|
The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh Prop. by Robert Coover. Henry Waugh has a drab, lovely life as an accountant. His only joy is the baseball league which plays every night in his head. His rich inner life has created eight teams of colorful players. He didn't stop with just stats and figures, Waugh created whole back stories, histories and families for each one of his players. Armed only with a pair of dice, he watches his players struggle on towards victory. Lots of dark humor to be found in here. The big allegory is that Waugh is God propelling his world forward one roll of the dice at a time. (Take that, Einstein!) Though the book proceeds the phenomenon of Dungeons & Dragons by several years, one could dovetail a critique of that game in to the novel as well.
|
#
¿
Nov 30, 2006 11:49
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:10 |
|
|
Just finished The Third Policeman by Flann O'Brien. A very funny story about a man who came to the sudden realization that he can't remember his own name. This is partially due to the fact that unbeknownst to him, he was killed in the second chapter and spends the rest of the book in Hell. He enlists the help of the local police to track down the fortune of an old man whom he and his roommate murdered with a bicycle pump and a spade. Along the way the reader learns of the secret brotherhood of one-legged men and that one's bicycle gets stolen because someone is genuinely concerned for your soul.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2007 09:55
|
|
|
The Sugar Frosted Nutsack by Mark Leyner. I have always been a big fan of Leyner's since My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist so I was very happy to see he finally came back to writing fiction after a long stint of editing medical-factoid paperbacks. That said: not everyone is going to enjoy this book mainly due to the frustrating way in which it is written. Its conceit makes it read like a really dry academic critique/exploration into a fictional epic poem (the titular Sugar Frosted Nutsack). Or it could be that the critiques are actually part of the poem since the epic itself is endlessly recursive, subsuming everything written about it into itself. The recursion also means that certain parts, concepts and lines are looped over again throughout the text. If you find your self thinking, "Didn't I read this line before?" The answer is always Yes. (if you didn't read the line before please keep it to yourself otherwise you may inadvertently alter the canon.) The epic poem is about Ike Karton, an unemployed Jersey City butcher and favorite of (some of) the Gods. He was hit by an ice cream truck during spring break and has the Mister Softee jingle permanently playing in his mind as a result. His epic adventures include flirting with a waitress at the local diner and sitting out on the curb getting high with his daughter's boyfriend. All of which culminates in his death at the hands of a Mossad sniper*. Or so we think, since on top of all the recursion one of the gods is actively contorting space-time to alter and edit the epic since he's miffed about the withering critique of his own poem. If you can manage not to think too hard about the story you ought to find it amusing. *This is not a spoiler. Ike is actively aware of his fate from the moment he is introduced for he has also read the epic poem about his adventures. rich thick and creamy fucked around with this message at 21:35 on May 15, 2012 |
|
#
¿
May 15, 2012 21:30
|
|
|
The Manual of Detection by Jedediah Berry. It's a fun little Noir detective novel that twists itself into a pyschonaut caper. Charles Unwin (A little on the nose with the last name, Jed) is a clerk in a detective agency known simply as The Agency in an unnamed city. His job is to clean up and finalize reports for his assigned detective, Travis Sivart, the Agency's star. That is until Sivart goes missing and Unwin is thrust into the role of detective. Not only is Sivart missing but Sivart's handler turns up dead and Unwin is the prime suspect. Unwin must solve the caper while keeping ahead of both Agency detectives and an Underworld run by a crime boss so cunning he once stole a whole day. One of the fun things is that there is a book-within-the-book as Unwin is armed with a copy of the Manual of Detection as published by The Agency for its operatives. It has the same number of chapters as the novel. At one point a character tells Unwin that he should turn to page 96 for some good advice. Sure enough, when you turn to page 96 there is an excerpt from the Manual. Some light, clever fun.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2021 16:23
|
|
|
The Complete Accomplice by Steve Aylett. Friend to all crawling and flying creatures of the Earth, Barny Juno pisses off a demon named Sweeney. Specifically Juno rescues an alligator that Sweeney was letting marinate in its own terror. This demon is something of a king in Hell and thus too big to manifest in the mortal realm to personally exact revenge without a serious expenditure. So Sweeney resorts to minions and schemes to pester and break poor Juno who doesn't seem to realize powerful malevolent forces are moving against him. He's too caught up in his own problems most of the time. Anyways that's just the setup. You really read Aylett for the wordplay and twisty bits. I also just picked up the collected Hyperthick also by Aylett. Pretty much the same word salad as Accomplice only this time the stories incorporate old adventure and detective comics that lapsed into public domain. From the looks of it Aylett blanked out the captions and word balloons and wrote his own script.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 14, 2022 15:24
|
|
|
Gaius Marius posted:I can only assume that Decay of the Angel will be even more apocalyptic in it's vision of modern Japan. Decay of the Angel gets a lot of criticism for feeling rushed. Which is valid considering what Mishima had planned in his personal life: Plan A: Raid JDF barracks and hopefully said action will kick off Reactionary overthrow of Japanese government. Should this not inspire the masses to rise up Plan B: Kill myself in ritual seppuku. He had a lot on his mind besides ending the series on a high note.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 4, 2023 17:57
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 06:10 |
|
|
Lint - Steve Aylett Jeff Lint was the most prolific Sci-Fi author you never heard of. You haven't heard of him because Aylett made him up out of whole cloth. Even going so far as to create a mock Wikipedia page. The book covers the general periods of Lint's work, his struggles with both spouses and editors, and why he always submitted finished stories in drag. I will likely be reading And Your Point Is? which is the follow-up where Aylett invites his fellow authors to give detailed reviews of Lint's work which are only touched upon here. An excellent send-up of biographies.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 8, 2024 21:50
|
|