covered in sharpie and suing for peace

by Adam Johnson

Adam Johnson is a top rank contender in the octagon of outsider lit. This collection of poetry grapples readers with a singular voice that is wilding out and at the same time remains intellectually fulfilling. Adam's eclectic style is influenced by the masters Voltaire, William Thackeray, Celine, Hans Fallada, Kafka, and Burroughs. These words are ground and pound right from the bell. Adam is the author of the novel Cialis, Verdi, Gin, Jag (Anxiety Press/Prism Thread Books) and the poetry collections What Are You Doing Out Here Alone, Away from Everyone (HASH Press) and White Paint Falling Through a Filtered Shaft (Anxiety Press). Pig Roast Publishing is pleased to present Adam’s latest work of poetry, covered in sharpie and suing for peace.

191 pages, Hardcover

Published July 22, 2023

Reviews

[Jesse Hilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A challenging, raw, hilarious and scary amalgamation of voices and styles. Reading this book is like standing at the bottom of a linguistic waterfall and absorbing the rush of water along with all the detritus it carries: pop culture, legalese, textspeak, horrifying Burroughsian characters behaving like utter shits to comic effect. There’s a lot of gunplay; Johnson’s coordinate points are positioned well within the territory of 2nd Amendment America. But more so, there’s a feeling of suburban America disintegrating under the pressure of relentlessly searching minds chattering and muttering to each other in the dark interstitial spaces.

In a way the poetry book is novelistic, it is one mass of language in the way that the plastic in the ocean forms one undifferentiated body of human culture discarded. The question is: do you want to look closely at the plastic island for clues about the culture that once was, that produced it? With this book, you do. The nuggets of jokes and rueful observation about how people relate and how they live life speaking to each other are as plentiful as bottles at the mega liquor store in your city. It’s funny as fuck in places. Reading this book along with Johnson’s other poetry books (What Are You Doing Alone Out Here, Away From Everyone? (HASH Books) and White Paint Falling Through A Filtered Shaft (Anxiety Press)) is like going to a trio of hot springs where you dip into pools that get progressively hotter and more infused with therapeutic minerals — good for you but caustic to your skin.

This book would make a great spoken word LP or audiobook. It should really be read aloud. Johnson is a master ventriloquist doing karaoke numbers at the TS Eliot nightclub, always funny but here there is some real pain hissing in the recording’s background. Death, real estate, fatherhood, court appearances, meeting up for drinks, prostitution—everything gets expelled in a verbal stream that artfully mirrors the digital blob of information that we all as inheritors of modern culture absorb on a daily basis online. I said “artfully mirrors the digital blob” — this seems to be the compositional riddle of our time: how to create literature that reflects the consciousness the machines have given us this year, this month, this week, this hour? No one can do it perfectly, and Johnson doesn’t either, but his fireworks display are worth the show.

One note about the style. If you’ve been reading Johnson all along you will notice a Berrymanesque syntactical flux that has increased over the books. I say Berrymanesque but it is as original as pollution. Johnson’s lingo innovations are more than half the draw: “Byron the Kisser had an allergic reaction to the judge but he was just an alternate so they let him go it was nearly female on female terrorism indict me I’ll commit suicide at sentencing the gsr testing got me that’s gun shot residue for the uninitiated this is all paregoric written from my Subaru with bitters I take it back all of it this is short and to the point I’ll suck king from my navel fr I do not fear alcohol and the night I fear the night because of what I will DM you sweet prince.”

Berryman echoes: “he treads not on shore / but in the deep, that’s logical / a passing wave laughs in tenor / at his sinning, and quips / about time / this is all in a second book / that Kotton is reading / until he playfully bookmarks / and listens to audio of / the scotuses and their gavelings / wave / shock / relentless humor / a leaked opinion / relief”

Later, a prosecutor in court says: “your honor has exhibited indicia of the wrong belief system. judge, i want the record to reflect that you have sprouted fangs and a nose leaf.” The judge “cracks her knuckles, removes her robe, mutates into a bat, flies from the courtroom through an open window in the direction of a full moon and is shot out of the sky by bailiffs.”

[C. Morgenrede · Rating 5 out of 5]

Adam Johnsons' unflinching avalanche of wordplay, sweeter than molasses whit, x-rated cockney humor, and lovable cartoon character inspirations all come to life in "covered in sharpie and suing for peace." There is no one poem to focus on here. Sure, there should be praise for pieces like "dent ina book," "downhill," "covered in sharpie and suing for peace," and of course, "the nonconsensual dissemination of private sexual images." But this book is a whirlwind of different ways writing exists, it's like every single surface for language creation manifests itself, with great skill focused towards Larson's adventures as a cartoonish fella with friends better than butter cream; the language Adam employs works so well to not only transform tone, but to warp continuity, you remain completely unaware but at the mercy of pure description, pure violent feeling, playing with a dogs ass is just normal ole Larson, same with the escpades of Kotton, Bruce the Spider, fat-lungs, sneaky pete, and so forth, you'll read right on past the fourth or fifth iPhone reference and mentioning of coloring swastikas and the like, the ease-with-whichness that pervades every line of glued together text destroys what you once thought was comforting prose, this kind of writing is something untouchable in the indie lit scene. Adam Johnson continues to set a standard not only for himself, but for what we should all be doing when expressing the world around us. covered in sharpie and suing for peace is experimental writing at it's core, and you're encouraged to see the madness of law, witness the cruel injustice of writing, and laugh at a world gone completely bonkers dude, lol: COWABUNGA!

[Colin Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was going to say of Adam Johnson's exquisite iPhone/Android collection of poems 'covered in sharpie and suing for peace' that it is not for everyone, it is after all a collection of stream of consciousness poems that seems obsessed with guns, blow, and gay sex, but have to change that to that it is actually a book for everyone, since there is something in here for everyone. A confession: I have not read the whole thing yet, because this book is in fact one of my favorite possessions and I am rationing it off like spiked lemonade. I take it around everywhere with me and read off a page or two a day, because every line is like opening a present, whatever has hatched this time from AJ's brain. Here we also have sneaky insights into not just the lawyering and lowlifes from AJ's own history, but his skanky heterosexual take on gay cruising, and the love of firearms only appreciable in the midwestern united states. Bang bang bang! Great oldschool case laminated hardcover edition from Pig Roast Publishing makes for one of the great indie lit purchases of 2023.

[Jeff A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Goes great with a bottle of brown liquor and a 12 inch cigar in the park.

[Kristen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely a fan of Adam Johnson's writing and this book, cover and binding, looks great in my home library.

[Peter Landau · Rating 4 out of 5]

The way we get fucked up today.