http://cargocollective.com Derek McCormack Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:46 +0000 http://cargocollective.com en http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Halloween-Suite http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Halloween-Suite Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:46 +0000 Derek McCormack 1222207 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/HalloweenSuite.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/HalloweenSuite_o.jpg" data-mid="6086590" border="0" align="left"/>Halloween Suite includes four short stories from Wish Book. The stories are illustrated with images of vintage Halloween ornaments. The cover of the book is coated in orange flocking; a jack-o'-lantern icon is seared into the flocking with a branding iron. At the back of the book there's a pocket and a library removal slip; the pocket indicates that the book has been discarded by the Peterborough Public Library. Halloween Suite is a collaboration between Derek McCormack and Ian Phillips of pas de chance; it may be available at the pas de chance store. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/pdc-halloween-2.jpg" width="551" height="560" width_o="551" height_o="560" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/pdc-halloween-2_o.jpg" data-mid="6074502" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/pdc-halloween-3.jpg" width="506" height="560" width_o="506" height_o="560" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222207/pdc-halloween-3_o.jpg" data-mid="6074507" border="0" align="left"/> Halloween Suite includes four short stories from Wish Book. The stories are illustrated with images of vintage Halloween ornaments. The cover of the book is coated... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Western-Suit http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Western-Suit Sat, 26 Mar 2011 09:12:45 +0000 Derek McCormack 1222206 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222206/Western Suit tiny thumbnail.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222206/Western Suit tiny thumbnail_o.jpg" data-mid="6086548" border="0" align="left"/>Western Suit includes the first section of The Haunted Hillbilly. The chapter is printed in a handsewn chapbook. The chapbook is covered in faux-suede; a cloth label is hand-stitched to the cover. The book – along with a custom-designed western shirt pattern and sewing instructions – is packed inside a sewing pattern envelope. Western Suit is a collaboration between Derek McCormack and Ian Phillips and Grant Heaps of pas de chance; it is available at the pas de chance store. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222206/pdc-western-2.jpg" width="554" height="560" width_o="554" height_o="560" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1222206/pdc-western-2_o.jpg" data-mid="6074616" border="0" align="left"/> Western Suit includes the first section of The Haunted Hillbilly. The chapter is printed in a handsewn chapbook. The chapbook is covered in faux-suede; a cloth... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Faux http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Faux Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:52:25 +0000 Derek McCormack 1212860 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212860/FAux tiny thumbnail.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212860/FAux tiny thumbnail_o.jpg" data-mid="6086564" border="0" align="left"/>Faux includes the "Fake Snow" chapter from Christmas Days. The chapter is printed in a miniature book. The book is packed in fake snow, then sealed inside a clay snowball; the snowball must be broken in order to read the book. Faux is a collaboration between Derek McCormack and Ian Phillips of Pas de Chance; it may be available at the pas de chance store. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212860/pdc-faux-2_300.jpg" width="300" height="235" width_o="600" height_o="470" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212860/pdc-faux-2_o.jpg" data-mid="6086458" border="0" align="left"/> Faux includes the "Fake Snow" chapter from Christmas Days. The chapter is printed in a miniature book. The book is packed in fake snow, then sealed inside a clay... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Count-Choc-o-log http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Count-Choc-o-log Wed, 23 Mar 2011 22:47:35 +0000 Derek McCormack 1212836 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212836/pdc-count-1.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212836/pdc-count-1_o.jpg" data-mid="6082575" border="0" align="left"/>Count Choc-o-log includes a chapter from Rue du Doo, a novel-in-progress. The chapter is printed in a miniature book. The book – along with stick-on tattoos – comes in a wax packet of chocolate cereal. The wax packet – complete with book, tattoos and cereal – comes in a hollowed-out hardcover book. The hollowed-out book comes wrapped in a slipcase designed to look like a cereal box. Count Choc-o-log is a collaboration between Derek McCormack and Ian Phillips of pas de chance; it is available from the pas de chance store. <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212836/pdc-count-3.jpg" width="572" height="560" width_o="572" height_o="560" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1212836/pdc-count-3_o.jpg" data-mid="6085285" border="0" align="left"/> Count Choc-o-log includes a chapter from Rue du Doo, a novel-in-progress. The chapter is printed in a miniature book. The book – along with stick-on tattoos –... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/The-Haunted-Hillbilly http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/The-Haunted-Hillbilly Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:46:17 +0000 Derek McCormack 1201442 • One of the Globe & Mail's Best Books of the Year • One of the Village Voice's Best Books of the Year • Nominated for a Lambda Award for Gay Men's Fiction <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201442/haunted-hillbilly.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201442/haunted-hillbilly_o.jpg" data-mid="5852127" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201442/61MAcim3OQL.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201442/61MAcim3OQL_o.jpg" data-mid="5853204" border="0" align="left"/>The Haunted Hillbilly is an historical first-person narrative, told by Nudie "The Rodeo Tailor" (perhaps most famous for dressing Elvis Presley) a gay couturier who, in Derek McCormack's spellbinding world, also happens to be a vampire. As the story evolves with its magical poetic cadence, Nudie, in grand Svengali-style, makes, then breaks, the career of Hank, a country-and-western singer at the Grand Ole Opry. A blend of fact and fancy, The Haunted Hillbilly conjures the seamy gay underside hidden beneath country music's sparkly, sequinned surface. Read an essay by Derek McCormack about The Haunted Hillbilly here. The Haunted Hillbilly was published in Canada by ECW Press; purchase the Canadian edition here. it was published in the United States by Soft Skull; purchase the American edition here. The cover of the Canadian edition features an illustration by Ian Phillips; the cover of the American edition features a painting by Jon Langford. Derek McCormack's fiction is one of the world's most divine, precious, and deliriously beautiful things. The Haunted Hillbilly is McCormack with all of his special powers blazing. Such refinement, innocence, wit, and complex feeling in one exquisite and crazily entertaining package -- what an amazing gift. – Dennis Cooper [A] great work of genius...McCormack is to world literature as Cormac McCarthy is to U.S. literature, except more inventive and with a stronger narrative voice one can't get out of one's head. – Kevin Killian [C]reepier than a witch's neck-flab, The Haunted Hillbilly pushes the boundaries of fiction in a way that, frankly, knocked me a bit off my feet...McCormack's style is not minimal, not spare. It's precise. It's jam packed and simple at the same time -- not an easy feat...The Haunted Hillbilly is one of the most skillfully crafted and entertaining books I've read in a while. McCormack has recreated an alternative version of Hank Williams that is sometimes disturbing, often unsettling and always captivating. –Steven Galloway, Globe & Mail By turns star-spangled, dark as pitch, and bleakly comic, The Haunted Hillbilly is like checking into the morgue at the Heartbreak Hotel. – iD (England) The Haunted Hillbilly is as precise and perfectly fitted as the clothes it describes, nipped and tucked in all the right places, with a seamless final effect. –Brian Pera, San Francisco Chronicle With a morbid comic vision and a delightfully twisted imagination, McCormack delivers a one-two knockout punch that establishes him as one of the best new voices of the year. –Village Voice So here's to country legends, decadent vampires, big, round bubble butts, and McCormack's umpteenth book of creepy goodness: all worth their weight in gold. – Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter McCormack's tiny, violent book ... is a wonderful blend of the supernatural and country music history (which seems just ripe for the gore, incidentally), and is fascinating for the clipped, extreme language. – OUT Magazine The Haunted Hillbilly is a dark, funny and ultimately twisted read. – Joe Galliano, Gay Times The Haunted Hillbilly takes noir into the truly black. – Adam Lewis Schroeder, THIS Magazine You want to scream, 'Watch out! Can't you see how evil Nudie is!' But you also want more of the couturier's devilish exploits. That's what makes this taut little creepfest such an excellent read. – Dave McGinn, NOW To borrow a phrase from Ogden Nash, Derek McCormack is an 'acrobat of simplicity.' More importantly, he is a writer with a vision, and the guts to see it through. We need more writers of McCormack's skill and audacity in Canadian literature. – Jon Paul Fiorentino, Matrix The Haunted Hillbilly runs through the Country Music Hall of Fame with a baby sledgehammer, smashing all those prettified displays that have been covering up the somewhat uglier and grittier face of country music. – bookninja.com The Haunted Hillbilly – Derek McCormack’s first novel – demonstrates with style and sardonic wit that it’s not about the length, it’s all in how you use it. McCormack ... is an artisan who prefers working in miniature and consistently produces bijoux-like texts of Byzantine complexity. – Darren Wershler, Quill & Quire • One of the Globe & Mail's Best Books of the Year • One of the Village Voice's Best Books of the Year • Nominated for a Lambda Award for Gay Men's Fiction ... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/The-Show-That-Smells http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/The-Show-That-Smells Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:23:03 +0000 Derek McCormack 1201432 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201432/1.jpg" width="72" height="113" width_o="72" height_o="113" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201432/1_o.jpg" data-mid="5852145" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201432/2890648447_9d4c932b9e_o.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201432/2890648447_9d4c932b9e_o_o.jpg" data-mid="5853219" border="0" align="left"/>The Show That Smells is the most SHOCKING story ever shown on the silver screen! It tells the tale of Jimmie, a country music singer dying of tuberculosis, and Carrie, his wife, who tries to save him by selling her soul to a devil – a DEVIL WHO DESIGNS HAUTE COUTURE CLOTHING! Elsa is a powerful Parisian dress designer, and a vampire. She wants to make Carrie look beautiful, smell beautiful – AND THEN SHE WANTS TO EAT HER! Starring a host of Hollywood’s brightest stars, The Show That Smells is a thrilling tale of HILLBILLIES, HIGH FASHION, AND HORROR! Read an essay by Derek McCormack about The Show That Smells here. The Show That Smells was published in Canada by ECW Press; purchase the Canadian edition here. it was published in the United States by Little House on the Bowery/Akashic Books; purchase the American edition here. The covers of both editions feature art by David Altmejd. The Canadian edition was designed by Ian Phillips; the American edition, by Joel Westendorf. Derek McCormack has written the most delightfully innovative charmer of a book –– a mini-masterpiece that keeps swelling with invention long after you’ve put it down. I can’t believe the smell of this novel!!! – Guy Maddin If you only read one country-and-western horror novel, make it this one. – New York Derek McCormack's new novel of cursed crooners, murderous fashion designers and homosexual vampires is an exercise in campy excess ... [T]he latest in Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery series, McCormack's slender little sendup is funny and frenetic as all get out ... [T]his will repulse some and titillate others, but it's never boring. Like a carny barker, McCormack promises thrills and chills, and The Show That Smells delivers grotesqueries galore. – Jim Ruland, Los Angeles Times Derek McCormack is the mutant spawn of Bram Stoker and the Grand Ole Opry, a fashion junkie who effortlessly channels B-movie dialogue and Caligula’s gifts for cruelty ... McCormack’s latest, The Show That Smells, is a joke-studded phantasmagoria ... [T]he prose is amusing, lightning-fast and loud ... The Show That Smells is deeply entertaining and devoutly perverse—a serving of cotton candy laced with blood and arsenic. – Michael Miller, Time Out New York This thoroughly hilarious, strange and altogether ghoulish little freak show of a book ... reads more like a combination of prose poetry and avant-garde drama in which people stand around in a hall of mirrors having witty conversations, most of them riotously funny ... [A] book like The Show that Smells -- not that there are many books like it -- reminds us that much of our most eviscerating contemporary literature is coming courtesy of the small, indie and university presses. It demonstrates that innovative literature, if such a thing still exists, can be accessible and even fun, especially for those of us with a dark sense of humor. – Andrew Ervin, Miami Herald [A] book that'll have you shaking your head in an odd but energizing combination of admiration and annoyance. This is a one-of-a-kind glimpse into a clever and devious mind. – Publishers Weekly Perhaps a first in literature, McCormack, besides prose, has come up with passages that could be by Lesage, the legendary French embroiderers, with asterisks as crystals, dots as beads and opening parentheses as sequins. – David Livingstone, Toronto Star Derek McCormack's cruel and unusual novella is the only ticket you'll need to buy this year ...The Show that Smells reeks of genius and is the author's most original work to date...his trim, vicious sentences make Gordon Lish look verbose and chubby in comparison. – Brian Joseph Davis, EYE Weekly Smells good...probably the creepiest, funniest, most inventive and, yes, smelliest blood-spurtin' novel you've ever read. And it's funny... In short, there are many ways to get floored by McCormack's imagination and technique ... If the Canadian publishing industry weren't infested with scaredy-cats, [McCormack would] be a much bigger deal. – Zoe Whittall, NOW McCormack has created something innovative, entertaining, and quite possibly (dare we say it) ground-breaking. With its biting beats of refined prose and inventive storyline, it would certainly be easy to label this release as one of the best books of the year...the book is a hell of a lot of fun. The Show that Smells is a showcase for an innovative writer who has perfected his technique, and there is no denying that McCormack is an extraordinary talent. – Stacey May Fowles, torontoist.com (A) freaky-gorgeous concoction. McCormack's deft wordplay sometimes reads more like poetry than prose. Sublime. – cbc.ca [T]his charged novel is given pace by McCormack's tightly honed style...there's humour, too, in his clipped delivery...McCormack knows how to mine his obsessions to create truly unusual - and memorable - works of art. – Stuart Woods, Quill & Quire Chirpy, repetitious, and minimalistic, The Show is a slow-burning captivator about carnivals, high fashion, and Van Helsing-ing hillbillies ... McCormack's playful wordage, freak-show sensibilities, and droll topography make for a charming grammar-geek experience, like doing the word jumble with the cast of Freaks. – Courtney Ferguson, Portland Mercury McCormack weaves an intoxicating web. Once you drink the Kool-Aid moonshine and wholeheartedly embrace McCormack’s world, his sense of gory whimsy is infectious. Reading him is like purchasing a ticket to the fun house or the house of horrors—either one, it’s all the same. He is a commanding ringmaster of an imagination run wild. – Jamie Gadette, thefanzine.com The Show That Smells is the most SHOCKING story ever shown on the silver screen! It tells the tale of Jimmie, a country music singer dying of tuberculosis, and... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Grab-Bag http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Grab-Bag Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:20:49 +0000 Derek McCormack 1201450 • One of the Village Voice's Best Books of the Year <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201450/grab-bag-derek-mccormack-paperback-cover-art 19-25-09.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201450/grab-bag-derek-mccormack-paperback-cover-art 19-25-09_o.jpg" data-mid="5852639" border="0" align="left"/>Grab Bag consists of two titles that had been previously published in Canada, Dark Rides and Wish Book. It was published in the United States by Little House on the Bowery/Akashic Books; it can be purchased here. The cover features an illustration by Ian Phillips. The book was designed by Joel Westendorf. Grab Bag culls the best of the perverse and innocent world of Derek McCormack. The mystery of objects, the lyricism of neglected lives, the menace and nostalgia of the past – these are all ingredients in this weird and beautiful parallel universe. – Edmund White Grab Bag will grab you, all right; plain, simple and hard. – John Waters [A] rare treat ... Weird, inventive, wonderful. – Jorge Morales, Village Voice The first U.S. outing for the sexy, edgy Canadian novelist, steered your way by the gratifyingly dark-souled Dennis Cooper. – The Advocate Every once in a while, however, I'll find a novel ... which serves as a reminder that there is relevance and substance out there. Derek McCormack's Grab Bag is one of these rare gems. – Emily Schambra, Punk Planet McCormack's prose is ... remarkably and deceptively simple. Grab Bag grabs you in its steely grip almost without you noticing, and the hard, plain language delivers the stories straight to the core of your being. – Joe Storey-Scott, Gay Times [A] kaleidoscopic look at a world of cheap furbelows and carnival flash, a place where childlike wonder goes hand in hand with cruel cynicism, and where even the promise of heaven appears as tawdry as an eyeshadow case. – Ryan Brooks, Chicago Reader • One of the Village Voice's Best Books of the Year Grab Bag consists of two titles that had been previously published in Canada, Dark Rides and Wish Book. It... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Wish-Book http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Wish-Book Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:14:52 +0000 Derek McCormack 1201455 No other form of amusement has ever been devised that appeals as strongly to the public and raises the excitement to the highest pitch as Wish Book.<img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201455/images-1.jpg" width="72" height="108" width_o="72" height_o="108" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201455/images-1_o.jpg" data-mid="5875412" border="0" align="left"/>Popular and fascinating, this book is a high class article, not a cheap junky affair. A varied collection of the best and latest rube jokes, tramp stories, monologues, funny sayings, etc., Wish Book will attract and hold the reader, and is far more popular than the ordinary book. Order today. This book makes a hit anywhere. A very good souvenir or favour. Always a big seller. Always popular. Collapsible. The author of this successful book is one of the most prolific authors of his generation. Wish Book was published in Canada by Gutter Press; it can be purchased here. The book's illustrations and design are by Ian Phillips. Anyone interested in the more wicked, crafty and inventive forms of Canadian writing would be well advised to spend time with McCormack. – Philip Marchand, Toronto Star A delightfully twisted collection of McCormack's linked fiction, it is set in the closing years of the Depression and is illustrated with Phillips's fine line drawings to look like a 1930s mail-order catalogue. There's even a page at the back to send away for the bizarre and only partly-imaginary items mentioned in the stories. – Andrea Curtis, Toronto Life Wish Book's sleight-of-hand evocation of small-town life is perhaps more William S. Burroughs than Andy of Mayberry, Robert Mapplethorpe rather than Norman Rockwell. It's a disarming anti-saga with a weird, witty edge. – Mark Anthony Jarman, Globe & Mail But for the rest of us, who think Timothy Findley's overrated, Dennis Cooper's underrated and that Joyce Carol Oates doesn't write too much at all, McCormack's an evil little blessing. – Bert Archer, NOW [A] very funny and very dark book.. – Hal Niedzviecki, National Post Derek McCormack is the guttersnipe of Canadian Literature. Patiently sifting through the garbage dumps of the fin-de-siecle, he extracts, polishes, and sorts the odd, irreducible, teratological, and forgotten fragments of (his? someone else's? no one's?) culture ... Wish Book is full of precise reportage of events that never took place, and clipped, apparently dispassionate recounting of deeply emotional events. – Darren Wershler, Books in Canada You could love these stories for their use of language, the idiom of the midway or the '40s department store. You could love them for their themes of illusion and magic, delusion and deception. But love them you will, my friend, love them you will. – John Burns, The Georgia Straight Wish Book is an odd, satisfying, disturbing, funny book by a young Canadian writer who continues to cultivate a unique, humane, and acerbic voice. Highly recommended. – Bill Richardson, Quill & Quire No other form of amusement has ever been devised that appeals as strongly to the public and raises the excitement to the highest pitch as Wish Book.Popular and... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Wild-Mouse http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Wild-Mouse Tue, 22 Mar 2011 22:13:18 +0000 Derek McCormack 1207095 • Nominated for the Toronto Book Award <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1207095/41b3bOXFjJL._SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="72" height="72" width_o="72" height_o="72" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1207095/41b3bOXFjJL._SL500_AA300__o.jpg" data-mid="5852210" border="0" align="left"/>Wild Mouse is a collaboration with the poet Chris Chambers. It includes three short stories by McCormack, a suite of five poems by Chambers, and scores of vintage photographs from the Canadian National Exhibition Archives. Wild Mouse was published in Canada by Pedlar Press. The book's cover and design are by Zab. Wild Mouse by Derek McCormack and Chris Chambers includes sumptuous vintage black and white photos of the Canadian National Exhibition—a tacky but much loved carnival set up at the end of each summer in Toronto. Derek McCormack's series of stories adopts an insider's vernacular and offers street-wise, behind-the-scenes retrospectives featuring encounters with other carny-hustlers secretly rigging and working their huckster games and rides. Conversely, Chris Chambers looks back from an outsider's perspective. His suite of poems begins with a portrayal of a child visitor to the CNE, and moves to a day, much later, where he finds himself a young man, still surrounded by candy-floss and candy apples. The nostalgia of Labour Day and milling holiday crowds is tempered with an awareness of passing summer and youth. – Carole Turner, Canadian Literature • Nominated for the Toronto Book Award Wild Mouse is a collaboration with the poet Chris Chambers. It includes three short stories by McCormack, a suite of five... http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/Christmas-Days http://cargocollective.com/derekmccormack/following/derekmccormack/Christmas-Days Mon, 21 Mar 2011 21:19:17 +0000 Derek McCormack 1201474 <img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201474/images-1.jpg" width="72" height="72" width_o="72" height_o="72" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201474/images-1_o.jpg" data-mid="6115016" border="0" align="left"/><img src="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201474/images-2.jpg" width="72" height="72" width_o="72" height_o="72" src_o="http://payload.cargocollective.com/1/2/95500/1201474/images-2_o.jpg" data-mid="6115018" border="0" align="left"/>Christmas Days is a unique Advent calendar that uses words and images to lead us through the twenty-four days before Christmas. In each of its charming chapters, McCormack tucks an inventive story that is quintessentially Christmassy and wittily illustrated by acclaimed cartoonist Seth. From toy stockings to Santa Claus to holly and mistletoe, Christmas Days offers a delightful sampling of holiday treats. Christmas Days was published in Canada by House of Anansi Press. The hardcover edition is out of print; purchase the paperback edition here. Both editions are designed and illustrated by Seth. 'What are the things that make Christmas Christmas in Canada?' Derek McCormack answers this question in his first non-fiction title ... McCormack's brisk, clipped prose style complements the sting of his sardonic sense of humour ... Seth's many illustrations, bold yet whimsical, take their inspiration from McCormack's prose. – Christopher Johnson, Quill & Quire Meticulously researched, and beautifully illustrated and designed by nostalgia-driven illustrator Seth, the book makes it abundantly clear that for all the wonders of Christmas in Canada – for all the toy trains and the dolls and the mistletoe and holly – there's a darker side, too. – Chris Nuttall-Smith, Globe & Mail Christmas Days has something for most Christmas observers. The dyspeptic will enjoy Seth's illustrations. Those with nostalgia for the Christmases of their childhood, those who like trivia or social history will find lots to their liking in this charming curio of a book. – Katherine Ashenburg, Globe & Mail You'll be awestruck by McCormack's delicious recounting of the golden era of horrifying yuletide spectacles, from lethal attempts to make snow out of crushed glass and asbestos to the late-1920s practice of enacting the nativity with casts of 'live Indians.' – R.M. Vaughan, National Post McCormack is interested ... in revealing the cheap glue behind the glitter, the carny in the Santa suit, the crushed glass in the fake snow. Exposing it, yet revelling in it too. – Nathan Whitlock, Toronto Star An evocation of Christmas past, perfect for stockings and hostess gifts, yet shot through with steely wit. – Georgia Straight Derek McCormack is nuts about Christmas. But it's a joyful sort of nuts. There's no other way to explain why he wrote Christmas Days ... The outcome is good: The book oozes a fervour and giddiness normally reserved for kids on the morn of December 25. – Matthew Firth, Ottawa Xpress In Christmas Days, McCormack playfully depicts our holiday history with both glory and warts. – Samantha Grice, National Post Christmas Days is a fascinating look at the history of Christmas in Canada. – Sandra Alland, Xtra! Christmas Days is a unique Advent calendar that uses words and images to lead us through the twenty-four days before Christmas. In each of its charming chapters,...