Zippers and Jeans

Author: J. Peter Moore

Publisher: selva oscura press (2017)

Taking its title from a song by the Memphis musician Harlan T. Bobo, Zippers and Jeans tells the story of a man who upon having his heart broken finds that he can commune with inanimate objects. At regular intervals, the real world leans in on our loveless speaker, cajoling him through the language of Anglo-Saxon riddles, plying him with snapshots of the past, pushing him on his search for the simple life. Along the way, the reader will find a series of short essays on the aesthetics of vernacular culture, which focus on topics such as mass-produced musical instruments, professional wrestling, and the history of deadpan comedy. Like the story of unrequited love, each of these topics relate back to the central trajectory of the book, a descent into the cultural mythology of Memphis.