Trike and Lola in Synthetic American, indie bookseller Josh Cook's debut novel, will be published by Melville House in late 2014. The book, which Cook describes as a "skewed detective novel," has the basic elements of a classic detective story. There's the abrasive, semi-alcoholic detective, the femme fatale and the by-the-book cop, among other noirish archetypes. But they're all a bit unusual. The femme fatale, for example, is a radical feminist artist, and the search for a missing person, in which they all become embroiled, does not go the way a detective case is supposed to go.
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| photo: Emily Hamm Daigle | |
Cook, who is 33, has worked at Porter Square Books in Cambridge, Mass., for nine years and has been writing, in some form or another, since he was a teenager. He grew up in Lewiston, Maine, and holds a B.A. in English from St. Michael's College in Colchester, Vt. He moved to Boston a few years after graduating, with few specific goals other than continuing his writing. He applied for a job at Porter Square Books after seeing a help wanted sign in the storefront, and has been there since.
Asked how bookselling has influenced his writing, Cook said, "I don't know if it's influenced content necessarily, but it has made sure I'm as current as possible in terms of what's being written today. It adds to the words you know, to the kinds of storytelling you know is possible because somebody did it before you."
Cook pointed to the short stories "The Purloined Letter" by Edgar Allan Poe and Lydia Davis's "We Miss You," along with the work of authors Ron Currie Jr., Victor LaValle, César Aira and Isaac Asimov, as particularly influential to his writing. Cook's taste skews to the "edgier, literary" side of things, and he enjoys pulp detective novels, genre fiction and poetry.
Before becoming one of Melville House's authors, Cook made a connection with Dennis Johnson and others at the publishing house during his time at Porter Square Books. Melville House's books are frequent staff picks, and Cook described himself as a "big fan" of its lists. After finishing the manuscript for Trike and Lola in Synthetic American, he sent it to Melville House, figuring that it would be a good fit.
He plans to throw a launch event at Porter Square Books when the book hits stores, but beyond that it's too early to plan other events and readings. Said Cook: "I'm not afraid of a microphone, so I would love to do some kind of event series." --Alex Mutter