Books I'd Recommend If They Were Still In Print

New feature!

This weekend I found a copy of Farragan's Retreat at The Couth Buzzard. (We will miss you, Buzzard.) I've been looking for some Tom McHale for a little while—ever since I read a piece by Richard Grayson on him on Filthy Habits (neé Return of the Reluctant) a while back. That appreciation is no longer there, but Matthew St. Amand has some stuff to say.

Sixty pages in, and I'm really enjoying it. And I'd love to tell you to read it. And tell you to pick up a copy here at University Book Store. And all that.

But the book is out of print. (Of course, University Book Store now buys USED books. Not just textbooks through the BuyBack program. We have people looking for used and rare trade/general/whatever you want to call them books as well. We just don't have a copy of this one, yet.)

The book concerns a father whose son is a dodging the Vietnam war draft. Arthur Farragan (said father) is being pressured by his siblings to chase the son up to Montreal and kill him for besmirching the family name—among the son's crimes are his open letter of apology to Ho Chi Minh, and his avoidance of a war that has taken the life of one cousin and the arm of another.

Really smart book. Someone should bring it back.

What about you? Do you have any favorite out-of-print books you'd like to recommend? Let's start a list.

UPDATE:

Ed commented to direct me to the Filthy Habits archived article on McHale by Grayson. Thanks, Ed! I did a lousy, cursory job searching for it.