
Fleck and the Bank
Rob A. Mackenzie(Author)
Salt Publishing
Published on 15. May 2012
Book
Pamphlet
52 pages
978-1-84471-911-2 (ISBN)
Description
Fleck works for a bank but is uninterested in wealth. He mixes whisky with theology, politics with pizza, original lines with stolen ones. This pamphlet charts a litany of friendship, disintegration, collapse and eventual disappearance via friends, virtual friends and obscure notes. Money makes a cameo appearance as a ghost, politicians leap into cauldrons of boiling fat, God drifts along the high street by mobile phone, and the Patron Saint of Plainsong Maledictions turns up with a little advice in song, which readers are welcome to sing-along to if they wish. In a world of financial insecurity and rapid change, the fractious twins of Gain and Loss battle it out until virtually indistinguishable.
Reviews / Votes
It is rare to find a collection put together so consistently, and perhaps being a pamphlet helps here, the themes do not get tired. But, on the other hand, the themes themselves are unusual, or at least have unusual clarity: to write more about a specific absence than any real moment or presence seems new to me, especially when achieved with such grace. And there will, as I've suggested, be many more ways to read this book than mine, it is far bigger than its size suggests. Fleck couldn't hope for a better offering, wherever he is. -- Harry Giles * Sabotage Reviews *More details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Product notice
Paperback (UK-B)
Illustrations
Not illustrated
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 129 mm
Thickness: 4 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-84471-911-2 (9781844719112)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Rob A. Mackenzie was born in Glasgow and lives in Edinburgh. His previous work includes The Opposite of Cabbage (Salt 2009) and two pamphlets: Fleck and the Bank (Salt 2012), which dramatized a bank employee's life during the financial crisis, and The Clown of Natural Sorrow, (HappenStance Press 2005). Carrie Etter, in the TLS, wrote that his first collection impressed "with its distinctive style and energetic exploration of the way we live now." He is reviews editor for Magma Poetry magazine.
Content
Foreword
Fleck's Cloud
Customer Services Call Centre
Radio Alarm
Hangover
The Bank
Carnival
Fleck on Politics
The Packs
Fleck's Face
The Roses and the Rising
The Moral Hotel
Online
Fleck Explains the Financial Crisis
Please Leave a Message After the Tone
New Testament Methodology
Route Map to God
Bank Holiday
Fleck's Embers
Now and in the Hour of Our Death
To Occupy an Absence
The Line
Notes and Acknowledgements
Fleck's Cloud
Customer Services Call Centre
Radio Alarm
Hangover
The Bank
Carnival
Fleck on Politics
The Packs
Fleck's Face
The Roses and the Rising
The Moral Hotel
Online
Fleck Explains the Financial Crisis
Please Leave a Message After the Tone
New Testament Methodology
Route Map to God
Bank Holiday
Fleck's Embers
Now and in the Hour of Our Death
To Occupy an Absence
The Line
Notes and Acknowledgements