Streets Of Philadelphia – Bruce Springsteen
Goodbye Philadelphia – Peter Cincotti
Avenue de Jerry Wilson Park
Translated from the English by Luc Baranger
Zanzibar éditions
126 pages
14 euros
PARC AVENUE
There’s talk of news, but we’ve been lied to again. Decidedly so. In fact, these are not short stories, but rather a fake first novel. “Park Avenue” to signify a (more or less) green space. But not too green. We read about the tiny lives of tramps, homeless people, alcoholics, drug addicts & Co, who hang out along the sidewalks of the invisible. The universe is set: a good subprime crisis, affecting the banking and financial system. But who cares? We’re a long way from all that. And there’s no money.
ENCORE UN FOUTU SAMEDI SOIR
The author, born in Idaho, is Jerry Wilson. In fact, he still lives there. He has filled his life with a mosaic of jobs: H.P. nurse, janitor, sewage treatment plant worker, grocery store clerk, truck driver, construction worker, jewelry salesman, and finally park ranger. “Park ranger. Here we are. With a sharp eye and an insider’s – almost surgical – knowledge of this ramshackle milieu, these episodes + shows + encounters form a screen/echo in his mind and drive him to want to (learn to) write.
JERRY WILSON & PARC AVENUE
126 pages of hard-hitting action. Swiveller, employed by the municipality but a veteran of the underworld, takes us by the hand and introduces us to his playmates. From dirty tricks to domestic violence, from immoral sexuality to human waste, we’re taken for a ride. It’s almost like a fitness trail, just so rhythmically paced that the anguish and disgust sometimes grab you by the gut. Thank goodness for the sense of humor. And it’s with a lovely sneer, almost cheek to cheek, that we take pleasure in delving “on the side of shit”, to cast the gentlest of glances at these off-lifers, with eyes that make ours droop.
It’s a book that doesn’t teach any lessons about existence, nor is it invested with any kind of life-saving mission, but it does create an “exotic curiosity”, and a fine one at that. Go and read something that stinks, you’ll see.
Elisa Palmer
Cette publication est également disponible en : Français (French)
