Maybe you’ve heard this already: we’ve launched David Reynolds’ The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™ from his nest in downtown St. John’s!
Attendees appreciated the absurdity of it all. A screening of The Epic of the MERCANARY™ invited wonder, awe, and laughs as supporters arrived. The opening act was a poetry “reading” by the enigmatic Snake, I’s, which left the crowd speechless yet smiling. Next, Nicholas Morine’s reading of “Johnny Cobra & the Cerebral Crucible” set the stage for heart-pounding adventure. You can read that story and more of his short fiction that cuts deeply in Steel Sarcophagus. Finally, David Reynolds read excerpts from The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™. Teasing tidbits and side-stepping spoilers, he provided a prophetic preview of his debut novel — this gonzo picaresque tale — A Sells-Word’s Story.
We also want to remind you that a tree will be planted for every print edition of The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™ sold!
This goes for print editions that we sell in-person as well as online sales of the printed novel, for now and into the foreseeable future.
Thanks to our friends at One Tree Planted for making this possible!
The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™
Harrison Stockton Bueller thinks he’s hit bottom when he makes a new friend.
Enter: the MERCANARY™.
This is The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™. It’s also the tale of Harry’s nightmarish misadventures.
Problematic Press is proud to present to you this gonzo picaresque novel… or something.
Is there ever any solace?
This is it.
This is lit.
Somewhere between Holden Caulfield, Ignatius J. Reilly, and BoJack Horseman, you’ll find Harrison Stockton Bueller playing with his G.I. Joes.
MERCANARY™, a sells-word inspired by a typo, is a metafictional hero who’s been drafted for lit’s sake on land, sea, and air. His mission? Word.
David Reynolds hasn’t won any awards for his creative writing, but his most shocking anecdote has won him more beer than he could possibly ever drink. He lives in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, where he teaches English at Atlantic Canada’s largest university.
In the words of the author: “This is a gonzo picaresque novel. It’s a work of intermedial metafiction. It’s a cautionary tale. It’s a sob story. It’s a farcical melodrama. It is high art. It adapts a ‘zine of poetry and adventure. It adapts a memeoem, which is literally a new poetic art form that I invented for this. It is the culmination of my life’s work in literature. It’s ballsy and hubristic and vulnerable all at once. The protagonist is an anti-hero. The sidekick is really something else. The odds are against them, but they’re in this to win it. Together, they make things weird. Well, this thing is certainly weird.”
We wish to thank everyone who came to the launch and purchased a book. People like you make this all worthwhile.
The author expresses his deepest thanks to his family and friends for their love and support throughout the writing process.
He thanks everyone who purchased a copy of the original ‘zine
He also thanks everyone who purchased items from his childhood collection of treasures to help fund this print run of books.
Order copies of The Marvelous Saga of the MERCANARY™ as print and Kindle editions here.
Nicholas Morine — author of Steel Sarcophagus, Arcade Rat, and Kowloon Walled City, 1984 — has this to say about this experimental novel:
“Reynolds’ debut novel surprised me inasmuch as I wasn’t expecting the content to be so innately relatable.”
Find more information about our growing selection of books at problematicpress.com.
Thanks kindly for your interest!
See the CBC’s coverage of MERCANARY™: A ‘Zine of Poetry and Adventure back in 2019 here!
Read David Reynolds’ testimony to the CBC on the ease of vaccination here!