In this comic, ironic tale, Babette Bliss guides us on a totally enjoyable journey through the domestic and artistic pathways of Manhattan, circa 1993. Check out the noise band called Mild Neurosis, and other maddeningly familiar urban icons. --Thaddeus Rutkowski, author of Roughhouse

Clever, funny, and well written. Like her short stories, and maybe even better.

As far as style, wit, and insight are concerned, Janice Eidus rates among the best modern writers I've encountered. With toungue firmly in cheek, she touches on the silliness inherent in modern living through a number of vehicles, ranging from condom-based advice columns to hair-cut strikes to born again virgins. Also, the work is peppered with a number of well-placed and very telling pop-culture references (hey, I'm a big fan of anything using Axl Rose as a cultural icon) that stretch the stories, making them accessible to readers outside Eidus' Bronx/NY setting.
However, while some of the stories, such as "Celibacy Club" and "Teen Idol" really bit at the core of modern society, each loaded with extremely insightful comedy and theme, most of the other stories do not weld character, theme, and plot as tightly. While still providing a very enjoyable read, her tales of urban mermaids and vampires, of writers in love, of a wacky Jimmy Dean just seem to fall a little short after the triumphs of wit and insight she accomplishes in a very few of them.
Overall, I highly enjoyed seeing an author romp around in such a decidedly urban setting in such a personal, emotional, fanciful, and even magical way. The book succeeds as a collection of entertaining stories, and hints at Eidus' outstanding potential to create something that will put her at the forefront of modern fiction.

If you've ever wondered if anyone else in the world feels the way you do about sex, men, cats, axl rose, rich women, or even the ugly little kid that calls you "looser" as you walk past him down the street, you'll find a friend in Janice Eidus' hilarious collection of short stories. In the title story Eidus puts us in the warm, gently heartbreaking, and often ridiculous world of do-it-yourself self-help, in this meeting by meeting account of a modest celibacy club that meets in a small brox apartment. The simple cheap thrills of lust and desire are celebrated in this charming and honest tale. "Pandora's Box" will plummet the reader into the other world of sex, one of danger, and crushing vulnerability. Eidus doesn't stay here for long and by the end of the book she'll having you laughing out loud again with Aunt LuLu's silly and subtly sarcastic condom/sex advice column. If you think you'll grow weary of all the sex, she gives you plenty of touching tales of the simple human experience too. My favorite being "The Art of Forgiveness" where Eidus takes us into the elegantly presented inner world of a successfull writer who strugles with good old fashioned hurt feelings. Eidus gives a refreshing take on this character's frustration with her inability to forgive anyone. Her characters are familiar and approachable but unconventional enough so you're reading about people like this for the first time.

I've been a fan of Janice Eidus since I read "Vito Loves Geraldine," many years ago in the VLS. Since then, I've looked for her short stories in magazines and anthologies.

I'm more than a fan...at the literary arts center I direct, I think it's important for emerging writers to study with people who have such craft and vision, so she's on our faculty, most recently teaching a master level class. (Full disclosure, she put a piece of mine in an anthology she edited, because we both share an love of, and love to write about, rock and roll).

There are few Americans working with magic realism and surrealism. Is it because we're Americans we don't trust magic?

I believe Janice is one of the more underrated writers of our time, and eventually people will catch up with her worldview.

The Celibacy Club, in particular, shows her range through the absurd/silly (The Ping Pong Vampire), to the heartbreaking (Pandora's Box).

Even in the silliest of stories, there is a kernel of hard truth: a woman falls in love with her exercise machine...each day I see women who work out for hours to achieve someone's ideal of the perfect body. Ladies all over the city refuse to get their hair cut...because their hairdressers have died of AIDS, and they need to remember and mourn. The Celibacy Club is a slapstick piece, vivid and detailed, which slaps the "new morality" and ideas like retroactive virginity in the face.

Don't let the absurd situations fool you: Janice Eidus is a serious, masterful writer with a lot to say. You won't be disappointed.

A unique collection of rock-and-roll focused stories captures the rock lifestyle through an unusual literary perspective. Sectioned off into tales about "Glory Days," Keepin' the Faith," You've Really Got a Hold on Me," "Welcome to the Jungle," and "Rock and Roll is Here to Stay." Not focused on the superstar phenomenon, but really exploring the cultural significance of life on the road through fiction, and surprisingly, rarely (if at all) mentions drugs.

Twenty-two very hit or miss stories grouped around the theme of rock and roll. The first five, grouped under the "Glory Days" theme of "evoking the past" are all pretty sound and worth reading, as are the four stories about the relationship between musicians and fans/lovers in the "Keepin' the Faith" section. The four stories in the "You've Really Got a Hold On Me" are grouped around the idea of intertwining music and love/lust, but this is a rather loose connection and doesn't quite work. The T.C. Boyle story here is a total throwaway, but Lewis Shiner's "Sticks" and Linda Sexton's "Shine" are both excellent. The four stories of "Welcome to the Jungle" make for the weakest section, as the editors were apparently looking for "wild" writing. I would skip them all except Roberta Smoodin's "Ursus Major" (about a bear in a band). The editors write that the "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay" section "applauds the durability of the music"--I'm not sure what that means. The five stories here are all very strong, especially Geoffrey Becker's "Bluestown" and Kevin Downs' "Like A Lead Balloon" which is probably my favorite in the anthology.

By culling the best of a pop-driven genre, editors Janice Eidus and John Kastan have succeeded in putting together a collection of stories that work like good songs. --Thaddeus Rutkowski, author of Roughhouse

Janice Eidus can tell a story from many different perspectives, and with many different voices. It is most evident in this novel. She can voice many different characters, and do it so well it makes you feel as if you know each one intimately. A great writer for our modern times!