The Best of Dina is a two-night extravaganza . Not to be missed. Michael Dibdin's Aurelio Zen is a reluctant detective. Often completely uninterested in whatever spate of clues crops up, Zen is an elegant, and literary, observer. But for this new book, Seattle writer Dibdin has abandoned the circumspect Zen for a more vulnerable narrator, and consequently produced a book that is being hailed as a departure.
Thanksgiving tells the story of a man whose wife has died.
Stricken, the man travels first to confront his wife's ex-husband, then to his childhood home in Europe, all the while hearing his dead wife's voice, seeing her form rounding corners, her face peeking in windows. The haunted aspect of the book reverberates even more when the man discovers recorded conversations between he and his wife. In the end, whose history he accepts will determine what occurs in the future. Unlike past label blowouts, this party is open to the public, a good thing given that word of mouth is all powerful these days, and why a virtually unknown band like the Shins are able to sell out clubs before their forthcoming album, Oh Inverted World , has yet to hit the shelves. Also on the bill are Damien Jurado , Steve Fisk , and Pleasure Forever , a San Francisco trio formerly known as Slaves.