Influx
Occasionally it’s just that you’ve never seen language used in the way the author is using it. I often know within 20 pages whether I’m going to try and sign the book, which sounds odd since the whole book could go off piste after that. But if it maintains its quality, the voice of the author and doesn’t turn sour then you know it’s a belter. Whatever it is, it must be trying to do something with language or subject that is new, or inventive. Without that initial surprise and ‘oh I haven’t read many books like this before’ moments, it’s hard to get further with the reading. The funny thing is, hardly anything is new in literature and things are recycled, pastiched, borrowed, stolen, influenced etc. all the time. It just happens to be new to me.
Sylvia Warren interviews Kit Caless about Influx Press.