Waste

A spare and chilling account of the day-to-day experience of Sloper, a janitor in a big-city office building. Waste explores the import of the discarded--for those who generate it, those who dispose of it, and those who are themselves discarded From the humble prospect of his station, Sloper uncovers ominous possibility in lives he barely brushes, allowing Marten in this stark little masterpiece to recover language, story and terror from the banality of a throw-away world. Praise for Waste: Only Eugene Marten can keep a reader enthralled with the minutiae of a janitorial existence. From the most unlikely of subjects Marten constructs, with great care and taking joy in every sentence, a spellbinding work. Precisely and exquisitely detailed, Waste is a stark little masterpiece. Brian Evenson There is nothing quite like the controlled burn of Eugene Marten's prose. Waste is an exhilarating and unnerving piece of fiction. Sam Lipsyte When a poet pal had put a copy of Waste into my hands, I right away went nuts until I had gotten myself in touch with its author to add to my household a supply of enough copies to scare all my writer friends with. Here, said I, in wild proclamation, is one for history and a half. Gordon Lish This is surely one of the darkest and most jarring books I've read. It is also pitch-perfect. Waste wastes nothingnot a syllable, a beat, a ragged breath. Dawn Raffel

Fiction. A spare and chilling account of the day-to-day experience of Sloper, a janitor in a big-city office building, WASTE explores the import of the discarded--for those who generate it, those who dispose of it, and those who are themselves discarded. From the humble prospect of his station, Sloper uncovers ominous possibility in lives he barely brushes. Brian Everson says, "Only Eugene Marten can keep a reader enthralled with the minutiae of a janitorial existence.... Precisely and exquisitely detailed, WASTE is a stark little masterpiece." And Dawn Raffel writes, "[P]itch-perfect. WASTE wastes nothing--not a syllable, a beat, a ragged breath." And Sam Lipsyte writes, "There is nothing quite like the controlled burn of Eugene Marten's prose."

Eugene Marten is the author of IN THE BLIND (Turtle Point Press, 2003), WASTE (Ellipsis Press, 2008), and FIREWORK (Tyrant Books, 2010). He lives in New York City.