You’ll have to judge for yourself whether Lorette C. Luzajic takes the confessional art form a little too far. But here, you CAN judge a book by its cover. The cover, a painting of the author by Iaian Greenson, is cool and colourful, laden with pop art symbolism, and has the longest book title I’ve ever heard: Weird Monologues for a Rainy Life (irreverent ramblings from the end of the world.)  And all of those things are exactly what you get inside- a very cool mishmash of a very cool writer with colourful life experiences. Most of the stories are first person narratives, and yes, some of them are weird, and there’s a certain nihilism and despair that goes with Lorette’s lifelong depression.

And yet there aren’t many writers who tackle murder, suicide, cirrhosis,  AIDS, addiction, and why Bob Dylan sucks while managing hilarity. It’s a collection of book reviews and blogs abut pop culture, and a few eulogies, and yet somehow it’s all about transcendence. “Never, Marge, never!” Lorette quotes Homer Simpson on the first page. “I can’t live the button-down life you. I want it all: the terrifying lows, the dizzying highs, the creamy middles.”

This is intense living. “I see the world as if portents and signs are everywhere,” Lorette says in a manifesto called Voodoo: Art Can Bend Your Mind. “There are no borders between religion, ritual, art and everyday life.” And she takes us through this expansive world: one minute, we’re reading about a crazy artist named Oli Goldsmith and how he’s making 999 portraits of Borat. And the next, Lorette’s comparing Eminem to Johnny Cash- quite convincingly, I might add. And amid all the drugs and death, there is also Nancy Drew, the Teletubbies, the gay church, George Bush, and constant celebrity chatter that somehow ties into the meaning of life.

I have to admit I found the continuity a bit confusing, but I think that’s the point. It’s really like a giant magazine, and you read one article at a time. I love how candid and clever the writing is one moment, sometimes bitchy, sometimes academic. The writer really brings other people’s stories alive. And her personal stories somehow end up being about the audience, echoing our anxieties and struggles, asking us to look at things in a whole new way.

By distilling her internet empire into one book- well, two, because the sequel is coming soon as this one got too long- we get a uniquely accessible package- a designer package, actually, very stylish, too as the product was designed by international talent sensation Gonzalo de Cardenas. The book is illustrated throughout with the surrealism of rising star Caroline Bacher, perfectly weird for the flavour. Don’t miss this highly original collection. You’ll keep it first on your coffee table to impress your fashionable guests- but this is one of those books that will move to your night table and stay there forever.

Weird Monologues for a Rainy Life (irreverent ramblings from the end of the world)
by Lorette C. Luzajic
Handymaiden Press, 2009
available at Amazon
www.amazon.com
visit the author at www.thegirlcanwrite.net