Confessions of an Idiosyncratic Mind: Sheer existential brilliance

Picks of the Week

Diana Spechler: Who by Fire: A Novel (P.S.)
Spechler's unfliching, beautifully written debut strikes at the heart of how one catastrophic event creates a fissure so deep it breaks a small family into fragmented pieces. A little girl is kidnapped, presumed dead, and over a decade later her mother is still searching for answers, her older sister seeks solace in meaningless sex and her brother - who blames himself for the crime's commission - finds his life's solution among ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Spechler uses the inciting event to show the ways in which family members cling to and turn away from each other, do terrible things with the best intentions and show the comforts and prejudices of religiosity with a compassionate eye and voice.
Iain Levison: Dog Eats Dog
First published in France a few years ago, Bitter Lemon press finally makes this darkly comic gem available in English. When a bank robber, bleeding profusely from his last and very botched job, lands in a sleepy New Hampshire college town, disaster is pretty much inevitable. Never is that more true than for Elias White, roped into being the robber's accomplice as a result of an ill-fated dalliance glimpsed through an open window, and for FBI agent Denise Lupo, whose ability is less dogged and more fragmented. Levison nails the academic atmosphere and its jarring juxtaposition with the criminal underworld, but most of all he's clearly having fun with his given premise.
Matthew Hall: The Art of Breaking Glass
If this debut were published in 2008 instead of 1997, I suspect it would have been greeted with the same acclaim and the same sense that this is a major talent with a great deal in store for his career. Because holy hell, this has tremendous pacing, wonderful characters and an offbeat and very unique voice. But since its original publication, the book is all but out of print and there's no new novel from Hall in sight, as he's concentrated on TV and screenwriting duties. So read this book and hope that a) some publisher decides to reissue it b) Hall follows it up someday.
Victor Gischler: Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse: A Novel
After four crime novels, Gischler turns to something a little different - and a lot more unclassifiable - with this incredibly funny, violent, panoramic and pulpy apocalyptic novel. The world Mortimer Tate left behind was about to go into ruins but what he returns to nine years later is littered with machine guns, strip clubs and people looking out for their best interests (both literally and carnivorously.) With the help of an eclectic crew of sidekicks and gun-toting babes, Mortimer prepares to save the world at the lost city of Atlanta - whether he likes it or not.
Zoe Sharp: Third Strike: A Thriller
Once again, Zoe Sharp finds a way to make the thriller genre her own by focusing on the psychological toll that violence takes upon a person. By the end of THIRD STRIKE, Charlie Fox is at a very dark place, fully cognizant of the consequences her actions have taken upon those she's been asked to guard and those she loves, and I was profoundly disturbed in a way I haven't been after reading a thriller in quite some time. This is a long, long way from mindless fluff, and if you're prepared to travel some very dark and thoughtful corners, this is the book (and series) to read.

February 26, 2008

Sheer existential brilliance

Granted, I'm deluged with work again, but still, this is genius. (via)

Posted at 11:00 AM in Absurdities | Permalink

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Comments

Weird, I just found that today, too. The more you read it, the creepier it becomes.

Posted by:Ray | February 26, 2008 at 11:16 AM

Good God, that's amazing. I want a hundred more.

Posted by:Charles Finch | February 26, 2008 at 11:53 AM

Should come with a warning to close the office door. I haven't laughed like that in a long time. Now my workmates are imitating my snort. Ah well. Thank you for sharing the link.

Posted by:pete osborne | February 26, 2008 at 12:50 PM

Great! Thanks. Much better this way.

Posted by:Ingrid (I.J.Parker) | February 26, 2008 at 01:19 PM

I'll find the link later, but somebody put up a bunch of Garfield strips and took out Garfield's words. Its a creepy and hilarious strip about a lonely man and his cat

Posted by:Cameron Hughes | February 26, 2008 at 03:43 PM

Maybe this is only relevant to 2008, but boy, it nails it.

Posted by:Patti Abbott | February 26, 2008 at 05:03 PM

Perhaps they should get one of these cats as a replacement for Garfield:

http://www.brezhnev.net/images/trotsky.jpg

Posted by:Cornelia Read | February 26, 2008 at 05:15 PM

Silent Garfield: http://www.truthandbeautybombs.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=4997&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

Posted by:Cameron Hughes | February 26, 2008 at 06:18 PM

In a similar vein, please check out the pure insanity that is www.Lasagnacat.com

Posted by:Shane | February 26, 2008 at 09:01 PM

"I'm an empty grocery sack!" Oh my god, my tummy hurts from laughing so much.

Posted by:Steve Allan | February 27, 2008 at 03:03 PM