in the Barcelona Review:
Whenever Janet arrived at the mall, the early morning walkers, senior citizens all, had already begun their march. It would take them round to Crowley's, west to Sears, north to the cineplex and back home to JC Penny's. They were proud as Marines and arrived every morning to follow doctors' orders, walking in the heat in winter and the air conditioning in summer. They moved fiercely, leaning, mustering gravity in their struggle. There was a mania in their stalk, a clutching and a frenzy. Meanwhile, percolating with nervousness, Janet would open the gate with a jerk of her hand, sending it upwards in shivering rattles as the Nikes and Reeboks clip-clopped behind her. She would pull the gate down, head to the receiving room in back and switch on the lights. Then the retail sun would rise: There was light.


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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.