Gary Oldman...
What Books Press, 2017 (Available @ Amazon & IndieBound)
Unemployed, aimless, stuck in a mundane relationship with
a burned-out social worker, an anonymous writer (of some sort) awaits the phone
call that he believes will change their fortunes: his being hired to script a
television commercial featuring renowned actor Gary Oldman. In preparation for the momentous day,
his various obsessions connected to Oldman's cinematic career hold forth,
including the return of his girlfriend's marginally "famous" sister
from a Los Angeles psychiatric ward and her ensuing disappearance, as well as
his questionable attraction to them both. But once the quasi-narrative of assorted characters he creates for her consolation
over the lost sister begins, the only story to prevail may be an
inescapable echo chamber of Oldman's dialogic influence into which everything
and everyone must fall.
"Gary Oldman Is a
Building You Must Walk Through is a gloriously entrancing 'elaboration,'
an obsession in prose. One wonders at Gary Oldman, containing multitudes: Wittgenstein's
Nephew comes to mind, though so do Notable American Women, The Making
of Americans, I
Looked Alive. 'This is something which the I hasn't been trained for,' we're
told. Indeed." -- Gabriel Blackwell, author
of Madeleine
E.
"A tessellation of
spinning faces—some legendary, some just neurotic—Forrest Roth’s Gary
Oldman Is a Building You Must Walk Through is a playful pattern,
masterfully tailored, as though for a famous actress, a red carpet star.
Perhaps without blushing, perhaps she signs her autograph." -- Lily Hoang, author of A
Bestiary
"Like an exploded
villanelle, or Oulipo with invisible constraints, this darkly playful
Beckettian monologue maps a syntactically circuitous route to the meaning of
fame, violence, interiority, and language itself. It's smart, it's mysterious,
and it's damn funny." -- Shya Scanlon, author of The Guild of Saint
Cooper
"Gary Oldman Is a
Building You Must Walk Through is an insanely original, hyperreal romp through the
simulacra of celebrity and culture and celebrity culture. In this sprawling
monologue of a book, Roth proves that a novel can be just that: novel. There
are no precedents." -- Ryan Ridge, author of American
Homes
REVIEWS
Melissa Gunrow @ The Coil (July 2019)
Travis McDonald @ The Rupture (Feb. 2019)
Jeff Gilliland @ Atticus Review (Feb. 2018)
Spencer Dew @ decomP (Sept. / Oct. 2017)
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SELECTIONS
"The Signature of a Gentle Man as Sid Vicious" and "At the Hotel Chelsea, Your Dreams Are Only a Body Bag" @ Heavy Feather Review
"Execution Letters" @ The Rupture
"As a Social Worker, With Your Keatsian Flair" @ Vestiges_00
"Your Famous Sister Walking Through a Plate-Glass Door..." @ Black Sun Lit
"Five Introducers at a Public Reading for Sid Vicious and Gary Oldman" @ Anomalous
"Gary Oldman Is a Building We Must Walk Through" @ alice blue review
REVIEWS
Melissa Gunrow @ The Coil (July 2019)
Travis McDonald @ The Rupture (Feb. 2019)
Jeff Gilliland @ Atticus Review (Feb. 2018)
Spencer Dew @ decomP (Sept. / Oct. 2017)
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED SELECTIONS
"The Signature of a Gentle Man as Sid Vicious" and "At the Hotel Chelsea, Your Dreams Are Only a Body Bag" @ Heavy Feather Review
"Execution Letters" @ The Rupture
"As a Social Worker, With Your Keatsian Flair" @ Vestiges_00
"Your Famous Sister Walking Through a Plate-Glass Door..." @ Black Sun Lit
"Five Introducers at a Public Reading for Sid Vicious and Gary Oldman" @ Anomalous
"Gary Oldman Is a Building We Must Walk Through" @ alice blue review
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