THE PLAGUE DITTIES by JIM NISBET
PRESS RELEASE, BOOK DESCRIPTION, AUTHOR BIO, ADVANCE PRAISE
Release Date: November 1, 2023
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THE PLAGUE DITTIES BY JIM NISBET
FROM THE LATE, GREAT AUTHOR OF LETHAL INJECTION, INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED NOIR NOVELIST AND POET, SEMINIAL FIGURE IN THE WEST COAST NOIR RENAISSANCE
THE PLAGUE DITTIES, , NOVEMBER 1, 2023, A MOLOTOV EDITIONS ORIGINAL
NISBET’S LAST WORK, A STARKLY MOVING POETIC JOURNAL, WRITTEN DURING THE WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC, COMPLETED SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 2022
SAN FRANCISCO, CA: Jim Nisbet was an internationally known novelist, essayist, and poet whose groundbreaking noir fiction has cult followings in the U.S. and abroad. The poems collected here were written and distributed to his email list during the Covid-19 pandemic. Like much of Nisbet’s work, these poems are written in diction both stark and elevated, alternately tender, fierce, sweet, frightening — and always keenly aware of human frailty in the face of the unknown. Informed both by classical tradition and the immediate circumstances of the pandemic, these poems deal in matters political, spiritual, and cultural — but ultimately take the shape of an increasingly personal encounter with the phantasms of the pandemic. Taken together, The Plague Ditties form a poetic diary of uncommon artistic, historic, and metaphysical resonance.
Novelist and poet Jim Nisbet was a seminal figure in the West Coast Noir Renaissance. His early novels were published with the original Black Lizard Press, gaining Nisbet an international reputation as a fiercely unique voice whose work defied easy classification. He went on to publish more than a dozen novels, widely translated, with editions in France (by Rivages, under legendary editor François Guérif), Germany, Italy, and more. The author of seven collections of poetry, including a translation of Baudelaire, he published essays and other work in an eclectic mix of international journals and magazines. Nisbet grew up in North Carolina. After graduating from UNC Chapel Hill, he headed out to San Francisco, where he lived for many years, immersed simultaneously in the intellectual life — in his career as a working writer — and his daily work as a cabinetmaker and tradesman. The Plague Ditties was his last book, written during the worldwide pandemic, and completed shortly before his death in 2022.
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INTERNATIONAL PRAISE FOR JIM NISBET
“Lethal Injection is an unheralded masterpiece of the Noir genre. Everyone who loves Noir should read this brilliant book.”— James Ellroy
“Jim Nisbet is a poet...[who] mixes the irony of Dantesque situations with lyric narration, and achieves a luxuriant cocktail that truly leaves the reader breathless. — Drood’s Review
“Jim Nisbet’s work has been tapping directly into the pulse of America for decades... [The] time is now for all of us to not only catch up to this unheralded master but to offer him the respect and regard that he deserves.” — Spinetingler
“Tough stuff, angry, sad, but also absurdly funny.” Marcus Münterfering, Krimi-Welt & Der Spiegel
“Truly, hellishly gritty.” — Los Angeles Times
“Erudite and hallucinogenic.”—Black Libelle
“Terrifying, sublime….It's as if Nisbet had suddenly digested Westlake, Tarantino and the Coen brothers altogether, without ceding anything of his stylistic class: supple, smooth and flamboyant."— Sabrina Champenois, Libération (Syracuse Codex)
"Nobody has Nisbet's distinctive style, humor, and sheer craft . . . One of the finest masters of noir." —Ken Bruen, author of The Guards
Sure, Nisbet breaks all the rules, but that´s really the whole point. His novels are the literary equivalent of road trips, and a good road trip follows no map. You may be exhausted when you get to the end of the road, but you´re damn glad you didn´t stay home." —Bill Ott, STARRED REVIEW, Booklist (Octopus on My Head)
“Genre-defying … a dark, cerebral, and harrowing narrative, laced with humor and carried off in unexpected directions by exuberant wordplay….Themes as wide-ranging as sailing, particle physics, mathematics, ancient Rome, modern jazz, and urban subculture.”— San Francisco Chronicle
“Nisbet presents with wrenching effectiveness the fragile accommodations his characters have to make in order to survive in a hostile world they can never overcome and can keep at bay only for a time” —Publishers Weekly (Price Of The Ticket
A catalytic crinkling that multiplies mental surfaces... poetic eloquence crosscut by...irony."—Richard Silberg, Poetry Flash (Small Apt)
“Jim Nisbet is a sorcerer who takes his readers into his own territory, that of sheer narrative and scenaristic power. A book that lovers of American roman noir have to read." —Mix (The Price of the Ticket)
"Now boarding: It is out of the question not to read Jim Nisbet... [His] is an exhilarating and exciting literary madness. Each of his books is a gem. Reading Jim Nisbet should be mandatory!" —Christope Dupuis, Le Nouvel Observateur (Windward Passage)
"Jack Kerouac meets Tarantino meets David Foster Wallace. ...The strength of the novel, in addition to the surprising psychological twists, resides especially in the wonderful conversations. For all the readers of genre literature in search of exceptional subjects and dark abysses, it will be a great pleasure to read." —Write About Something
“Jim Nisbet is a cult favorite in Europe and it's easy to see why. …comparisons abound; he's Thomas Pynchon crossed with Raymond Chandler; the lovechild of Patricia Highsmith and Don Delillo, and on and on it goes. One thing for sure, he's unique and man does he have a vivid imagination. Da Vinci Code lovers who also enjoy crime fiction: get this one ASAP." —SleuthOfBakerStreet.com (Syracuse Codex)
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