Book Bastard

“Tony Arnold's Book Bastard is a bittersweet, comic tour de force by a new auteur provocateur—a novel that reads like a true life expose on the current state of liberal arts educational environments. The story, which unfolds through the rustic insights and jaded experiences of its protagonist Doyce (who gets his own exculpatory preface within), a former investigator of some sort, with outrageous opinions to spare. Besides the jeremiads against the rather obvious targets (amazon.com, aliterate townies and culturally-underinformed snowflakes), we are also treated to picaresque and sometimes poignant stories of his mid-century southern upbringing.
Mostly, Book Bastard is an uplifting read, despite all its geriatric bitching, and through the final days of this small town's last good used bookstore, we get a glimpse into what was once—and perhaps still can be—right about living in this land of opportunity. We are reminded of the high standards that produced an informed society of readers, and the nation & culture it created before tracing its decline and fall through inertia, apathy and a dunderheaded obsession with digital technology.
Book Bastard is far more than a polemic against postmodernity—it is an awakening slap across the fattened jowls of a somnambulent culture on the verge of oblivion.”


Etaoin Shrdlu
Abalone Morning Tribune