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Retro Pulp
by Gavin Grant

Maybe it’s a fin-de-siecle thing. In the twentieth century, fiction was set free from the formalized rules of the novel and short story. However, some of the most successful and popular fictional forms never quite achieved the respectability of the novel. The prime example is the pulp magazine of the 1920s to the 1950s. Cranked out in the millions -- contrast that to sales in the tens of thousands for today’s literary bestsellers -- the pulps can best be compared to the hugely popular Japanese manga comic books. Like manga, pulp magazines came out monthly and filled every niche imaginable. From romance and science fiction, to movies and horror, to westerns and mysteries, the pulps were there. Many writers first published in the pulps later managed to move up and become respectable.'

Wild Life, by Molly Gloss
Whatever you do, do not read the jacket copy before reading this book: it has an awful spoiler on it. This is the tale of Charlotte Bridger Drummond, a late 19th-century feminist raising five boys on the proceeds of the pulp novels she turns out. Wild Life is by turns hilarious and scary and is always a page-turner. Pulp elements abound but the handling is so professional and smooth that you’ll never feel you’re reading anything but a great book.

March 2001, Wild Life is the 2000 James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award winner.

The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, by Michael Chabon
Chabon takes on the big city and big themes with big characters, specifically Kavalier and Clay’s superhero The Escapist. Pulp elements permeate this huge novel, but they don’t overbalance it into kitsch or bad taste. Rather, Chabon manages the golems, the magic, and yes, the fights, as part of the tapestry of life that was New York during World War II. Chabon has written beautifully crafted slim novels in the past (Wonder Boys and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh); here, he takes a chance at stretching and it pays off. You can tell the author was having fun when he wrote this…it comes through in the fun of reading it.

The Blind Assassin, by Margaret Atwood
Atwood is always surprising. Here she brings together the everyday and the mythic in the tale of three generations of a family in Canada, and uses stories within stories to hide the story while telling it. The Blind Assassin is the title of the pulpy yet literary posthumously published novel by Laura Chase, excerpts of which are throughout the book. Atwood asks many fascinating questions: Is it fiction? What is the relation of fiction to truth? And who is the arbiter of truth? Winner of the 2000 Booker Prize.

Flyboy Action Figure Comes with Gas Mask, by Jim Munroe
What if you were a superhero with a seemingly useless power? Could there be anything of less use than being able to turn into a fly? Ryan Slint, 22, shy college student who might have been Clark Kent without the self-confidence, is passing his life looking out at life but not taking part. Until he gets up his nerve to talk to Cassandra, the waitress at his local diner. Maybe Ryan should have known, after all, he isn’t what he seems…why should she be? Cassandra has powers, a daughter, and a way of enjoying life that soon has Ryan doing things he’d never have dreamt of. Smart and funny.

The Dream Hunters, by Neil Gaiman
This beautiful book does not so much recycle pulp elements as recreate them in the same way Gaiman helped reinvent comics with his 10 years of writing "Sandman." A decade later Gaiman returned to the world of comics, integrated his new novelistic leanings, and produced a short novel beautifully illustrated with full color page paintings by Japanese artist, Yoshitaka Amano. The illustrations are breathtaking, and it is fortunate that the writing matches them.

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