Frank Mundo's Blog - Posts Tagged "parody"
The Brubury Tales on Amazon's Bestseller List for Poetry
The Brubury Tales is currently #23 on Amazon's best-selling poetry books. Check it out.
Kindle --> http://www.amazon.com/The-Brubury-Tal...
Paperback (Illustrated edition) --> http://www.amazon.com/Brubury-Tales-I...
The Brubury Tales is a modern version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales set in Los Angeles just after the riots. Instead of pilgrims, The Brubury Tales follows 7 security guards on the graveyard shift, who agree to have a storytelling competition to determine vacation time. That is, whoever tells the best story receives the best vacation days, the week from Christmas to New Year's Eve.
The judge of the competition is the narrator, J.T. Glass, an English major at UCLA who describes the events and some 13 stories ("word for word" ) that are told throughout the night. Written entirely in rhyming verse, the tales themselves (based on classic stories*) are funny, sad, serious, political, romantic, religious, literary, satirical and downright dirty pieces that explore family, love, religion, race, marriage, government, education, sex and most importantly, friendship and our responsibilities to one another.
Awards for The Brubury Tales:
Poet Laureate Award Nomination from UCLA and CAL;
Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award for Poetry Book of the Year;
Bookhitch Award for the Most Innovative Book of Poetry; and
A Reason to Rhyme Award from Byline Magazine
*Dostoevsky, Dickens, Boccaccio, O Henry, Poe, Twain, Gilman, Crane, Saki, Anderson, Bierce, and even Khayyam's Rubaiyat.
Reviews
The Brubury Tales [by Frank Mundo] is a landmark book, in what is going to be -- and already is -- an exceptional, distinguished literary career. --Carolyn See of The Washington Post
Mundo's skill is astounding and has a natural cadence. These stories are intriguing and compellingly human, and soon enough the reading becomes listening. --Sacramento Book Review
With inspiration from many literary classics and plenty of original spin, The Brubury Tales is a fine collection and not one to be missed. --Midwest Book Review
The Brubury Tales is a brilliant blend of writing, combining the style of Chaucer while putting a new slant on the short stories of the classical writers. --Reader Views
A unique and powerful new book,The Brubury Tales draws upon Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and classic stories by Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens, to name a few. Frank Mundo takes risks with his writing, which is sensitive, thoughtful, and gritty. --LA Books Examiner
"The Brubury Tales by Frank Mundo is a bold homage to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Mundo defamiliarizes the tale by placing it in Los Angeles in 1992 shortly after the Riots. Seven security guards on the grave-yard shift swap stories in verse... 232 pages of words, Mundo attributes his 14 years of working as a security guard on the grave-yard shift for his ability to complete long writing projects. His authentic L.A. childhood experiences came out in his verse..." -- Mike Sonksen for KCET.org.
Kindle --> http://www.amazon.com/The-Brubury-Tal...
Paperback (Illustrated edition) --> http://www.amazon.com/Brubury-Tales-I...
The Brubury Tales is a modern version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales set in Los Angeles just after the riots. Instead of pilgrims, The Brubury Tales follows 7 security guards on the graveyard shift, who agree to have a storytelling competition to determine vacation time. That is, whoever tells the best story receives the best vacation days, the week from Christmas to New Year's Eve.
The judge of the competition is the narrator, J.T. Glass, an English major at UCLA who describes the events and some 13 stories ("word for word" ) that are told throughout the night. Written entirely in rhyming verse, the tales themselves (based on classic stories*) are funny, sad, serious, political, romantic, religious, literary, satirical and downright dirty pieces that explore family, love, religion, race, marriage, government, education, sex and most importantly, friendship and our responsibilities to one another.
Awards for The Brubury Tales:
Poet Laureate Award Nomination from UCLA and CAL;
Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award for Poetry Book of the Year;
Bookhitch Award for the Most Innovative Book of Poetry; and
A Reason to Rhyme Award from Byline Magazine
*Dostoevsky, Dickens, Boccaccio, O Henry, Poe, Twain, Gilman, Crane, Saki, Anderson, Bierce, and even Khayyam's Rubaiyat.
Reviews
The Brubury Tales [by Frank Mundo] is a landmark book, in what is going to be -- and already is -- an exceptional, distinguished literary career. --Carolyn See of The Washington Post
Mundo's skill is astounding and has a natural cadence. These stories are intriguing and compellingly human, and soon enough the reading becomes listening. --Sacramento Book Review
With inspiration from many literary classics and plenty of original spin, The Brubury Tales is a fine collection and not one to be missed. --Midwest Book Review
The Brubury Tales is a brilliant blend of writing, combining the style of Chaucer while putting a new slant on the short stories of the classical writers. --Reader Views
A unique and powerful new book,The Brubury Tales draws upon Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and classic stories by Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens, to name a few. Frank Mundo takes risks with his writing, which is sensitive, thoughtful, and gritty. --LA Books Examiner
"The Brubury Tales by Frank Mundo is a bold homage to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Mundo defamiliarizes the tale by placing it in Los Angeles in 1992 shortly after the Riots. Seven security guards on the grave-yard shift swap stories in verse... 232 pages of words, Mundo attributes his 14 years of working as a security guard on the grave-yard shift for his ability to complete long writing projects. His authentic L.A. childhood experiences came out in his verse..." -- Mike Sonksen for KCET.org.
How to Read The Brubury Tales by Frank Mundo
A lot of people have told me that they want to read my poetry book The Brubury Tales but that they feel intimidated because of its size (the Brubury Tales is a 65,000-word rhyming poem that reimagines Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in Los Angeles after the 1992 Riots). They say they've never read such a large poem before and aren't sure how to go about it.
Usually I send them a link to a video of me reading or invite them to one of my readings to hear it live. And, once they hear me read a little of it, it seems they find that it's really very accessible -- and not much different than reading other novels.
With this in mind, check out this recording of The General Prologue, the opening chapter of The Brubury Tales I did in a recording studio a while back. The studio time was a prize I won for winning a Spoken Word poetry contest at the Rapp Saloon in Santa Monica, California.
Check it out and see for yourself how a novel-in-verse sounds.
https://soundcloud.com/frank-mundo
Usually I send them a link to a video of me reading or invite them to one of my readings to hear it live. And, once they hear me read a little of it, it seems they find that it's really very accessible -- and not much different than reading other novels.
With this in mind, check out this recording of The General Prologue, the opening chapter of The Brubury Tales I did in a recording studio a while back. The studio time was a prize I won for winning a Spoken Word poetry contest at the Rapp Saloon in Santa Monica, California.
Check it out and see for yourself how a novel-in-verse sounds.
https://soundcloud.com/frank-mundo
