The Humorless Ladies of Border Control
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The Humorless Ladies of Border Control by Franz Nicolay
In 2009, musician Franz Nicolay left his job in the Hold Steady, aka “the world’s greatest bar band.” Over the next five years, he crossed the world with a guitar in one hand, a banjo in the other, and an accordion on his back, playing the anarcho-leftist squats and DIY spaces of the punk rock diaspora. He meets Polish artists nostalgic for their revolutionary days, Mongolian neo-Nazis in full SS regalia, and a gay expat in Ulaanbaatar who needs an armed escort between his home and his job. The Russian punk scene is thrust onto the international stage with the furor surrounding the arrest of the group Pussy Riot, and Ukrainians find themselves in the midst of a revolution and then a full-blown war.>While engaging with the works of literary predecessors from Rebecca West to Chekhov and the nineteenth-century French aristocrat the Marquis de Custine, Nicolay explores the past and future of punk rock culture in the postcommunist world in the kind of book a punk rock Paul Theroux might have written, with a humor reminiscent of Gary Shteyngart. An audacious debut from a vivid new voice, The Humorless Ladies of Border Control is an unforgettable, funny, and sharply drawn depiction of surprisingly robust hidden spaces tucked within faraway lands.
Praise for The Humorless Ladies of Border Control:
A pleasing romp: punk in attitude but literary in execution and a fine work of armchair travel for those unwilling to strap on an accordion on the streets of Rostov for themselves”
Kirkus Reviews
A pleasing romp: punk in attitude but literary in execution and a fine work of armchair travel for those unwilling to strap on an accordion on the streets of Rostov for themselves”
Kirkus Reviews
Franz Nicolay, a member of The Hold Steady and other groups, is a musician and writer based in the East Bay of California. The New York Times awarded his first book, The Humorless Women of Border Control: Exploring the Punk Underground from Belgrade to Ulaanbaatar, a Season's Best Travel Book. His debut novel is Someone Should Pay for Your Suffering.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9781620971796 |
| ISBN 10 | 1620971798 |
| Title | The Humorless Ladies of Border Control |
| Author | Franz Nicolay |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | The New Press |
| Year published | 2016-08-18 |
| Number of pages | 384 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |