Reminder: Release Party For Alvin Orloff’s novel, Why Aren’t You Sm... @ Sun Nov 13 8pm - 9pm (Queer Things)

more details » Release Party For Alvin Orloff's novel, Why Aren't You Smiling? at Dog Eared Books Sunday, November 13 - 8p.m. Dog Eared Books, 900 Valencia Street @ 20th, San Francisco Release Party For Alvin Orloff's novel, Why Aren't You Smiling? With readings by Alvin Orloff, Ali Liebegott, and Larry-Bob Roberts Dog Eared Books is thrilled to present 3 fantastically funny queer writers reading to celebrate the release of Alvin Orloff's latest novel on Manic D Press. Why Aren't You Smiling? Follows the misadventures of Leonard, a young misfit on an ill-fated metaphysical journey. As he careens through encounters with a handsome barefoot Jesus Freak, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, the high school burnouts, and a Buddhist quest for enlightenment, we see the slightly ludicrous side of 1970s spirituality (and no small amount of teenage turbulence) portrayed with tenderness and a sly smile. Alvin Orloff began writing as a teenager in the 1970s, a decade from which he has never fully recovered. He is the author of I Married An Earthling, a genre and gender-bending sci-fi send up, and Gutter Boys a novel of decadent romance with ghosts. His latest, Why Aren't You Smiling? (Manic D Press), is now available wherever slightly peculiar books are sold. Larry-bob Roberts started publishing the queer zine Holy Titclamps in 1989. His book, The International Homosexual Conspiracy, was published by Manic D. Press. He maintains the local events website Queer Things To Do in San Francisco at SFQUEER.COM. Ali Liebegott is the author of award-winning books The IHOP Papers and The Beautifully Worthless. Her upcoming novel Cha-Ching! follows some Brooklyn misfits and their gambling adventures. Everyone knows that all you need is Love. Alvin Orloff's swell new novel asks what to do when you want something more. – Daniel Handler, author of Adverbs, The Basic 8, and Watch Your Mouth (and a few more under the name of Lemony Snicket) In this endearingly funny novel, set during the cultural no-man's-land of the mid-1970s, Alvin Orloff has created a hero I loved spending time with. Don't pity Leonard: he may be spiritually and sexually confused, alternately bullied and bored in his faceless suburban high school, but there's no doubt he'll find a way out. Naïve but resourceful, insecure yet self-motivated, Leonard sneaks out of his house for the summer to find the meaning of life, then winds up with a weird and ineffectual Christian cult. His spiritual quest has less to do with his love for Jesus than with his lust for Rick, the shirtless hippie preacher who mesmerizes Leonard with a smile and a promise of happiness. But in the end, it's Leonard who has a thing or two to teach Rick. Alvin Orloff writes with a sharp mind and a gentle touch. Why Aren't You Smiling? put a smile on my face. – K.M. Soehnlein, author of The World of Normal Boys, You Can Say You Knew Me When, and Robin and Ruby It's a long, long journey from school cafeteria hell to boogie wonderland, and we all need a Virgil to show us the way. Fifteen, pale, chubby, awkward and bullied, Leonard walks among the terrors of 1975 Berkeley, California, with an angel on his shoulder, he just doesn't know it yet. Meanwhile, his opposite number, Rick—older, wiser, connected, gorgeous—stumbles on the road to salvation. Alvin Orloff's third novel enacts, in hilariously satiric terms, something of love's pull on us, a love that surprises and delights even when it's almost more absurd than we can stand. – Kevin Killian, author of Impossible Princess and Little Men (as well as a bunch of very funny reviews on amazon.com When Sun Nov 13 8pm – 9pm Pacific Time Calendar Queer Things Who • larrybob@gmail.com - creator

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