Tom Lynch

Chicago author Brian Costello spent his adolescence in Orlando, Florida, the destination of countless families seeking a peek at a person dressed as a cartoonish mouse. He split for Chicago in 1997.

"The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs," Costello's debut novel, to be released on New Year's Day by Featherproof Books, uses the fictional Sprawlburg Springs as an Orlando substitute, a sort of suburb-at-large cloaked with mini-malls and painful generics. "The book evolved from being focused on Orlando, where I grew up," Costello says. "As it went on, I realized that Orlando is kind of everywhere, and the world of Sprawlburg Springs sort of developed from that."

The book, which took Costello nearly ten years to complete, documents the adventures of Shaquille Callahan, drummer for local rock band The Enchanters, as he stumbles through a slacker lifestyle of pizza sandwiches--cooking two frozen pizzas at the same time, stacking them when finished, and eating in layers--and rock gigs at high-school boozer parties. He crushes on the lead singer of the band, an enchanter herself named Renee, and as the town slowly turns against The Enchanters for disrupting the force-fed complacency of its youth, chaos calls. The book is laced with satire and humor, so much so that one could say it's about satire in itself.

"I wanted to make myself laugh," says Costello of the writing process. "The problem was in getting to the story. I didn't want [the humor] to be hyper aware. I didn't want to make it Orlando, either. People would be like, `Where's Disney World?' I didn't want the burden of the blame to be on Orlando. Sprawlburg Springs could be like Schaumburg or something."

Costello, who is part of the Columbia College author-teacher program with Joe Meno and Sam Weller, who drums for the Functional Blackouts and who occasionally hosts his own talk show live at the Empty Bottle--feels in some ways the subject matter of his first book was unavoidable. "In 2002, 2003 and 2004, I would write after I saw music," he says. "I would see The Tyrades or the Ponys or Clone Defects, I'd go to sleep and I'd wake up and write. You still have that spirit in you."

Brian Costello celebrates the release of "The Enchanters vs. Sprawlburg Springs" December 15 at Empty Bottle, 1035 North Western, (773)276-3600, at 9pm. $7.

(2005-12-13)

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