Full of It

If ever anyone earned the appellation “ink-stained wretch,” it’s the unpaid, unheralded and unsupervised legion of zinesters who’ve plied their trade at photocopiers for years. It’s easy, in the Age of Blog, to forget how you once had to have more than an e-mail address to publish, as novelist Hall did for a few years as editor of the Big Apple bar rag, The NY Hangover.

And Hall continues to publish with his basement press, Undie Books. In this, his second Undie novel, he tells the story of The East Village Troglodyte, a Big Apple bar rag staffed by alcoholics, eccentrics and various dysfunctional dilettantes that we suspect mirrors his own time in front of the Xerox. Our protagonist Tim lives off and on the wagon, and ends up on the Troglodyte staff out of some mixture of self-punishment and self-fulfillment. What follows is a jagged coming-of-age story for both Tim and the Troglodyte. The paper’s evolution from strung-together labor of love to a paper that “crackled with energy” provides a fun ride, as do the foibles of its staff (Buzzy, a British expat with a Shakespearean flair for drama, keeps things interesting).

At times, Hall relies too heavily on dialogue, which fluctuates from snappy to sappy. But the guy writes with heart, both about his characters and the inherent passion of the underground press. And to that, we say, “Cheers.”

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