Krakow Melt
Krakow Melt, a novel by Daniel Allen Cox
Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010
ISBN-13: 9781551523729
-Ferro-Grumley Award finalist
-Lambda Literary Award finalist
-ReLit Award finalist
-Book Marks Best Fiction 2010 selection
-A Different Light bookstore book club selection
-Excerpted in The Advocate
-Turkish translation forthcoming from Altikirkbes
From the publisher:
This second novel by Lambda Literary Award finalist Daniel Allen Cox (Shuck) is an incendiary story about two pyromaniacs who fight homophobia in Krakow, Poland, one of the fronts of the Solidarność revolution that eventually toppled the Berlin Wall in 1989. It’s 2005, and Poland is grappling with its newfound role as a member of the European Union; the country dips into moral crisis as Pope John Paul II (a Pole) approaches death while the country’s soon-to-be president makes homophobic declarations.
Radek, a bisexual artist and a practitioner of the extreme urban sport parkour, is convinced that fire is the great stabilizer. While creating miniature replicas of the world’s great infernos—Chicago 1871, San Francisco 1906, London 1666—he meets Dorota, a literature student and budding pyromaniac. Driven by rage, sexual curiosity for one another, and Pink Floyd, they buck Church, government, and the LGBT community to find sexual freedom, escaping their enemies by scaling the crumbling walls and ideas of the city.
Provocative and unnerving, Krakow Melt is at once a love letter and a fiery call to arms.
Daniel Allen Cox has created what will surely become a classic … A book not to miss, as it is full of philosophical quips as well as being a great read.
—Liberty Press (Kansas)
“Krakow Melt is, like Radek, brash, wild, and inventive. Daniel Allen Cox’s real accomplishment, however, is his ability to use these elements – his sledgehammer side – not for shock value alone but to enhance a book that, at its core, possesses a lingering significance. In every revolution there are casualties, those who never taste the triumph they contributed to. When you want to destroy something, you run the risk of destroying yourself. The fire, however, is beautiful while it burns.”
—Rover Arts
“The interwoven political realities and the impact that the death of Poland’s native Pope has on the people allows for a great sense of social import to the period…I was captured by the post-postmodern feel of the novel, and by the resolution which is sad but, in a way, victorious.”
—Roof Beam Reader
The most interesting fires are quick and intense, leaving ashen memories, and that’s the way Krakow Melt burns…. Drop what you’re reading right now, turn your face towards the white hot Krakow Melt and let Cox crackle your flesh.
—Out in Print
Krakow Melt can be seen as Cox’s realization, on paper, of a community talking to itself, or at least, a call for the queer community to talk activism.
—You Fight Like Anne Rice
Look out, Canada. A new literary enfant terrible has arrived on the scene, a fast-talking, funny, outrageous iconoclast who writes scathing things about the Catholic Church, parries his prose like a champion fencer, and describes the sights, smells and taste of sex as only a former gay film actor and stripper could…. [Krakow Melt] is a cheeky, bawdy, irreverent and splendid little book that is almost certain to infuriate somebody.
—Edmonton Journal
Homophobia and intolerance consume in this intense and tantalizing novel by Daniel Allen Cox…. Beautiful and captivating, Krakow Melt is a book you’ll want to read twice.
—Sacramento News & Review
Cox is definitely versed in the art of telling a good story. I read the first half of Krakow Melt without taking as much as a breath. The relationship that develops between its too main characters Radek and Dorota reads like a love story for the queer at heart.
—Cuntlove.com
[Daniel Allen Cox] has done it again. Written a brilliant f–ing novel with a character that grabs you by the throat and won’t let go until he’s shown you his world, at breakneck speed.
—Blackheart Magazine
Cox erases taboo and delineation at every turn…. The result is a volatile book that, while mostly contained and controlled, spills over the edges to create a meta-literary experience. Like fire, Cox’s novel illuminates—and singes.
—EDGE Publications
Author Cox employs terse, effective prose to reveal the consciousness of his characters and the time in which they live. His ability to create an entire world view and a sense of place – in few pages – is exceptional. In this respect, his style recalls that of another talented gay writer, Jeanette Winterson.
—Bay Area Reporter
Cox has an off-kilter and erotic way with words; Krakow Melt is a strangely wonderful book, an incendiary tribute to outlawed desires.
—Montreal Mirror
Cox’s fiery mix of activist anger, sexual heat and transgressive humor is a tonic for a tired reader’s eyes.
—Book Marks
Here is a look at the struggle for freedom in a place where we would not think that it would occur. I have no doubt that this book will end up on list of bests this year. I can only hope that Cox is already working on something else because I have a strong feeling that he is destined to be a major voice of gay literature.
—Eureka Pride (Arkansas)
“In punchy and engaged prose that has become his signature, the author takes the pulse of a city that still feels the shadow of communism…In the style of Burgess who speaks of devotchkas and moloko, Cox uses po polsku words in his recipe, without anglicizing them.”
—Nightlife
Cox’s splintered narrative, polished to an incisive gloss, bristles with both mischief and menace, and any of its short, titled chapters could stand alone. References to Pink Floyd, Polish pope John Paul II, and an unquenchable anger course from the first page to the last—a pointillistic poisoned pill.
—Publishers Weekly
You know how when you group your books in your bookcase by genre and there’s always a few of them that defy easy cataloguing? Krakow Melt is such a book … Gender roles, sexual orientation, socio-political commitment and materialism are given valentines or bull’s-eyes in the galvanizing prose of Cox. An author’s second book is usually his safest but Cox proves that his first book Shuck was no fluke … The characters are smarter, the dialogue is sharper and the words themselves seem to come straight from Cox’ unconscious.
—Facepuller
“Cox proves himself to be a master of rebellion, a troubadour of transgression.”
—Gay People’s Chronicle
“Strange, provocative, and daring: all adjectives that fit Daniel Allen Cox’s work. In Krakow Melt, the writer gets stranger, more provocative, and more daring. Best of all, he’s given us a novel that’s both thrilling and fun to read.”
—Scott Heim, author of Mysterious Skin and We Disappear
“Krakow Melt is Syd Barrett crossed with the Polish queer nation, a rollicking and heart-pounding urban jump through some grim realities and fine prose stylings.”
—Zoe Whittall, author of Bottle Rocket Hearts and Holding Still For As Long As Possible
“Krakow Melt goes beyond gay fiction into the realm of queer narrative. After a glut of “feel-good” books about twinks and their summer crushes, it’s a relief to sit down with a book that has a larger agenda. Its tragic vignettes about homophobia in Eastern Europe, and the sly and rage-fueled humor that such oppression provokes are beautifully written; stamped upon the reader’s memory. The description of a gay pride march ought to be prescribed reading for anybody who thinks activism is passe. Let your sense of foreboding guide you through Krakow Melt until you smell gasoline and realize you are gripping your own box of matches.”
—Patrick Califia, author of Public Sex and Macho Sluts
“Dying Popes and gays with matches—two of my favorite subjects. Daniel Allen Cox reminds us that queers and their allies from Krakow to California won’t stand for institutions getting between them and an orgasm. I say burn it all down, especially if it has stained glass. And buy this book!”
—Michael Musto, Village Voice columnist, author of Fork on the Left, Knife in the Back
“I’ve been a fan of Daniel Allen Cox’s writing for some time, and in Krakow Melt the wit, punch and sexual heat of Shuck return, revved up even more. As we read we slip into a free zone of writing, almost as if the boundaries of the page had themselves slipped away and we were free to wander through Eastern Europe like natives, with the haunted and nomadic gaze of those on whom history has given up. Cox brings us a story of struggle, defeat, liberation and love that I will never forget.”
—Kevin Killian, author of Spreadeagle