- Paperback: 220 pages
- Publisher: Murder Slim Press (Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0955131502
- ISBN-13: 978-0955131509
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 486,166 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
"Summer had made it so stifling up here on the fifth floor I could hardly breathe. I was sweating all over again and it was only seven-thirty. My hands were as crimson as boiled lobsters and still faintly burning. I leaned over and switched on my ancient, dust-coated portable electric fan. Then I closed my eyes and tried to find a dream."
"Hating Olivia" is the story of Max Zajack. Max's life is a rut filled with dead-end jobs and sexual and suicidal fantasies... until he meets the alluring and mysterious Olivia Aphrodite. But Olivia has a dark side... one driven by the need to make ends meet. Soon she and Max descend into a downward spiral of sex, sleaze and mutual destruction...
"Hating Olivia" is the first book release by Murder Slim Press ("The Savage Kick Literary Magazine") and features an introduction by Dan Fante ("Mooch", "Chump Change", "Spitting Off Tall Buildings") in which he hails it as "the kind of book - the kind of memoir - that must have been lived first. Survived. So strap yourself in. It's time for a real treat."
From the Publisher
Mark SaFranko's "Hating Olivia" is ideal for fans of the great low-life writers: the savage honesty of John Fante, the ballsy blasts of Bukowski, the sleazy confessionals of Dan Fante and the cutting visions of Henry Miller.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
Hmmm, I don't know how to review this without regurgitating other people's opinions - "raw, unflinching prose etc". Well, I felt this to be clever and subtle, with a narrator that seemed like a real, three-dimensional person. A struggling guy, he vaguely wants to be a writer, works in pretty bleak dead-end jobs, ends up in an intense relationship with a girl he meets in a bar.
It was pretty compelling and interesting, I read it all quite quickly.
People perhaps group SaFranko along with Bukowski and the Fante(s), as writers who deal with a kind of low-rent American experience. This is maybe not quite so booze drenched but more sexually explicit... And quite a distinct character who definitely stands apart from the shadow of these other people.
It was pretty compelling and interesting, I read it all quite quickly.
People perhaps group SaFranko along with Bukowski and the Fante(s), as writers who deal with a kind of low-rent American experience. This is maybe not quite so booze drenched but more sexually explicit... And quite a distinct character who definitely stands apart from the shadow of these other people.
Format:Paperback
I really enjoyed this book. I'm a big fan of Dan Fante and Bukowski, and though SaFranko's style and subject matter is similar, he emerges with enough of a distinctive voice to carry it off.
Much of the writing is deadpan in the sense that he does not elaborate on his own or Olivia's motives, leaving us as readers to fill the gaps for ourselves. The details of the relationship, based on lust rather than communication or empathy, are horrendously familiar when you've been in similar situations yourself. From a starting point of hot sex and mutual flattery, the couple over time fail to overcome the mundane challenges of living together, turning each problematic situation into a damaging assault upon each other. I don't think SaFranko portrays himself as a victim, his unrelenting honesty achieves quite the opposite effect of making us question his actions as much as hers, though his disdain for Olivia's craving for a bourgois existence is searing.
Ultimately, the couple use the very things which bound them together in the first place as weapons - sex becomes a power game and flattery turns to spite. The overall effect is compelling. Highly recommended.
Much of the writing is deadpan in the sense that he does not elaborate on his own or Olivia's motives, leaving us as readers to fill the gaps for ourselves. The details of the relationship, based on lust rather than communication or empathy, are horrendously familiar when you've been in similar situations yourself. From a starting point of hot sex and mutual flattery, the couple over time fail to overcome the mundane challenges of living together, turning each problematic situation into a damaging assault upon each other. I don't think SaFranko portrays himself as a victim, his unrelenting honesty achieves quite the opposite effect of making us question his actions as much as hers, though his disdain for Olivia's craving for a bourgois existence is searing.
Ultimately, the couple use the very things which bound them together in the first place as weapons - sex becomes a power game and flattery turns to spite. The overall effect is compelling. Highly recommended.
Format:Paperback
This novel is great. No tricks, no show boating, nothing bogus. Mark SaFranko gives us his world view raw and unadulterated. Like all great writers SaFranko's prose looks easy but try writing like him and you know you can only do it if you've lived like him. All those little things that challenge us every day are presented here realistically and with humour. I've not read anything that excited me as much as this since Dan Fante's "Spitting Off Tall Buildings". Check out www.murderslim.com for more info on SaFranko and his sequel "Lounge Lizard" and also links to a great literary magazine, The Savage Kick.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Take a bite out of this reality sandwich...
Dan Fante, in his introduction to Hating Olivia is spot on. The only way to read Hating Olivia is in one sitting; if you get the book, get the writing, there's no other way to read... Read more
Published on 2 July 2007 by Z
Book of the Decade
This book is brilliant. Buy it, read it, be astounded, and then keep on the look out for the next installtion, Lounge Lizard, which I've been told will be available anytime... Read more
Published on 15 May 2007 by Mr. Joseph Ridgwell
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