Akashic launches a new series of crime anthologies, each focused on a
different controlled substance, with this addictive volume.
--Publishers Weekly
All told, The Speed Chronicles deserves great praise for the audacity
of the topic, the depth of the discussion, the diversity of its voices,
and plain, old, good storytelling.
--New York Journal of Books
The Speed Chronicles represents a surprising range of experiences. The
promise of the collection is that it will neither vilify nor romanticize
its subject matter.
--Portland Mercury
The contributors to The Speed Chronicles amply demonstrate the paradox
of life under the influence of chemically induced acceleration. At the
best moments, the use of stimulants can celebrate the beauty and
intensity of human experience. As some of these stories reveal, despite
the mainstream cultural narrative of 'tweakers' as amoral zombies, the
persistent will to live in the face of adversity and affliction is a
hallmark of many addicts' lives.
--The Rumpus
In Speed, Joseph Mattson has assembled an impressive, surprisingly
diverse group of authors presenting their equally diverse impressions of
a drug that the editor describes in his poetic, but hard-hitting
introduction thusly . . .
--Bookgasm
Brand-new stories by: Sherman Alexie, William T. Vollmann, James Franco,
Megan Abbott, Jerry Stahl, Beth Lisick, Jess Walter, Scott Phillips,
James Greer, Tao Lin, Joseph Mattson, Natalie Diaz, Kenji Jasper, and
Rose Bunch.
The subject of speed is so innately intimidating yet so undeniably
present that it begs to be written about. It is no secret that the drug
has historically tuned up the lives of writers, including Jack Kerouac,
Susan Sontag, Philip K. Dick, and scores more. Too rarely, though, has
it been written about, and its jolt to the bones of the American
landscape continues to peak. Akashic Books dares to bring forth the
first contemporary collection of all new literary short fiction on the
drug from an array of today's most compelling and respected authors.
These are no stereotypical tales of tweakers--the element of crime and
the bleary-eyed, shaky zombies at dawn are here right alongside
heart-wrenching narratives of everyday people, good intentions gone
terribly awry, the skewed American Dream going up in flames, and even
some accounts of pure joy.
