Ron Singer (Nigeria) reads from NORMAN’S COUSIN & OTHER WRITINGS in NYC

Jefferson Market Library
425 6^th Avenue, NY,NY
Saturday, September 30, 3pm

Ron Singer

Ron will be reading from his latest novel Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings (Unsolicited Press, Portland, OR, June 2023). The engine for this selection of writings from Brooklyn and Manhattan (1974-the present) is story-telling, but beneath the plots lurk layers of madness and magic, as well as startling, genre-busting juxtapositions. For example, two related stories, “Buying a Car” and “Selling a Car,” are N.Y. City picaresques combined with technical automotive detail and the history of a marriage. Written almost three decades apart, these two stories mirror their times, from the 1970s recession to the wave of immigration that was a by-product of the war in Afghanistan

Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings is full of allusions to literature and the other arts. “Simple” takes its title from Langston Hughes, and alludes to the history of rhythm-and-blues. “Carla, the Copy-Shop Girl,” a satirical libretto, is an analogue to Melville’s “Bartleby, The Scrivener,” with echoes of Horatio Alger. “The Rented Pet” combines several genres, including local color, animal saga, and Grade-B Hollywood melodrama. As the heroine, Mildred Schapp, says when she rents the grizzled canine hero, Rex, “I like … an older dog.”

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Ron Singer (www.ronsinger.net) is the author of 21 books in various genres. Norman’s Cousin & Other Writings is the final installment in a trilogy, all published by Unsolicited Press. Ron has also published two books about Africa: Uhuru Revisited, Interviews with Pro-Democracy Leaders (Africa World Press/Red Sea Press, 2015); and The Real Presence, a novel about Biafra (Adelaide Books, 2021). He is a Wertheim Research Fellow at the New York Public Library. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including The Georgia Review, The Wall Street Journal, and Evergreen Review.