Toronto is a Truly Despicable City: Essays, Stories, and Ravings On Canada's National Enemy
various contributors, edited by Harrison Livermoore
What true and decent Canadian doesn�t fear and loathe the watered-down Yankee metropolitan hell that is Toronto? Pariah Press sent, out of pure spite, fourteen fine writers and god-fearing human beings straight into the fiery pits of Toronto, just in time for the garbage strike! The madness and villainy that ensued is recorded for posterity in these twelve essays.
These tales from inside all communicate a mood of sublime, rising horror, though the actual experiences our writers recount vary greatly. Mitchell Thornly tells of his attempts to sell his body on the University of Toronto�s campus grounds. Cyril Broughton reflects upon being violently accosted by a group of angry locals in the nosebleed seats at a Leaf�s game. Chloe Tucker recounts her hilarious attempts to buy smack on Young Street. Michael Penman explains how he accidentally founded an Ontarian Separatist movement. Aaron Magnassun ruminates on his involvement in a bizarre sexual tryst where he was forced to role play both Mike Harris and Cito Gaston. Devon Lee details the Kafkaesque labyrinths of bureaucracy that his efforts to have a downtown payphone fixed lead him into. These dozen literary meditations, along with Sir Harrison Livermore�s brilliantly scathing introduction, deal Toronto a well-deserved linguistic blow.
�Quite simply, one of the funniest (and nastiest) books of the year.� (The Windsor Wailer)
�Toronto is a Truly Despicable City relates the tales of fourteen terrible people behaving horribly in a wretched place. The premise promises genius and, happily, this is a promise the writer�s keep, consistently delivering non-fiction prose that is incisive, lively, and funny as hell.� (M.U.S.H.)
"The opinions and observations in Toronto is a Truly Despicable City are exactly what this country, and the world, needed. The essays included in this collection are seamless, clever, insightful and often terribly humorous. Canada�s most loathed city may never be looked at the same way again." (Pierre Burton Jr.)
�An ideal book for anyone who has spent significant time in our city, and especially for any current or former Torontonian who is willing to laugh at themselves.� (The Toronto Sun)
Excerpt from Toronto is a Truly Despicable City
�They brought a man into the hall on a chain while I was waiting. His hair was mussed and it looked like the cops had given him a good working over. The look in his eyes told me he might�ve deserved it. He started laughing so one of the cops pulled his hair, and that got him off screaming. The closer they got him to the door, the louder he�d scream.�
188pp, 140mm x 190mm
softcover (non-fiction)
$18.95 (Can), $12.95 (US)
ISBN: 0-90210-39-9