Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Wishlist Wednesday: The Ideal, Genuine Man by Don Robertson

This has been on my wishlist for several years now, and no need to wonder why. Don Robertson, my all-time lit hero wrote it. I'm not even sure what the storyline of The Ideal, Genuine Man is about. All I know is that it was published by Stephen King's Philtrum Press, King wrote the foreword and the two of them, Robertson and King, went on a U.S. book tour together. Published in 1987, this was Robertson's third-to-last book. I expect it has its share of darkness and grim humor. I'm up for that!

Speaking of Don Robertson, there is finally a cover picture up at Amazon for The Greatest Thing Since Sliced Bread. It's beautifully done. I was worried it wouldn't be good.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Woo-hoo! With a cover endorsement from Stephen King, this one could do well; heck, it WILL do well!!!

Sam said...

I tried to comment a couple days ago and Blogger went down right when I hit the "enter" button, so here goes again.

I know that I've tormented you about my first edition of the book, personalized by both Don and King, but I wanted to quote from the bookflap itself to give everyone some idea of what the book is about:

"Set in Houston - a Houston which in Robertson's hands becomes a simmering nightmare landscape - it is the story of Herman Marschall, a retired truckdriver whose wife is dying of cancer and who is himself trying to come to grips with the fact of his own old age in a society where the elderly are discarded like empty beer-cans."

This book definitely shows Houston's underbelly...strangely, I picked it up and had it signed by the two guys at a River Oaks bookstore. River Oaks is perhaps the most prestigious neighborhood in Houston, filled with multi-million dollar homes. It seems like a strange bookstore to use for this book's Houston debut, but I suppose they sold more copies there than if they had used a store in a poorer part of the city. :-)

Bybee said...

Miami Heat,
I really have good feelings about the upcoming release. I plugged it over at bookcrossing...don't know if anyone replied though. They're a little cliquish.

Sam,
I'm so glad you gave a brief synopsis of the novel...it sounds great, vintage Robertson.
Yes, I'm jealous that you met both men at once and got an autograph, but you can torture me anytime...I love to hear about it!