quitter book review by gianni simone

Gianni Simone, a mail artist residing in Japan, writes zine reviews for Xerography Debt as well as their own blog Gloomy Sundays.  Gianni recently reviewed my Quitter: Good Luck Not Dying book.

He (Trace) has been putting out his zine Quitter since 2005. After publishing five issues, he has decided to collect the whole lot into a 40-page hand-made book and he was kind enough to send me copy #35 (I know because each copy is numbered). The object itself is a little jewel, with a great color cover and color and b/w illustrations throughout. And then there’s the writing, of course. Put it simply, I believe that the best writing is the kind that 1) manages to be engaging regardless of the subject; 2) makes me think; and most of all 3) makes me feel like I want to take highlighter and pen and cover the pages with comments and orange marks. Quitter managed to do all these things.

Trace writes what he calls creative non fiction, and through the years has developed the ability to put common words together in original combinations. He manages to be sophisticated in a natural, unassuming way. At the same time, he anchors his rants with stories taken from his memories. Sometimes he will write something like ‘I was born with an extra pair of ribs’ and the reader (or at least a dumb reader, such as myself) will search for hidden meanings until he realizes that is the plain truth. Apart from the autobiographical notes, the common theme that returns in all the five issues is Trace’s decision to ‘quit’ the kind of world that humankind has turned into a huge pile of garbage. Quitting a job he hates and translates into ‘someone else’s hopes and mortgage and car payments;’ quitting unconscious consumption; temporarily quitting the civilized world in order to live for three months in ‘solitary confinement’ in a forest and study the breeding habits of a small songbird… What he will not quit is fighting to ‘preserve the history of (…) an idea that would often be considered irrelevant by the dominant culture,’ and writing ‘for an audience that is resilient in its opposition of being taken for granted.’ What can you ask more from a zine?