A primer for enduring the brutality that is the world, THE BOOK OF THE RED ABSURD is not for the faint of heart. With a devotional criminality, Rivera fronts the fascism of fun, the carcass that childhoods feed on, the savage fictions essential to living while the bodies pile up: cold, soulless and mean. Here, the monstrous is monstrance encasing a sublime purgatorial nihilism. Here is depravity, diabolism, depression, and the art that counters. Its an art borne by a parade of saintsArthur, Emily, Gennady, Claireand its an art made from wastethats all there is to offer. -- Colby Gillette, John Abbott College A dark energy pulses through Riveras THE BOOK OF THE RED ABSURD. It is an energy manifesting itself in Anxiety, sexuality, torment, divinity, redemption also. But that is not enough. It is not merely psychic; it is not merely spiritual. It is linguistic, formal. In harsh paragraphs of self-chastisement, in micro-lines of verse burned into white space, in the company of mysterious rabbis and an odd array of totemic literary precursors (would Kafka be happy to be named here?), this energy bursts into flower, a cinematic presentation of a personal life that cannot stay personal, that embraces culture, embraces history, that cuts itself and bleeds the Red Absurd. Here is horror and beauty in equal measure. Reader, bewarethese sorrows are your own. -- Norman G. Finkelstein, author of "Image and Reality of the Israel-Palestine Conflict" This book is a Baedeker guide to be consulted during a tour of the circles. Its an orientation exercise made of lengthening shadows, darkening matter, and tapering flames. Its author was last seen at a sensory hinge where the demons are conciliatory, but the angels want to negotiate. Its all part of a pedagogy without precedent, a setting forth on the tightrope which is any inquiry. His travails are our syllabus, his experience our instruction. Welcome to the first day of school. -- George Albon, author of "The Built World"
