The Brubury Tales
An ambitious homage to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, The Brubury Tales (Illustrated Edition) takes Chaucer's story and frame to Los Angeles just after the riots in 1992, where seven security guards on the graveyard shift swap tales in an impromptu storytelling competition for Christmas vacation time. Written entirely in rhyming verse, the tales themselves are poetic updates of classic stories by Dostoevsky, Dickens, Boccaccio, O Henry, Poe, Twain, Gilman, Crane, Saki, Anderson, Bierce, and even Khayyam's Rubaiyat. Along with 11 original illustrations by Keith Draws, the book also contains a special foreword by California literary legend, Carolyn See, book reviewer for The Washington Postand bestselling author of Handyman and There Will Never Be Another You.
The Brubury Tales [by Frank Mundo] is a landmark book, in what is going to be -- and already is -- an exceptional, distinguished literary career. --Carolyn See
Mundo's skill is astounding and has a natural cadence. These stories are intriguing and compellingly human, and soon enough the reading becomes listening. -Sacramento Book Review
With inspiration from many literary classics and plenty of original spin, The Brubury Tales is a fine collection and not one to be missed. --Midwest Book Review
The Brubury Tales is a brilliant blend of writing, combining the style of Chaucer while putting a new slant on the short stories of the classical writers. --Reader Views
A unique and powerful new book, The Brubury Tales draws upon Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and classic stories by Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Charles Dickens, to name a few. Frank Mundo takes risks with his writing, which is sensitive, thoughtful, and gritty. --LA Books Examiner
"The Brubury Tales by Frank Mundo is a bold homage to Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Mundo defamiliarizes the tale by placing it in Los Angeles in 1992 shortly after the Riots. His authentic L.A. childhood experiences came out in his verse..." --Mike Sonksen for KCET.org
The Story Behind This Book
The Brubury Tales (Reader Views 2011 Reviewers Choice Award for Poetry Book of the Year and the 2011 Bookhitch Award for the Most Innovative Book of Poetry of the Year) is a modern version of Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales in LA just after the riots. 7 graveyard-shift rent-a-cops swap tales in a funny competition for vacation time. There are 13 tales (all based on classic stories) told in accessible verse (8,000+ lines of poetry fun) as... each guard tries to outdo the last with his or her tale. Book's foreword is written by bestselling LA author and literary critic Carolyn See). 5-stars from Midwest Book Review, it's available on Amazon in paperback and in eBook. See More