‘Punk New York, Past and Future’ book event in Fort Greene to feature three authors

Brooklyn BookBeat

April 7, 2015 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Eliza Factor. Photo by Kate Milford

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Brooklyn-based publisher Akashic Books is teaming up with Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene to feature three authors—Eliza Factor, Stacy Wakefield and Nathan Larson—at a joint launch event celebrating New York counterculture in the ’80s, ’90s and our forthcoming postapocalyptic city-state. The free event will take place April 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Greenlight Bookstore (686 Fulton St.), and the authors’ books are slated to be released May 5. At the launch party, each author will read, after which a book signing and beer reception will be held.

Eliza Factor’s “Love Maps” traces one particular relationship — that of protagonist Sarah Marker and her husband Philip — through its twin narratives: one set through the 1980s, primarily in New York’s art scene, when Sarah, her sister Maya, and Philip initially becoming entwined in each other’s lives; and one set in mid-1990s Connecticut, after Sarah has received a letter from Philip (whom she has not seen in seven years, and who does not know he has a son), letting his wife know he’s finally coming home (regardless of whether Sarah wants to see him or not). Factor uses Sarah and Philip’s love affair to critique and examine toxic masculinity, violence, sibling rivalry, jealousy, and the natures of all types of love.

Stacy Wakefield is perhaps best known for her underground classic about squatting (1994’s “Not for Rent: Conversations with Creative Activists in the UK”). Her debut novel, “The Sunshine Crust Baking Factory,” is a fictionalized take on the world of Lower East Side and Brooklyn squatting c. 1995 that Wakefield knows intimately, having lived through it in the 80s and 90s. Wakefield’s heroine is witty, outspoken, independent, creative, and a little too bright-eyed and bushy-tailed to truly fit in in the LES squats. She treks out to pre-gentrified Williamsburg to squat the abandoned Sunshine Crust Baking Factory, learning more about herself and what it takes to survive.

Nathan Larson — award-winning composer (with over thirty film scores to his name) and musician — brings readers the final installment in his Dewey Decimal postapocalyptic-NYC pulp noir crime trilogy, “The Immune System.” The series’ protagonist, Dewey Decimal, has been hailed as “one of the more offbeat characters in fiction” (Booklist), and “an unlikely hero, a gimpy, smart-mouthed loner . . . His indomitable spirit and his distinctive ghetto-infused, educated patter give Larson’s series its unique and spicy character” (Publishers Weekly). The trilogy is hailed by Kirkus as “one of the most unique hard-boiled arcs in recent memory.”