Stan Rogal at WordStage

Stan Rogal (As Good As Dead) is reading at WordStage on Thursday, March 13 at 7:30 p.m. At Cervejaria, 842 College Street, Toronto.

As Good As Dead is a cautionary tale about an unknown writer "living in the bowels of anonymity" who suddenly hits it big with a novel-turned-movie deal. On his quick trip to fame, Vic stops along the way to comment on celebrity, marketing machines, the notion of banging out an overnight success on one's typewriter, and the act of becoming a legend.

At its most basic, the novel is about language: all meaningful attempts to communicate end in failure and/or comic tragedy due to the limits of language. The novel is also written as a roman à clef in good humour -- many of the characters are recognizable within the Toronto writing community. Rogal couples his dramatic wit with an accelerated stream-of-consciousness style in his fifteenth book and third novel.