Loved HHIFA, looking forward to your next book.

PL: It’s the shit. That book blew my mind. Nobody writes like that, and few editors allow authors to challenge readers the way Sabbag did. The flashes forward and backward are like the literary equivalent of Easy Rider.

The description of the old dealer in South America has little to do with the main story, and yet its some of the most memorable stuff in the book.

And if any of you ever want to know what it’s like to speak to Phil A. Lawyer live, pick up a copy of the movie Thunder Man and listen to the interview with Ben Kramer… Benny and Phil sound soo much alike… It’s eerie.

PL: Fuck… That reminds me, I have to put up the link to the Danny Bonaduce interview here.

Mt lisp isn’t that bad.

i loved it, it reminded me a bit of your stuff, and the first 50 pages or so are pure escapist greatness

PL: I haven’t read it, but he is a great author, and the nerve he exhibited in taking a shit on Lonely Planet like he did is alone commendable. I wouldn’t want to have his legal bills.

It’s terrific! Not perfect by any stretch, but so honest and down to earth and REAL, something truly strange and lacking in most modern writers i’ve read. You really nailed it, it creates real empathy with anyone that reads it, no matter what background they may have (And i think empathy helps to just ignore any of the flaws it may have). I didnt study law and i dont even live in the same continent as you do, and I still related to pretty much every little thing in here. The characters, the idiocy, the ignorance, ugliness, chaos and drunkenness of it all. Maybe it’s a generational thing for any capitalist-ish nation, some DNA mutation that’s just natural given the society we were raised in. As a kid who’s just out of college and jumped head first into the circus that adulthood is, it really gives me hope. In a “thank god, it’s not just me” sort of way, but hope nonetheless.

Keep it coming, Im looking forward for whatever it is you do next. I think you’ve already demonstrated your writing talent can stretch out beyond taking a dump on your law career, so dont drop the ball. And again, congrats on the book! Easily among the top 5 most memorable books i’ve read in years, and i already ordered a couple more copies to give out in xmas.

PL: Thanks. This is among the best responses I’ve enjoyed. You’re not alone at all. Most of us think the same thing. I just wrote it.

PL: I haven’t read Carlin’s memoirs yet. On MD, it’s the shit. Really underrated, unrecognized writing.

I also recommend Sperm Wars by Robin Baker and The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, two completely different books with brutal senses of humor.

PL: Dice Man looks really funny. Thanks. Sperm Wars I know well. It’s been on the Amazon list of books people who buy mine also purchase since I published.

PL: I write like I speak, so the charge of the prose was always there. But absolutely his work was an influence, one I wear openly.

PL: For most of us, life, or at least the good part of it, is a series of small escapes, the trick being finding a way to link them together with the shortest available interludes… a scattered archipelago of vacations crowding out the detritus of toil demanded to pay for them.

PL: One of the best, along with Tom Wolfe’s.