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Set
several decades in the future, the nearly unrecognizable
Manhattan is made kinder and gentler by PeopleCare,
an umbrella organization of myriad victims’
rights groups whose members work their fingers
to the bone to make caring, compassion, and lowest-common-denominator
equality a federal law, now that they have already
fought for and won their campaigns for federal
prohibition on smoking and obesity, among other
unhealthy things.
Enter entrepreneur
Howell Langston Toland, who has learned absolutely
nothing in the seven years he’d
spent in jail for failure to recycle empty bottles.
To cash in on the prevailing zeitgeist, he creates
a new category of victimization, which encompasses
the broadest audience yet. Threatened by the brazen
invasion of its turf and the sudden popularity
of the new cause, PeopleCare mounts a counterattack
against the upstart. Toland, meanwhile, succumbs
to the more natural for him entrepreneurial mode
of thinking, urging his annoying followers to
become self-reliant so that he may cut them loose.
Vicious politics ensue . . .
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“Think of this book as the hilarious (and much farther
in the future) version of 1984. . . . The
witty dialogue and over-the-top situational comedy
add strength to this book. . . . Described easily,
this book is a passionate expression of what society
could become if we decide to stop living for ourselves.”
— the
Book Chubi
“This is real literature, skillfully interwining
the classical model of a picaresque novel and
the most modern views, topics, and language. .
. . I’d [have liked] to see the final scene
stronger and more definite. But then I decided
that maybe this book is just the beginning of
a series devoted to the adventures of Howell Toland
and the author did not want to put a full stop.
If this is the case, I wish I could subscribe
for the next book as well.” —
Natasha, St. Petersburg, Russia
“Although Ms. Galvin’s social and political leanings are considerably to the right
of mine, it is just so damned refreshing to read
a work of such topicality done with so much intelligence,
wit and panache. Few writers are willing
to take on the New York Zeitgeist as head-on as
Ms. Galvin does here, and to such effect. She
places the whole city in a fishbowl, and one can
spend hour after enjoyable hour watching the fish
wiggle by, one by one. . . . The work has inspired
me to look more closely at the other titles at
ENC Press. If they come close to matching Ms.
Galvin’s originality, then I’m sure
I’ve found the publishing oasis that so many
of us looking for bold, imaginative works of literature,
with an eye-popping timeliness, have been searching
for.” — Richard Margolin
“Satirical pleasures abound: moral exhibitionism
is everywhere in Gardner Galvin’s energetic
narrative, with escalating crusades against incorrect
behavior and attitudes. . . . Astutely, Gardner
Galvin renders these comic absurdities in a deliberately
stripped-down prose style; the deadpan approach
renders the narrative’s absurdities all
the more hilarious. . . . Perhaps Gardner Galvin’s
own background — growing
up in the final years of the Soviet Union —
keeps her alert to the dangerous irrationalities
of groupthink and the reduction of literature
to propaganda. Certainly, her honed intelligence
and satiric sensibility are long overdue. One
hopes Gardner Galvin and other tough-minded authors
are the leaders of a nascent battle against the
PC chokehold upon literature.” —
Prof. Steven D. Vivian, English Dept., South Suburban
College, IL
“[The Alphabet Challenge] is an adventure
through the logical conclusion of current trends
in political correctness — the same scourge
that ENC Press has emerged to challenge.”
— Julia Gorin, FoxNews
trade
paperback
5.25" X 8.25"
248 pp.
list price $17.95
ISBN-13: 978-0-9728321-0-6
ISBN-10: 0-9728321-0-6
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