I had no idea Joey Comeau was originally from Halifax. Until today. I’ve been a fan of his work on http://www.asofterworld.com/ for years. If you haven’t heard of asofterworld.com: Basically, since 2003, Joey and PEI’s Emily Horne pair up and post these weekly: (note: their website seems to be temporarily broken.)
Click images to enlarge and read them
Joey’s Latest Books
Overqualified (2009, ECW Press) – A Collection of Shorts so Good they Caused a (ten-grand) Danuta Gleed Literary Award Scandal!
Joey’s 2009 collection of shorts — a collection of shorts in the form of cover letters – was so good it was shortlisted for one of the country’s top literary awards — the $10,000 Danuta Gleed Literary Award, for a first collection of shorts. Unfortunately, after being shortlisted, the issue of Overqualified not having technically been his first collection of shorts came to the surface: he’d self-published a book of shorts a few years earlier. A book called It’s Too Late to Say I’m Sorry.
“A collection of wry, clever and demoniacal job-application letters, teeming with knife-edged malice and stomach-tearing hilarity. If Comeau’s rebel-yell manifesto catches on like old Prometheus’s gift did all those years ago, human resources will never be the same again.” – Globe & Mail.
“Overqualified by Joey Comeau is a collection of satiric cover letters handcrafted to make any HR worker cringe and every job seeker smile. Ranging from pithy and heartwarming to darkly funny and bizarre, the letters sparkle with the inappropriate use of unabashed personal honesty in a traditionally dry and humourless form. . . . [Overqualified is] beautifully executed satire, perfect for anyone who needs a good laugh (like the unemployed).” – Geist
One Bloody Thing After Another (ECW Press 2010) - A Short Novel Blending Comedy, Literary Fiction, and Horror
From an excerpt on ECW’s website: Charlie worries sometimes that his dog is an idiot. When Mitchie wants to lie down, he just falls over on his side. When he gets excited, he pees a little. But what can Charlie do? You can’t take a dog back after fifteen years and say, “You gave me a lemon.” Charlie’s too old to find another dog, anyway.
ECW’s summary: Jackie has a map of the city on the wall of her bedroom, with a green pin for each of her trees. She has a first-kiss tree and a broken-arm tree. She has a car-accident tree. There is a tree at the hospital where Jackie’s mother passed away into the long good night. When one of them gets cut down, Jackie doesn’t know what to do but she doesn’t let that stop her. She picks up the biggest rock she can carry and puts it through the window of a car. Smash. She intends to leave before the police arrive, but they’re early. Ann is Jackie’s best friend, but she’s got problems of her own. Her mother is chained up in the basement. How do you bring that up in casual conversation? “Oh, sorry I’ve been so distant, Jackie. My mother has more teeth than she’s supposed to, and she won’t eat anything that’s already dead.”
“For a zombie novel featuring a monstrously ravenous mother chained in the basement who won’t eat dead food — so her daughter steals live kittens for her to gnaw on — this is a remarkably tender novel. Quirky to a marvelous fault, Comeau’s fourth book is an intricate exercise in offbeat storytelling.” – Q Syndicate
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