Praisepocalypse: People Saying Nice Things About My Book

"Seth Fried is a pure delight to read--his stories are like parables from some alternate sci-fi Bible, funny and wise and generous, deeply strange and even more deeply familiar."

--Karen Russell, author of Swamplandia!

"The 11 stories in Fried's debut have the vigor of adventures ... there's a strain of absurdism in his prose that combines pathos, unease, and dark humor to add depth and give these stories a sense of modernity and relevance."

--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"Seth Fried's stories are laugh-out-loud hilarious and wonderfully weird, yet his many strange worlds also have the power to haunt, echoing the sorrows and yearnings of ordinary life in the way dreams can. This is an inspired and inspiring collection from an important new young writer."

--Dan Chaon, author of Await Your Reply

"... perfectly controlled and irresistibly propulsive."

--The Portland Mercury

"In The Great Frustration, Seth Fried creates elaborate set pieces, populates them with living, breathing characters, arranges them for maximum chaos, and then sets it all in motion, inviting you to watch catastrophe and disaster and ruin. Even if you wanted to stop reading, you couldn't: his sentences drive you forward with a relentless rhythm, breaking your heart, then reassembling it, then breaking it again, and you don't even mind, because, oh yeah, while he's doing this he's also making you laugh out loud."

--Charles Yu, author of How To Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe

"Playful, occasionally absurd ... These stories have the antic comedy of Monty Python, but the characters resemble the lost boys of Judd Apatow. Grade: A-"

--Cleveland Plain Dealer

"Fried often goes in for the kill when you least expect it, mining an emotional depth from his intensely flawed characters that is rare in debut fiction ... The Great Frustration is the type of debut story collection I love reading."

--The Rumpus

"These powerful and beautifully absurd stories create poetry from the collected voice of those who love and hate and dream and yearn. They stirred my imagination and time and time again seduced me into reflecting on the hopefulness and vulnerabilities of being human. The Great Frustration is a wonderfully original debut."

--Alan Heathcock, author of Volt

"Weirdly wonderful, Fried’s story collection inhabits equally the philosophical and the visceral."

--ZYZZYVA

"Seth Fried’s stories have extraordinary range, reminiscent of Borges, allowing the reader to become a time-traveler in a world populated by 21^st century misadventures with prehistoric bones and a bestiary of microscopic beasts. You will enter the Garden of Eden the very moment before disasters began. His voice and imagination will dazzle you."--Thaisa Frank, author of Heidegger's Glasses

"Seth Fried has a wildly humorous imagination, but also sharp technical skills and beauty of language that weaves deep examinations of self and humanity into the inner folds of his crazy worlds. He’s channeling Saunders by way of Barthelme and Kafka, but also clearing a whole new territory of his own. Listen up and open this book: Seth Fried is the future of fiction."

--Hannah Tinti, author of The Good Thief

"These stories are joyful, breathtaking, and ridiculously funny. Yes, there is darkness and violence and the constant threat of unhappy endings, but Fried is such a stunning writer, you actually love the coming disaster because it is so perfectly presented on the page."

--Kevin Wilson, author of Tunneling to the Center of the Earth and The Family Fang

"Seth Fried should not be read by those with a heart condition, or by women who are nursing or pregnant. Do not read Seth Fried when driving or operating heavy machinery. Because his stories are not only addictive, but dangerously good. He will make your heart stop and your jaw drop. You will suffer from bouts of thoughtful silence and seizures of hilarity and may even soil yourself with pleasure. Consider yourself warned."

--Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh

Fifty-Two Stories/The Magazine of Yoga/Poets & Writers

The official pub date of my book is today! In celebration of this awesome fact, you can now read the title story of my collection over at Cal Morgan's Fifty-Two Stories.

Also, there's a new interview with me up a The Magazine of Yoga. Topics covered: Compost, failure, and cage fighting.

Double also, Poets & Writers has posted a video of mine to their site. This is either a huge step toward legitimacy for me or a huge step away from legitimacy for Poets & Writers. Either way, I'm pretty excited.

Andrew's Book Club

Incredibly excited to announce that The Great Frustration has been selected as the May pick for Andrew's Book Club. I am a huge fan of ABC, so this is a huge honor. You can read an interview I did with Andrew here. Topics covered: Dinosaur comedians, food fights, and MST3k.

Video Q&A On Ninth Letter's Blog

There is a very serious and well-made video Q&A featuring yours truly over at Ninth Letter's blog. Be sure to check it out!

Don't Spend a Dime: A Guide to Supporting Seth Fried's Debut Collection On The Cheap

Times are tight. In recent years most families have been forced to cut their debut short story collection budgets dramatically, if not eliminate them altogether. But not to worry! There are plenty of ways you can support my forthcoming collection without spending so much as one hot round American dime.

1.) Fill out an acquisition request form at the library.

Even if you can't purchase my book, you can still convince your library to grab a copy. Most libraries are run by nice people who want you to have access to the books you're interested in, so they should take your request to heart. However, while you're talking to them make sure you pronounce it "library" and not "lie-berry." That will help prevent them from throwing out your acquisition request form.

2.) Only have sex with people who have bought my book.

Not only will this incentivise people to buy my book in the short term, but in a few generations we might even be able to eliminate the genetic traits that cause people not to buy my book.

3.) Give my book a positive rating on Amazon and Goodreads.

I know what you're thinking: How can I give your book a positive rating if I haven't read it? But, let's face it, it's not like that would make you the first person to post an opinion on the internet despite the fact that you have no idea what you're talking about.

In order to help you out, I've written a few reviews for my book that you can adapt for your own purposes:

"The Great Frustration? More like the great short story collection!"

-Trent Banister, Stairville MA

"If I could travel back in time, the second thing I would do (right after making out with Helen of Troy and right before smacking Adolf Hitler in the face with a pipe) would be to sit down and enjoy this book for the first time all over again."

-Dr. Leroy Fice, Biosphere 2

4.) Social media the book with social media.

This one is easy. Just Facebook link some Facebook links. Tweet some tweets. Do whatever it is Tumblr does with your Tumblr account. Write a heart-melting love ballad about my book and upload the song to Youtube. Go on MySpace and design a really busy profile layout in which animated gifs of my book bounce up and down to the music of some obscure screamcore band.

5.) Ask a loved one to get you a copy for your birthday.

Happy Birthday!!!

6.) Borrow my book from a friend of yours and don't return it.

That way the friend will be forced to replace his or her copy and you will have effectively purchased my book.

7.) Send my book good vibes.

If you are a hippy, then you might be in a position to send my book good vibes. If so, please do.

8.) Find people sending my book bad vibes and stop them at all costs.

If you are a hippy who also happens to have a crazy vigilante component to your personality, then you might want to take to the streets and prevent people from sending my book bad vibes.

9.) Make a mental note to check out my book when you're a little more flush.

Yeah! No big deal. No reason to stress about it right now. You're going to get that big promotion. I just know it. And when you do, my book will be waiting to congratulate you.