This Side of Jordan cover image

Monte Schulz tours West Coast for THIS SIDE OF JORDAN

MONTE SCHULZ TOURS WEST COAST IN SEPT.-OCT. TO PROMOTE THE RELEASE OF THE NEW NOVEL, THIS SIDE OF JORDAN

This September, Fantagraphics Books will publish This Side of Jordan, a novel by Monte Schulz. To support the release, the author will tour thirteen cities on the West Coast in September and October:

Fri., Sept. 25, 8PM • Southern California Writers Conf., Irvine, CA

Mon., Sept. 28, 7PM • Chaucer’s Books, Santa Barbara, CA

Wed., Sept. 30, 7PM • Mysterious Galaxy Books, San Diego, CA

Thurs., Oct. 1, 6PM • Laguna Beach Books, Laguna Beach, CA

Sat., Oct. 3, 5PM • Skylight Books, Los Angeles, CA

Sun., Oct. 11, 11AM • Wordstock Festival, Portland, OR

Tues., Oct. 13, 7PM • Third Place Books, Seattle, WA

Wed., Oct. 14, 7:30PM • Tsunami Books, Eugene, OR

Tues., Oct. 20, 7PM • Modern Times Bookstore, San Francisco, CA

Wed., Oct. 21, 7PM • Copperfield’s Books, Santa Rosa, CA

Thurs., Oct. 22, 7PM • Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA

Sat., Oct. 24, 2PM • The Bookseller, Mill Valley, CA

Wed., Oct. 28, 7PM • Time Tested Books, Sacramento, CA

“Monte Schulz's novel This Side of Jordan shows that Like Father Like Son —both superb!” — RAY BRADBURY

“Schulz proves himself to be a handy wordsmith in this literarily ambitious novel of pre-Depression America. Hand this straight-faced and multifaceted almost-satire to fans of the southern gothic tradition, all the way from Flannery O’Connor to John Kennedy Toole.”  — BOOKLIST, Sept. 2009

"I just finished reading a review copy, and I think this is a truly great American novel.  Certainly I have not read anything by a modern American (white male) that I have so thoroughly enjoyed in my 13+ years at Tsunami Books.  I won’t go into the tale; suffice to say those who read this book will bear witness to the beginnings of a great new (American) voice, that upholds for the power of innocence in a long, dark era."  — SCOTT LANDFIELD, TSUNAMI BOOKS (Eugene, OR)

ABOUT THIS SIDE OF JORDAN:
In the idyllic last American summer before the great stock market crash of ’29, nineteen year-old farm boy Alvin Pendergast somehow decides he can escape a fatal relapse of tuberculosis by accepting the offer of a job across the Mississippi River from a slick-talking stranger who seems everything poor Alvin is not: smart, sharply-dressed, well-acquainted, and without a worry in the world. But beneath appearances Chester Burke is also a gangster and a sociopathic killer. On their traveling road through the small towns of the Midwest, Alvin quickly discovers how ignorant he is of life beyond the farm.

Fortunately, he finds another companion for this harrowing journey, a curious and clever dwarf whose own pathetic life has offered little resistance to fate, until the circumstances of Chester’s cruel itinerary forces both him and Alvin to seek another path, if they hope to survive.

This Side Of Jordan is a story of another America, eighty years distant yet familiar, too, a vibrant and scandalous tapestry of eccentric characters from a nation embroiled in criminal liquor traffic, thrilled by Jazz Age fads and frolic, drunk amid the glittering showgrounds of a booming circus whose flag-topped tents are about to come down. Through mayhem and merriment, past the violence and hypocrisy of Prohibition, along miles of dirt roads and busy Main Streets, we see in this wonderfully evocative narrative a simple yearning for love and hope. This Side Of Jordan is about the distance we travel in America to find our rightful place.

This Side of Jordan is Monte Schulz’s second novel. His first, Down by the River, was published by Viking in 1991. Library Journal raved that it compared to Stand by Me and Twin Peaks, and seemed "ready-made for Hollywood." He spent ten years writing Crossing Eden, from which This Side Of Jordan is drawn as the first of three interconnected novels; the second and third, Fields of Eden and The Big Town, will be published in 2010 and 2011.

Schulz received his M.A. in American Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara. He lives in Northern California.

THIS SIDE OF JORDAN By Monte Schulz
$22.99 Hardcover • 320 pages
ISBN 978-1-60699-296-8
PUBLICATION DATE: September 23, 2009

MONTE SCHULZ COMPLETE TOUR LISTINGS:
Friday, Sept. 25, 8PM
Southern California Writer’s Conference
Crowne Plaza Hotel
17941 Von Karman
Irvine, CA 92614
http://www.writersconference.com/

Monday, Sept. 28, 7PM
Chaucer’s Books
Loreto Plaza
3321 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93105
Tel: 805.682.6787
http://www.chaucersbooks.com/

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 7PM
 Mysterious Galaxy Books
7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
Suite #302

San Diego, CA 92111

Tel: 858.268.4747

http://mysteriousgalaxy.booksense.com/NASApp/store/IndexJsp

Thursday, Oct. 1, 6PM
Laguna Beach Books
1200 South Coast Highway, Suite 105
Laguna Beach, CA 92651
Tel: 949.494.4779
http://www.lagunabeachbooks.com/

Saturday, Oct. 3, 5PM
Skylight Books
1818 N. Vermont Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90027
Tel: 323.660.1175
http://www.skylightbooks.com

Sunday, Oct. 11, 11AM
on the Big Stage
Wordstock Festival
Portland Convention Center
777 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR
Tel: 503.546.1012
http://www.wordstockfestival.com

Tuesday, Oct. 13, 7PM
Third Place Books
17171 Bothell Way NE
Lake Forest Park, WA 98155
Tel: 206.366.3316
www.thirdplacebooks.com

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 7:30PM
Tsunami Books
2585 Willamette Street
Eugene, OR 97405
Tel: 541.345.8986

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 7PM
Modern Times Bookstore
888 Valencia St.
San Francisco, CA 94110-1739
Tel: 415.282.9246
http://www.mtbs.com/

Wednesday, Oct. 21, 7PM
Copperfield’s Books
2316 Montgomery Drive
Santa Rosa, CA 95405
Tel: 707.578.8938
http://copperfieldsbooks.com/

Thursday, Oct. 22, 7PM
Book Passage
51 Tamal Vista Blvd.
Corte Madera, CA 94925
Tel: 415.927.0960 x239
http://www.bookpassage.com/

Saturday, Oct. 24, 2PM
The Bookseller
107 Mill St.
Grass Valley, CA 95945
Tel: 530.272.2131

Wednesday, Oct. 28, 7PM
Time Tested Books
1114 21st Street
Sacramento, CA 95811
Tel: 916.447.5696
http://www.timetestedbooks.net