June 28, 2005

Tom Jackson Recommends

"Paul A. Toth's two books -- 2003's Fizz and his most recent one, Fishnet, published this summer by Bleak House Books -- are underappreciated," Jackson says. "I've read both and I couldn't deny my gut instinct: that they remind me of cubist paintings. Depicting worlds far from realistic, his books nonetheless capture the essence of the human struggle of reality versus our individual perceptions of it. Just like a cubist painting. I thought I was nuts.

"Then I read that Toth considers Paul Klee "a major influence" on his writing. I no longer considered myself nuts; Toth, on the other hand...

"Actually, in both Fizz and Fishnet, Toth creates characters who remain likeable despite (or perhaps because of) their deep flaws. Like a cubist painter who puts all of a portrait subject's physical characteristics on the canvas -- front, back, top, bottom, etc. -- Toth shows the different sides of his characters by juxtaposing contradictory thoughts and descriptions within the same paragraph, sometimes even the same sentence. In doing so, he captures common yet complex emotions, such as the conflict between blissful ignorance and isolating, paranoid self-consciousness. His books feature darkly comic storylines told with a deft ironic tone, yet both books cover such familiar, relatable human ground that they are ultimately reassuring."

Tom Jackson is Associate Publisher of the literary journal Night Train. He is also an advertising copywriter/PR specialist and an award-winning filmmaker, once taught himself how to type in Russian, and talks a far better baseball game than he plays. This photo of Tom is the one his wife Deb (Night Train's Circulation Manager) keeps in her wallet.

If you'd like to recommend an underappreciated book for this series, please send mail to llalami at yahoo dot com.

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