Malcolm and Jack

	Fiction Non-Fiction Poetry Film Art MEB Authors Events Distribution Booksense Contacts	Malcolm & Jack and Other Famous American Criminals by Ted Pelton ISBN 1-933132-09-4 $14.00 US \| $17.95 CAN Find the book on Amazon > TedPelton.com link An audaciously entertaining and insightful creation myth about the genesis of the late 20th century's counterculture and political liberation movements in the so-called "birth of the cool" in New York City jazz clubs at the end of World War II and dawn of the bebop era. The Buffalo News Pelton’s book gives testimony to the important influence both black American and white American traditions have had on one another. Pointing to the chaos of the War Years in the domestic scene, Pelton tells a contemporary story, whose meaning may be, in a phrase, that desire always has a way of overflowing the flimsy boundaries put up around it." The Brooklyn Rail The concept is a killer: a young unknown writer named Jack Kerouac meets a young pimp named Malcolm "Detroit Red" Little, soon to be known as Malcolm X, at a Billie Holiday concert. This meeting might have actually taken place, though the story is entirely imagined. The treatment reminds me of Don DeLillo, which is to say it's not a straight-ahead narrative, and the medium is at least half of the message. LitKicks.com Pelton does the period magnificently: New York, he says, is a 40s town, and his lens - because a lot of this book lingers like a camera well-handled - zooms in on all the grays and the grillwork, the municipal weight.... Though many of Pelton's stories retold are well-known, they've never been said better (especially his disquisition on Billie Holiday jailed). Malcolm & Jack is art history pure, as it once was, total story, the oral-thing, returned to the campfire to spark. Blatt Ted Pelton’s novel reminds us of the quagmire that is history. Fact and fiction can't be easily boxed; everything is true even as everything isn't. Don't even bother trying to pinch yourself every so often while reading to see if it’s real. Pelton’s book does the pinching for you. Cris Mazza, author of How to Leave a Country, Many Ways to Do it, Many Ways to Say it, etc. Malcolm X and Jack Kerouac, the Columbia University dropout-cum-beat writer-cum patriotic racist, are unlikely co-protagonists in Ted Pelton’s historical novel set during World War 2 and the Fifties. The smooth fusion of alleged fact and fiction, of pop culture and progressive politics, calls to mind E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime or Billy Bathgate. But, given Pelton’s technical daring, especially with structure and point of view, there is actually a closer affinity with Robert Coover’s masterfully innovative The Public Burning. By any measure, Pelton has produced a novel, or more precisely, an intricate choreography of sometimes disparate-seeming narratives, with admirable intelligence and dexterity. Harold Jaffe, editor, Fiction International, and author of numerous works Fast, hypnotic, and heartfelt, Malcolm and Jack somehow manages to be frenzied and reflective, factual and speculative, all at once. A wild dash through an alternate American history. George Saunders, author of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil Malcolm and Jack hallucinates an audacious, absurd romp through an alternative hepcat history. Pelton’s speculations revere and desecrate an American iconography that, now more than ever, is sorely in need of both. Daniel Nester, author of God Save My Queen I and II One has the impression of reading cultural history, regardless of the liberties Pelton takes with facts, because the account of this fertile period seems so vivid and characteristic. In ways not approached by journalistic accounts, Malcolm and Jack surrounds us with a period and a way of life, bringing America’s past of exuberance and violence to a new consciousness. R.M. Berry, author of Dictionary of Modern Anguish This is not nostalgia, but a genuine re-imagining of postwar desire. Tune in to Lady Day, jailed on a heroin conviction, as she discovers another possibility for getting through the night. Drop in with Jack as he tries to escape the prison of domestic suburbia, or drop out with Brother Malcolm as he and Bill Burroughs almost do business. The music of the prose sings, rocks, jives and bebops. Jeffrey DeShell, author of Peter: An (A)Historical Romance Praise for Ted Pelton's Previous Fiction for Endorsed by Jack Chapeau (Starcherone Books, 2000; revised ed. forthcoming, 2006) This masterful kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors is a vivid tableau from our multiple life’s other side. No joke, folks. These are the echoes about two minutes after the initial blast. And you thought it was beer? Lucky you’ve got Ted Pelton minding the store! Robert Creeley The effect generated by these pieces is nearly visceral--powerful and not easily forgotten . . . one of the most potent experiences I’ve had reading literature. Cris Mazza Pelton’s seven short fictions problematize the reality of postwar America by asking us to think beyond what we’ve come to know as numb spectators of the electric box and bored participants in the theater of our own absurd lives. Review of Contemporary Fiction Pelton’s voice asserts itself with power and grace, and the stories take forms that take off. Rain Taxi Review of Books Marvellous, pocket-sized and funny as hell, Endorsed by... is a short sharp retort to the whole idea of a ‘novel,’ and almost a genre of text to itself. Great stuff.” Slate (UK) Considerably darker and more politically and aesthetically challenging than much of what passes for mainstream domestic fiction in the current marketplace. Buffalo News for Bhang (BlazeVox Books, 2004) Bhang is a magical book. I loved Fried's journey with Anders and Sylvia, and the strange relation each had with the dead filmmaker Antoine, and the silence that steals over him as though he had just had sex, that unreal place of catching up. I admire the courage with which Pelton tells what seems to be a simple tale, and instead it sneaks up on the reader to flatten his ass into submission. And I keep telling people about the drink that is so emotive that when you taste it, you can experience the emotion of the person who brews it up. I get just such sensual DNA from this book. Kevin Killian If John Cheever had done psychedelics he might have ended up with Bhang. The casual easiness of the voice coupled with the strangeness of the experience described, ends up being quite unexpected and quite disarming. Brian Evenson

An audaciously entertaining and insightful creation myth about the genesis of the late 20th century's
counterculture and political liberation movements in the so-called "birth of the cool" in New York City
jazz clubs at the end of World War II and dawn of the bebop era. The Buffalo News

Pelton’s book gives testimony to the important influence both black American and white American
traditions have had on one another. Pointing to the chaos of the War Years in the domestic scene,
Pelton tells a contemporary story, whose meaning may be, in a phrase, that desire always has a
way of overflowing the flimsy boundaries put up around it." The Brooklyn Rail

The concept is a killer: a young unknown writer named Jack Kerouac meets a young pimp named
Malcolm "Detroit Red" Little, soon to be known as Malcolm X, at a Billie Holiday concert. This meeting
might have actually taken place, though the story is entirely imagined. The treatment reminds me of
Don DeLillo, which is to say it's not a straight-ahead narrative, and the medium is at least half of the
message. LitKicks.com

Pelton does the period magnificently: New York, he says, is a 40s town, and his lens - because a lot of
this book lingers like a camera well-handled - zooms in on all the grays and the grillwork, the municipal
weight.... Though many of Pelton's stories retold are well-known, they've never been said better (especially
his disquisition on Billie Holiday jailed). Malcolm & Jack is art history pure, as it once was, total story, the
oral-thing, returned to the campfire to spark. Blatt

Ted Pelton’s novel reminds us of the quagmire that is history. Fact and fiction can't be easily
boxed; everything is true even as everything isn't. Don't even bother trying to pinch yourself
every so often while reading to see if it’s real. Pelton’s book does the pinching for you.
Cris Mazza, author of How to Leave a Country, Many Ways to Do it, Many Ways to Say it, etc.

Malcolm X and Jack Kerouac, the Columbia University dropout-cum-beat writer-cum patriotic
racist, are unlikely co-protagonists in Ted Pelton’s historical novel set during World War 2 and
the Fifties. The smooth fusion of alleged fact and fiction, of pop culture and progressive politics,
calls to mind E.L. Doctorow’s Ragtime or Billy Bathgate. But, given Pelton’s technical daring,
especially with structure and point of view, there is actually a closer affinity with Robert Coover’s
masterfully innovative The Public Burning. By any measure, Pelton has produced a novel, or
more precisely, an intricate choreography of sometimes disparate-seeming narratives, with
admirable intelligence and dexterity. Harold Jaffe, editor, Fiction International, and author of numerous works

Fast, hypnotic, and heartfelt, Malcolm and Jack somehow manages to be frenzied and reflective,
factual and speculative, all at once. A wild dash through an alternate American history.
George Saunders, author of The Brief and Frightening Reign of Phil

Malcolm and Jack hallucinates an audacious, absurd romp through an alternative hepcat history.
Pelton’s speculations revere and desecrate an American iconography that, now more than ever,
is sorely in need of both.    Daniel Nester, author of God Save My Queen I and II

One has the impression of reading cultural history, regardless of the liberties Pelton takes with
facts, because the account of this fertile period seems so vivid and characteristic. In ways not
approached by journalistic accounts, Malcolm and Jack surrounds us with a period and a way of life,
bringing America’s past of exuberance and violence to a new consciousness.
R.M. Berry, author of Dictionary of Modern Anguish

This is not nostalgia, but a genuine re-imagining of postwar desire. Tune in to Lady Day, jailed
on a heroin conviction, as she discovers another possibility for getting through the night. Drop in
with Jack as he tries to escape the prison of domestic suburbia, or drop out with Brother Malcolm
as he and Bill Burroughs almost do business. The music of the prose sings, rocks, jives and bebops.
Jeffrey DeShell, author of Peter: An (A)Historical Romance

Praise for Ted Pelton's Previous Fiction

for Endorsed by Jack Chapeau (Starcherone Books, 2000; revised ed. forthcoming, 2006)

This masterful kaleidoscopic hall of mirrors is a vivid tableau from our multiple life’s other side.
No joke, folks. These are the echoes about two minutes after the initial blast. And you thought it
was beer? Lucky you’ve got Ted Pelton minding the store!     Robert Creeley

The effect generated by these pieces is nearly visceral--powerful and not easily forgotten . . . one
of the most potent experiences I’ve had reading literature.    Cris Mazza

Pelton’s seven short fictions problematize the reality of postwar America by asking us to think beyond
what we’ve come to know as numb spectators of the electric box and bored participants in the theater
of our own absurd lives.     Review of Contemporary Fiction

Pelton’s voice asserts itself with power and grace, and the stories take forms that take off.
Rain Taxi Review of Books

Marvellous, pocket-sized and funny as hell, Endorsed by... is a short sharp retort to the whole idea
of a ‘novel,’ and almost a genre of text to itself. Great stuff.”    Slate (UK)

Considerably darker and more politically and aesthetically challenging than much of what passes
for mainstream domestic fiction in the current marketplace.    Buffalo News

for Bhang (BlazeVox Books, 2004)

Bhang is a magical book. I loved Fried's journey with Anders and Sylvia, and the strange relation each
had with the dead filmmaker Antoine, and the silence that steals over him as though he had just had
sex, that unreal place of catching up. I admire the courage with which Pelton tells what seems to be
a simple tale, and instead it sneaks up on the reader to flatten his ass into submission. And I keep
telling people about the drink that is so emotive that when you taste it, you can experience the emotion
of the person who brews it up. I get just such sensual DNA from this book. Kevin Killian

If John Cheever had done psychedelics he might have ended up with Bhang. The casual easiness of the
voice coupled with the strangeness of the experience described, ends up being quite unexpected
and quite disarming. Brian Evenson