I'm Not Scared of You or Anything

by Jon Paul Fiorentino

Fiction. Art. Illustrations by Maryanna Hardy. The characters in I'm not Scared of You or Anything are invigilators, fake martial arts experts, buskers, competitive pillow fighters, drug runners, and, of course, grad students. This collection of comedic short stories and exploratory texts is the ninth book by the critically acclaimed and award- winning author Jon Paul Fiorentino. Deftly illustrated by Maryanna Hardy, these texts ask important questions, like: How does a mild mannered loser navigate the bureaucratic terrain of exam supervision? What happens when you replace the text of Christian Archie comics with the text of Helene Cixous? And, most important of all, what would it be like if Mr. Spock was a character in the HBO series GIRLS?

Genres: Fiction, Short Stories

Unknown Binding

First published June 21, 2014

About the author

Jon Paul Fiorentino is the author of I'm Not Scared of You or Anything (Anvil Press) and Needs Improvement (Coach House Books). He is also the author of the novel Stripmalling which was shortlisted for the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction, and five poetry collections, including The Theory of the Loser Class, which was shortlisted for the A. M. Klein Prize and Indexical Elegies which won the 2010 CBC Books "Bookie" Award for Best Book of Poetry.

He has written for The National Post, Walrus, Maisonneuve, sub-Terrain, The Huffington Post, The Montreal Gazette, The Barnstomer, New American Writing, Hobo, Joyland, The Capilano Review, Event, The Winnipeg Review, The Queen Street Quarterly, fillingStation, Prism International, Opium and many other publications.

He lives in Montreal, where he teaches Creative Writing at Concordia University, is the editor-in-chief of Matrix magazine, is a poetry editor for Joyland, the poetry editor for the Snare Imprint of Invisible Publishing, and the fiction editor for the Serotonin/Wayside Imprint of Insomniac Press.

Reviews

[Jacqueline Valencia]

review in the upcoming summer 2014 DIY issue of Broken Pencil.

[Jessrawk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I almost forgot how much I adore Fiorentino's writing. Almost.

[Samira Soparkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved the writing style, with its mix of dark comedy and absurdity. May not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I could barely put it down.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this more than I did in the end. The actual product is a thing of beauty, from the minimalist cover to the illustrations throughout. My issues were more with the writing and the collection of stories. To the latter point, and this is a pet peeve of mine with short fiction collections, I didn't feel much in the way of connective tissue, thematic or otherwise, between the narratives. Illustrated entries like "Critical Theory Archie" and "Mr. Spock Says Things from Episodes of Girls" were cute and well illustrated, but felt as if they belonged in a different collection altogether—similarly with "Jon Paul Fiorentino Interviews His Mother," which holds the coveted final spot in the collection and again feels entirely removed from the rest. It reminds me of Lynn Coady's Hellgoing a bit (yes, that won the Giller, but I still don't know why—The Antagonist was worlds stronger) in that this feels more like a collection of B-sides that maybe didn't fit anywhere else.

To the other point I mentioned, this is my first Fiorentino book and, well, his writing just didn't do it for me. It's not bad, but I found his humour, which is more absurdist than sarcastic, with characters often blurting out shit that anyone else would be horrified to speak aloud, simply tried too hard. It was manufactured comedy, and just didn't feel natural. But then, humour is one of the more subjective things in this world, so keep that in mind. This is a try before you buy, absolutely.

[Andrew Dearborn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the stories are a little to dark for me but over all I really enjoyed the book. The art is great as well.