Fish, Soap and Bonds by Larry Fondation

"Fish, Soap and Bonds" (2007) is the third novel by American author Larry Fondation. The book narrates the story of three homeless people navigating the streets of Los Angeles: Fish, a former insurance salesman, Soap, a recent divorcee, and Bonds, a former restaurant owner, all of whom are portrayed as average people who suddenly find themselves without a home. The book is made up of vignettes, maps, lists, and other text fragments, often giving multiple characters’ perspectives on homelessness and critiquing society’s treatment of this growing problem.

Author: Larry Fondation
Cover Artist: M. Garrow Bourke
Country: USA
Language: English
Series: Third in Fondation’s Series of “LA Stories”
Genres: Social Criticism, Experimental Fiction, Postmodernism
Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press
Publication Date: 2007
Media Type: Print
Pages: 164
ISBN: 978-1-933293-37-0
Preceded by: "Common Criminals"
Followed by: A short story collection in collaboration with London-based artist Kate Ruth is forthcoming

Back Cover Description:

“"Fish, Soap and Bonds" follows the movements of three homeless people on the unforgiving streets of Los Angeles. Through their eyes we experience both the depths and heights of humanity: hate and discrimination, sacrifice and redemption. This is the third in Fondation’s series of 'L.A. Stories.'

'It was hard to imagine a book as good as Larry Fondation’s "Angry Nights" – and then he wrote "Common Criminals". Now he’s given us his first full-blown novel – "Fish, Soap and Bonds" – and with it he’s entered the ranks of Steinbeck, Henry Roth, Henry Miller, and Frank Norris. Larry Fondation is America’s bareknuckled writer, our most fearless fictioneer. No one writing in the English Language can deliver knockout blows like this guy. He’s one of the only writers alive whose lines I want to steal and call my own. What more can I say?’ – Eric Miles Williamson, author of "East Bay Grease" and "Two-Up", Executive Editor of "American Book Review"

‘Larry Fondation is one of the greatest contemporary English-language writers. If you think that’s a hyperbole, you haven’t read him. He is as complex as Borges and as accessible and entertaining as Elmore Leonard. With compassion but without pity, with tenderness but without sentimentality, always tough but never cruel, always loving but never blinded by love, always funny but never ironic, Fondation tells the story of America’s cities. His scenarios are bleak, but never despairing. For as long as Larry Fondation writes, no man, woman or stray dog is left unloved’ – Barry Graham, author of "Before" and "The Book of Man"

External Links

"Fish, Soap and Bonds" page at Raw Dog Screaming Press [http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/fish.html]

Larry Fondation Author Bio at Raw Dog Screaming Press [http://www.rawdogscreaming.com/authors.htm#lf]