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[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Hello,

I  just want to let you all know about an awesome new novel: THE
SAVAGE GIRL, by Alex Shakar. I was so taken with it that I
interviewed Mr. Shakar and wrote about it for TIME OUT... so here you
go...

- - - - - -

Time Out New York, October 4, 2001

Alex Shakar's first novel, The Savage Girl, lampoons our schizo
consumer culture

by Carrie McLaren

You've got to hand it to Alex Shakar. In a world fashion magazines
hire mangled third-world youths to model designer clothing, it ain't
easy writing satire. But Mr. Shaker has risen to the challenge with a
brutally funny first novel that skewers America's marketing
mentality. Savage Girl centers on Ursula Van Urden, a 30-ish layabout
who moves to Middle City--a fictional metropolis remarkable for being
built on the side of a volcano. There, Ursula secures a job at
trendspotting agency Tomorrow Ltd., where she encounters self-styled
marketing geniuses Javier Delreal and Chas Lacoutre, the estranged
boyfriend of her sister Ivy.

Despite misgivings toward her new job, Ursula comes to find career
inspiration from a scabby, rodent-eating homeless woman and is swept
off her feet by Javier, a steely-eyed dreamer (and manic depressive)
who yearns for something he calls the "postironic" age. Ursula's
newfound happiness, however, is tempered by her nagging concern for
Ivy, a young fashion model who has been diagnosed with schizophrenic
and is given to delusions. As Ursula's worries gradually escalate,
her world beings to mirror that of her sister's--an alternative
universe that is a dizzying blur of present, past and future; of
image and reality...a world that, come to think of it, looks a lot
like Soho.

Shakar, 33, grew up in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn and now lives in
Chicago, where he is pursuing a Ph.D. in Creative Writing. We met at
the Brooklyn Promenade on a sunny day when you could still see the
World Trade Center across the harbor.

- - - - - - -

Carrie McLaren (Time Out): The volcano is a great metaphor for consumerism.

Shakar: Thanks. The Volcano is a huge, threatening thing that is
going on around everyone, but none of the characters ever notices or
acknowledges it.

CM: For a book about marketing, there aren't many brand names.
There's Old Navy, Nestlé...

Shakar: I almost got in trouble for using those. I don't think anyone
would come after me, though, because it would be bad publicity.

CM: Yeah, they'd have to mention "Nestlé Shit," for example. Was
Savage Girl based on any personal experiences?

Shakar: I did a lot of writing sitting in a Chicago coffee shop with
a laptop and trendspotters would come in all the time. A couple of
them interviewed me.

CM: Um, don't take this personally but you don't exactly look like a
trendsetter.

Shakar: Yeah, I couldn't figure out what they were after. Maybe they
were thinking I was a "technocratic Luddite" or an "agrarian
urban"--some sort of a paradox. The questions surprised me. They
asked about my worldview and the modern condition... but then,
casually, one of the women said, "I like you're shoes. What kind are
they?" I told them, "Australian sheepherders boots," then the two of
them paused and looked at each other like, "We've got it!"  I felt so
humiliated. It was as if they had found the one product that I
romanticized.

CM: That was a scene in the book!

Shakar: Yes. Australian sheepherders' boots. I think the salesperson
must have told me that. A couple years later those shoes were
everywhere..

CM: Had you decided to write about trandspotters before that?

Shakar: Yes. I found out about trendspotting ten years ago. I thought
it would be a great metaphor to explore our increasing tendency to
express ourselves through our purchases--and to examine whether this
gives us power or leeches power away from us.

CM: Trendspotters are all over the place now. Maybe you spotted a trend.

Well, I wasn't trying to. In fact, I made up my own trends to avoid
that problem, but a lot of the things I wrote about, weirdly, tend to
be happening now. Like diet water. Originally, I thought that was too
over-the-top. But now there's caffeine water, vitamin water, oxygen
water . . .

CM: Were you ever concerned that you couldn't out-do reality?

Shakar: I was very conscious about not wanting to do a satire in the
traditional sense. I wanted to address how irony--a tool satirists
use to critique our culture--has been co-opted by the advertising
industry.

CM: When you refer to _postirony_, what exactly do you mean? It
reminded me of a bunch of commercials I've seen lately--ones with
people lying, cheating, or killing other people out of devotion to
some product. They're all supposed to be funny and ironic, as in "Ha
ha, he loves beer more than his girlfriend." But you've got to wonder
at what point it stops becoming ironic.

Shakar: I purposely left the definition of postirony nebulous, but if
you put a gun to my head I would say that it has something to do with
that. It's the sense that irony and earnestness are combined in a way
where you don't know whether you're being ironic or earnest and,
moreover, the distinction ceases to matter. For [each of] the
trendspotters in my book, postirony means very different things. For
Javier, it means a kind of new earnestness where, by overcoming their
ironic doubt, people will be able to customize their beliefs just
like they would the rest of their purchases. For Chas, it's more like
a hyperacceleration of irony, where people doubt everything,
including their own doubt, and allow themselves to be manipulated
even more.

CM: Mental illness is a recurrent theme, but why schizophrenia? Did
you consider any other psychological disorders? Attention deficit
disorder, maybe?

Shakar: Actually, in an earlier draft I did have a kid who had ADD.
But schizophrenia was the central one because Ivy, through her
delusions, combined both a sense of power and powerlessness. She has
delusions of grandeur and persecution. I think that's a good way of
understanding what consumerism does to us. Of course, I also tried to
show both lightness and the darkness, the fun and the insidiousness,
at the same time. There's a reason we like the lifestyle we do.
That's why Ursula herself is torn, about her new powers and the
darker realizations about them.


- - - - - - -

This man is coming soon to your town so go hear him read (see, also:
http://www.thesavagegirl.com/ for more information)


CHICAGO
Thursday, October 11, 7:30 PM

Reading & Signing at BARBARA'S BOOKSTORE, 1100 Lake St. OAK PARK, IL.
Contact: Mark Pearson 312-642-4818
______________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK CITY
Thursday, October 18, 7:30 PM

Reading & Signing at BARNES & NOBLE, 4 Astor Place.  Contact: Carolyn
Hughes 212-420-0816
_______________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE
Sunday, October 21, call for time

Panel reading & signing at NORTHWEST BOOKFEST, 4914-B Rainier Avenue
South.  Contact: Nicole Turgeon 206-378-1883

_______________________________________________________________________
SEATTLE
Monday, October 22, 7:30 PM

Reading & Signing at ELLIOT BAY BOOK CO. 101 S. Main St. *Joint appearance
with Robih Alameddine.  Contact: Rick Simonson 206-624-6640
_______________________________________________________________________
SAN FRANCISCO
Tuesday, October 23, 7:30 PM

Reading & Signing at A CLEAN WELL LIGHTED PLACE, 601 Van Ness Avenue
*Joint appearance with Chip Kidd.  Contact: Wendy Sheanin 415-931-9248
_______________________________________________________________________
SAN FRANCISCO
Wednesday, October 24, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM

Signing/Meet & Greet at M IS FOR MYSTERY, 74 East 3rd Ave San Mateo, CA.
Contact: Ed Kaufman 650-401-8077
_______________________________________________________________________
BERKELEY, CA
Wednesday, October 24, 6:00 PM

Bookclub reception/Reading/Signing at LAFAYETTE BOOKSTORE, 3579
Mount Diablo Blvd. Lafayette, CA.  Contact: Gabe Gomez 925-284-1233
_______________________________________________________________________
LOS ANGELES
Friday, October 26, 7:30 PM

Reading & Signing  SKYLIGHT BOOKS 1818 N. Vermont Avenue.  Contact: Kerry
Slattery 323-660-1175
_______________________________________________________________________
AUSTIN
Tuesday, October 30, 7:00 PM

Reading & Signing  BOOKPEOPLE, 603 North Lamar Austin, TX.  Contact: Dara
Wolkovich 512-472-4288 x404
______________________________________________________________________
CHICAGO
Friday, November 2, 7:00 PM

Reading & Signing   57th Street Books, 1301 E. 57th St.  Contact:  Laran
Brindle (212) 207-7453
_______________________________________________________________________
PHILADELPHIA
Friday, November 16, 8:00 PM

Reading & Signing  Jefferson Book Fair: "Emerging Voices"   Benjamin
Franklin Hotel.  Contact:  Laran Brindle (212) 207-7453
________________________________________________________________________
NEW YORK
Sunday, November 18, 7:00 PM

Reading & Signing at KGB Reading Series, 85 E. 4th Street bet. Bowery &
Second Ave.  Contact: Rebecca Donner 212-399-7028