The problem with using words like mesmerizing, outstanding, and powerful to describe a novel is that a few generations of lazy reviewers have rendered them almost meaningless. That being said, if we go back to the dictionary and apply their original meaning minus the damage caused by overuse, they perfectly describe Robert Kloss’ The Revelator. At once a poetic exploration of religious fervor/madness and a fictionalized retelling of Joseph Smith’s life and the beginning of the Church of Jesus Christ […]
An Unlikely Parenting Manual: A Review of Jerry Stahl’s “OG Dad”
There are now two kinds of parenting books. The first group deals with the ins and outs of parenthood and babies, usually offer general guidelines that may or may not apply to your case, and tackle the uncomfortable realities of managing a baby with varying degrees of wit and humor. Then there is Jerry Stahl’s OG Dad, perhaps the only parenting book that uses equal amounts of hilarity, emotional grit, outstanding prose, and unrelenting honesty to approach parenthood and the […]
Self-Destruction and “A Voyeuristic Itch”: A Review of Clancy Martin’s “Bad Sex”
The first few chapters of a book are crucial, and Clancy Martin’s Bad Sex opened with chapters that failed to hook me. Or so I thought. Instead of failing to hook me, my negative reaction to the novel came from some deeply rooted issues; my class resentment was flaring up and I wasn’t in the mood for yet another novel about the emotional woes of rich, attractive white folks who travel around the world and spend their days drinking and […]
Paranoia, Cinematic History, and Armadillos: A Review of Brandon Hobson’s “Desolation of Avenues Untold”
There is a remote corner of contemporary literature where top-notch literary fiction is being held down by powerful voices and getting injected with beautifully outré storytelling and elements so strange that they wouldn’t be out of place in a bizarro fiction novel. Brandon Hobson’s Desolation of Avenues Untold is one of the best novels to come out of that outrageous corner of the literary landscape. A narrative that confidently walks the line between a mystery with heavy doses of noir […]
Cults, Fragments, and Fanatics: A Review of Troy James Weaver’s “Visions”
Visions by Troy James Weaver (Broken River Books) Religion, sex, death, love, pain, abuse, and something akin to illuminated insanity coalesce in Troy James Weaver’s Visions, a novel that exemplifies how rich, deep narratives can benefit from both unadorned honesty and extreme economy of language. Using short chapters and a few fragments pulled from a notebook kept by the main character, Visions offers a look at a large portion of a young man’s life and the dreamlike visions and voices […]
“Most Fishing Stories Are About More Than Just Fish”: An Interview with Cameron Pierce
Cameron Pierce is the editor of Lazy Fascist Press, one of the most exciting presses in indie lit, and an accomplished author with eleven books to his name. His work, some of which has gone viral time and again, helped established the canon for bizarre fiction. Now, both with his own prose and the outstanding and unclassifiable narratives he publishes through Lazy Fascist, Pierce is helping redefine genre fiction and weird literature in general. With Our Love Will Go the […]
Human Nature, Through the Aquatic: A Review of “Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon”
Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon by Cameron Pierce (Broken River Books, 222 p.) No short story collection bridges the gap between genre and literary fiction with the raw intensity and apparent ease that Cameron Pierce’s Our Love Will Go the Way of the Salmon does. Pierce, whose early work is now part of the bizarro fiction canon, has slowly moved toward literary fiction while retaining the best elements of the bizarro aesthetic, and the result is […]
Capturing American Absurdity: A Review of Sean Wilsey’s “More Curious”
More Curious by Sean Wilsey (McSweeney’s; p.) Geographically, More Curious, a collection of journalist/editor/author Sean Wilsey’s most vital essays, takes readers on a trip across the nation that goes from the tiny town of Marfa, Texas, to great New York City restaurants and down to the launchpad at Cape Canaveral. However, the relevance of these collected pieces resides not on the diversity of the spaces presented but in the way Wilsey dissects our country and its people with surgical precision regardless […]