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Nobody Trusts a Black Magician
The 2009 nonpress release is xTx's "Nobody Trusts a Black Magician." Recorded and pressed in various formats, the book has yet to make it to print, despite glowing popularity on the rowdy internets.
48 pages, html/pdf/mp3
First published January 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
September 10, 2013
You know how some authors just have it? That ability to sum up in a page or two everything life is about? This lady has it. xTx. I found her while looking through online magazines. Lots of her work is available online. This chapbook is a free download from http://www.notimetosayit.com/. I've found that if I read too many at once (it's a digital chapbook, a mere 40 Kindle-pages) they begin to blur together. So, best to sample like a Cadbury egg: one per sitting. Read them while you're waiting in line at the bank. While you're taking the train into the city. While you're doing your daily jog. When you're finished, you'll feel like you've read an entire novel, experienced a life time in the blink of an eye.
February 5, 2018
Nobody describes love better than this person. Ranging from coherent to full-out blabber these stories stick to the heart and mind. I read this in one gulp because I couldn't resist it but for sure I'm revisiting it again for a more relaxed read.
June 25, 2010
Nobody Trusts a Black Magician from NonPress is a surprising and strong collection of work by one of the brightest, sharpest, most raw writers, one xTx. I looked at the chapbook when it was released and read a couple stories but I was, to be honest, kind of nervous because I didn’t know if I was going to read something that might bother me and I didn’t want anything to change my opinion of the writer . I finally decided to stop being a baby and of course the title story is not even remotely about what I thought it was about and it also uses the word “fuck” approximately 111 times so it is, of course, excellent. Before I get into the book, I’ll note that it is available in multiple formats including MP3s so you can listen if you don’t like to read but you’re reading this so you probably do… like to read.
xTx’s writing is quite interesting in how she creates this really raw intimacy with her writing and tells stories that are easy to relate to, stories that are naked, honest and express the desires and anxieties many people have but often don’t acknowledge. I read an interview with Zachary German on HTMLGIANT where he said he finds the ordinary very exciting and I see that exciting ordinary in this chapbook. These stories take very ordinary situations and reveal big, extraordinary moments within them like in “Losing the Pee Argument,” where she writes, “I looked like one of those magazine covers where the famous star poses nude, but you can’t see anything because she’s cockblocking you with her pose,” and it’s a simple line, really, but it creates, for me at least, that perfect moment of recognition. We’ve all seen those poses. The stories I enjoyed most were written in first and second person—violent yet sweet, beautiful but ugly and reflecting both love and a yearning for things we want but can’t have. So many of the stories in this chapbook are love letters, but the good kind. In Black Friend, which really should be heard because it sounds cool, I got a little tense again because I wondered what the story would be about but there’s interesting, witty stuff going on with language and wordplay. I laughed and then I felt uncomfortable and then I thought, “Is this how white people think?” and then I laughed some more. There were a couple stories I didn’t get like Christmas Eve which didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the collection but other than that, Nobody Trusts a Black Magician hits all the right notes. You should go, read this book, and tell everyone you know about it.
xTx’s writing is quite interesting in how she creates this really raw intimacy with her writing and tells stories that are easy to relate to, stories that are naked, honest and express the desires and anxieties many people have but often don’t acknowledge. I read an interview with Zachary German on HTMLGIANT where he said he finds the ordinary very exciting and I see that exciting ordinary in this chapbook. These stories take very ordinary situations and reveal big, extraordinary moments within them like in “Losing the Pee Argument,” where she writes, “I looked like one of those magazine covers where the famous star poses nude, but you can’t see anything because she’s cockblocking you with her pose,” and it’s a simple line, really, but it creates, for me at least, that perfect moment of recognition. We’ve all seen those poses. The stories I enjoyed most were written in first and second person—violent yet sweet, beautiful but ugly and reflecting both love and a yearning for things we want but can’t have. So many of the stories in this chapbook are love letters, but the good kind. In Black Friend, which really should be heard because it sounds cool, I got a little tense again because I wondered what the story would be about but there’s interesting, witty stuff going on with language and wordplay. I laughed and then I felt uncomfortable and then I thought, “Is this how white people think?” and then I laughed some more. There were a couple stories I didn’t get like Christmas Eve which didn’t seem to fit with the rest of the collection but other than that, Nobody Trusts a Black Magician hits all the right notes. You should go, read this book, and tell everyone you know about it.
August 25, 2020
This chapbook was deranged but absolutely enjoyable.
April 22, 2011
Where do you even START with xTx? Funny, raw, sexy, dark, twisted, and always worth it. "I want to fuck you like burned pancakes with my panties in our mouths." That's all I need to say.
July 15, 2011
The stories in Nobody Trusts a Black Magician are glimpses into the minutiae of other lives, their hopes, fantasies, and whims laid bare and stripped of pretense.
This type of flash fiction has been all the rage for the past few years. The only downside of that is that there a slew of authors out there who can write paragraph-long stories, but often these stories seem to be so similar that it’s difficult to tell them apart, and the stories have left our consciousness soon after the last sentence has been read.
Luckily, xTx avoids this pitfall by crafting honest tales that place the reader in a unique moment, each with its own fleeting sensations that we recognize from the small parts of our days. “Losing the Pee Argument” is about a girl taking a bath, and the way she comes to that decision and how the feeling of it relates to something she saw on TV. “So Much of the Same” is like a love letter wrapped in a let’s-fuck-like-this letter, and while many would dismiss it as sophomoric, it is actually lovely in a sensuous way. These stories have a way of shedding their appearance and revealing the love and lust that lurks beneath the words. As soon as you finish a story, you want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again with a new frame of mind.
A short, enjoyable read that will definitely warrant reading again.
This type of flash fiction has been all the rage for the past few years. The only downside of that is that there a slew of authors out there who can write paragraph-long stories, but often these stories seem to be so similar that it’s difficult to tell them apart, and the stories have left our consciousness soon after the last sentence has been read.
Luckily, xTx avoids this pitfall by crafting honest tales that place the reader in a unique moment, each with its own fleeting sensations that we recognize from the small parts of our days. “Losing the Pee Argument” is about a girl taking a bath, and the way she comes to that decision and how the feeling of it relates to something she saw on TV. “So Much of the Same” is like a love letter wrapped in a let’s-fuck-like-this letter, and while many would dismiss it as sophomoric, it is actually lovely in a sensuous way. These stories have a way of shedding their appearance and revealing the love and lust that lurks beneath the words. As soon as you finish a story, you want to go back to the beginning and read it all over again with a new frame of mind.
A short, enjoyable read that will definitely warrant reading again.
July 25, 2013
This was a most certainly interesting collection of stories that starting off, I didn't really like but later on became more entertaining. Overall it was great enjoyment with it's random surprises, steamy writing and sometimes very wholeheartedness. "Christmas Eve" and "Black friend" (if I remember the name correctly) were my favorites.
March 9, 2011
Just when I thought this couldn't get any better, I listened to xTx read it to me. Then it got 33 times better.
February 28, 2014
a treatise on how to suck cock metaphorically
strong
edgy
brittle
cutting
private
lucid
lonely
serpentine
strong
edgy
brittle
cutting
private
lucid
lonely
serpentine
November 22, 2011
This is good, but Normally Special is better.
December 3, 2017
Might listen to the recordings later. As it is, doesn't really beg for it.
October 18, 2009
Possibly the best web release ever, but I might be biased... eat your heart out, other publishers! Something.
January 26, 2012
A lovely e-book. It made me want to read more of xTx's work.
July 12, 2016
Bueno. Basta de alt-lit. Se nota que no la entiendo.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews