The Strange Truth About Us

by M.A.C. Farrant

Overview

“Anthropologist of the absurd” and “brave iconoclast,” M.A.C. Farrant positively bristles in this three-part novel-length work of prose fragments, snippets, questions, speculations, and meditations, by turns philosophical, dark, comedic, and lyrical in its attempts to imagine a multitude of possible futures for our accelerated age. It offers her readers nothing less than The Strange Truth About Us.

M.A.C. Farrant is the acclaimed author of nine previous collections of satirical and humourous short fiction, and two works of non-fiction. Her work is infused with acerbic wit and innovation, and her surrealistic visions of everyday life are startlingly precise.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780889226685
Publisher:	Talonbooks, Limited
Publication date:	11/29/2011
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d)

About the Author

Born in Sydney, Australia and raised in Victoria, British Columbia, M.A.C. Farrant is the acclaimed author of nine previous collections of satirical and humourous short fiction, and two works of non-fiction. Her writing has been widely anthologized in North America and has been dramatized for television; Farrant is also a frequent contributor to leading magazines such as Adbusters and Geist. Her 2004 memoir, My Turquoise Years, is being adapted into a stage play in conjunction with the Arts Club Theatre of Vancouver; production is slated for the 2011/12 season.

Farrant has taught fiction workshops in Canada and Australia. She was a visiting writer-in-residence at Macquarie Universityin Sydney. A full-time writer currently residing in North Saanich, B.C., she has also taught part-time at the creative writing department in the University of Victoria and reviews books for the Vancouver Sun and the Globe & Mail.

Farrant’s work is infused with acerbic wit and iconoclastic innovation. As the Globe & Mail has noted, “Farrant is better at startling us with unnerving, often misanthropic visions of everyday life than perhaps any other Canadian writer”.

BC Bookworld has called her “Canada’s most acerbic and intelligent humourist.”

Table of Contents

Part 1 Annotations about an Absence: Going Forward 11

Part 2 Woman Records Brief Notes Regarding Absence: Benchmarking 129

Part 3 Other Prose Surrounding Absence 155

a.

Our Secret 159

Movie Emotions 161

Highway 17 Revisited 162

Marriage with Dogs 164

The Outlook for Quirky 166

His Signs 171

Waiting 172

When the Time Comes 173

b.

January 24 177

Q & A 178

The Age 180

Trajectory 181

Shift 182

What Is Shown 184

c.

A Serious Story 187

What Mattered 189

Along the Way 190

Finally 191

There Must Be a Reason 192

The Unaccountable 193

They Built a Wall 194

Rush Job 195

The Play Was Going to Be Huge 196

The North Pole 197

Hereditary Job 201

Journey to the Unknown Regions of the Extreme Outside 202

d.

Woman Interviews Self with Reference to Stories 211

Acknowledgments 213

About the Author 215

Editorial Reviews

“The Strange Truth About Us is impossible to summarize, save to say that it is both an acknowledgment of and an antidote to all the uncertainty we must shoulder in this, our age of anxiety and absence. Delightful and disturbing in all the best ways, this book addresses that which mostly remains unspoken in ways that have seldom been spoken before.”
– Globe and Mail

“One thing is sure: the format invites – if not demands – us to dip into the book again and again for insights that are funny, timely, provocative and unsettling.”
– Prairie Fire Review of Books

“The Strange Truth About Us is shot through with Farrant’s subversive wit, her acute sense of irony, As well as being poetic and thought-provoking, it is quite funny.”
– Victoria Times Colonist

“Farrant pulls you into the absence, scrapes you around the side of it, and spits you back out, confused and satisfied. … her prose tends to be acerbic and funny, a little jarring, and her stories are constructed to resonate with the reader long after the book is done. The Strange Truth About Us left me feeling unsettled and slightly anxious, but in a way that felt necessary. It is well worth the read.”
– Herizons

“a novel, a memoir, a prose poem, a reading list, a note book, a book of quotations, a manifesto. It’s a work of intellectual speculation on what the world is going to look like in a few years. … experimental, brave, daring, unusual, brilliant.”
– J.S. Porter

From the Publisher