Tacones

by Todd Klinck

Tacones is a hangout for a subculture of outlaws and rejects—crackhead murderers, transvestite prostitutes, biastogerontophiles, hustler boys, and addicts—all painfully beyond denial, searching for connection, solace, humour, thrills, sex, and the perfect high. A rollicking and caustic romp through the violent and ambivalent world of the Toronto after-hours scene. Descend, if you dare... Tacones was first published in 1997 after winning the 19th annual 3-Day Novel Contest. It was immediately praised for its raw, unflinching portrait of an underclass and was compared to John Rechy's City of Night . Tacones feels as disturbingly fresh as it did ten years ago and it seemed a fitting time to reissue this scurrilous little novel, warts and all.

Genres: Queer, Fiction

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

Reviews

[Nancy]

I found this on J. Kent Messum's 10 Books That Made Me Squirm list

http://jkentmessum.com/2014/04/14/10-...

[J. Kent Messum · Rating 5 out of 5]

Todd Klinck's 'Tacones' is no horror novel, yet it might be one of the most frightening and effective things you'll ever read. This short, but ambitious, book covers a wide spectrum of characters that come out to play long after the average person has gone to bed. It is dark, depressing, disconnected and delicious. Each of the stories woven into the pages has the ability to shock and awe any reader. This is a novel that gets you thinking. Eventually you'll realize that this kind of so-called 'fiction' might just be happening a lot closer to home.

[Andrea · Rating 4 out of 5]

This little book was brutal and horrific but I really liked it. I didn't realize until I finished that TACONES was the result (and winner) of an annual 3-day novel writing contest, which made me even more impressed with the book. Great vignettes about the trans and queer community in Toronto.

[Giselle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew of Todd Klinck from the Mandy Goodhandy podcast and from his column in Fab Magazine but didn't know he wrote a book. So it was a fun surprise to find this book at a thrift store

The book was uneven. I loved the stories about the Tacones bar. I could have done without the more disturbing and sadistic dead baby and turtle stories though.

I enjoy reading about the secret hidden histories of the city I live in. Tacones serves as an authentic peek into a lost Toronto.

[Griffin Saxon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A caustic look at the Counter-Culture Scene of Toronto in the 90s. Written as a series of vignettes with a cast of outcasts, romantics, crack-heads, and plenty of dead babies, this book is disorienting and nauseating from start to finish.