Fascinating debut novel...Review in Montreal Gazette

Monique Polak reviews Eva's Threepenny Theatre in the January 15th, 2009, Montreal Gazette. Dramatic aunt is star of the show. Fascinating debut novel mixes family history and fiction. Here is a taste of Polak's review:

From Eva, we learn, too, what Brecht taught his protégés: The actor is not his character. Brecht rejected naturalism in favour of a more experimental epic theatre. Steinmetz the author explores similar terrain. But though this novel is experimental, and sometimes even unsettling to read – a trait Brecht would have approved of – its strength is the naturalism of Eva’s voice. Despite Brecht’s admonition, this author becomes his character.

Read the full review here.

Subject at maisonneuve

Subject is an entre-genre love story based on Brecht's own FBI file (no. 100-18112) and Ruth Berlau's memoir, Living for Brecht. The story is set to some ideas about plagiarism and the collective method of writing, and asks the question:

Might subject be the missing link between socialism and plagiarism? If ownership is theft, then: intellectual property is breach of copyright? Or is it mind control? Might the collective unconscious be the Marxist ideal – a marvelous cloud which renders intellectual property moot?

Read the full bull here.