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The Monster Librarian Presents:
Reviews of Bizarro Fiction
Experimental fiction that is considered to be weird or strange, often Bizarro fiction will have elements of horror in it.
Super
Cell Anemia
by Duncan B. Barlow*New Review
Afterbirth Books,2008
ISBN: 978-1933929163
Available: New
Super Cell Anemia is an unsettling debut in all the right ways. Effectively organized through journal entries and narratives from shifting perspectives, the story follows Giles, a germ-a-phobe who is so electrified that he relies on an experimental treatment (involving biting copper) to deal with his rare illness. Giles has moved to Cincinnati to continue this treatment and be close to his doctor. As the story moves along, Giles’ neighbors get stranger, and his doctor goes off on convincing pseudo-scientific monologues. Chapters focused on the various rooms and neighbors in Giles’ building are an inventive touch that relate to the character nicely. Most disturbing is the half-man calico cat Giles knows is stalking him. As you read the book you begin to wonder how much you can trust the journal entries that often compete with the present tense narrative.
The subtle nature of Barlow’s take on the absurd is a strength of the book. While I enjoy the over the top whacky-ness of some Bizarro authors, like Bradley Sands (also an Afterbirth author) and D. Harlan Wilson, Barlow takes a different approach. Like a slow burn gothic horror novel the moments of the absurd are peppered brilliantly through the first hundred pages. From there the strangeness of the book expands like lungs sucking in a deep breath.
Super Cell Anemia is a doozy of a character-based Bizarro novel. It is excellently written and everything I hoped for when I started it. If you like a strange read this book needs to be on your TBR pile.
Review by David Agranoff
Die Earthman Die by MF Korn, DF Lewis, Mike Philbin and David Matthew
Cosmic Eyeball Press, 2005
ISBN:1411641299
Available: New
I wanted to like this collection of short stories. Most are Bizarro style science fiction or horror, with several that are in both genres. Most of the stories are written for irony and humor and a few have an interesting old school feel. Those stories remind me of the thin science fiction paperbacks with orange paper. Strangely, there is no explanation of how the four authors worked together. No publication information is included in the book. This book is really only for libraries dedicated to building a wide collection of Bizarro books.
Review by David Agranoff.
Confessions
of a
Ghoul and other stories by M.F. Korn
Silverlake Publishing, 2003
ISBN:1931095477
Available: New and Used
Confessions of a Ghoul starts out with fifty pages of short stories set in a college environment in the author’s home state of Louisiana. The stories are followed by an interesting novella that gives the book its title. When I first opened this book I thought it was off to a fantastic start. Korn horror tinged Bizarro, with very creative use of prose. However, his pop culture and prompted literary references distance readers from engaging in the story and making connections on their own, and many of his themes are well-worn or repetitive- for instance, his use of horror authors as characters, and multiple references to the same International House of Pancakes. Those interested in including original voices in their collections should not overlook M.F. Korn. I’m just not sure this is the best example of his work.
Contains: Violence, Cannibalism, Adult language and themes
Review by David Agranoff
It
Came from Below the Belt
by Bradley Sands
Afterbirth Books, 2005
ISBN: 0976631040
Available: New
Brandley Sands is not for everyone, but if you are one of people who connect with his work, finding It Came from Below the Belt would be like being struck by lightning. Perhaps the most absurd of absurdist novels I have ever read, this book has as many laughs as a Mel Brooks film from the seventies. On the surface, the novel seems to suffer from ADD, but it is actually deviously constructed to have a plot complete with a “choose your adventure” breakdown in which all the directions make sense in the whole.
So the question is, are you ready to read a science fiction novel about a man swallowed by a giraffe and vomited into the far future that has to run his sentient penis for public office? If that sounds like the type of story you have always been missing, then get Afterbirth Press on the horn and get yourself a copy!
Contains: Adult content and language.
Review by David Agranoff
The
Troublesome Amputee: Collected Poetry
by John Edward Lawson
Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2006
ISBN: 1933293152
Available: New
There are few books like this one. Even within the new and growing Bizarro movement Lawson has released a book full literary razorblades in the form of poetry. Lawson’s work shines through the whole spectrum, including funny, sad, morbid, disgusting and meaningful poems. Libraries looking offer a unique book of poetry that spits in the face of conventional, sugary sweet, or pretentious “literary” poetry, that expresses a dissident voice of gloom should put this book in the shelf. Recommended.
Review by David Agranoff
Chemical
Gardens by Gina Ranalli
Afterbirth Books, 2006
ISBN: 0976631067
Availability: New
Gina Ranalli has
already established herself as the dark queen of the bizarro underground
with the politically challenging experimental novella Suicide Girls in the
Afterlife and a recent collaboration with outsider artist Gus Fink on a
collection titled 13 Thorns. With amazing cover art also by Fink, Chemical
Gardens, released in 2006, is a good place to start for readers looking to
explore this growing literary movement. Laugh out loud funny, bizarre, and
inventive, Chemical Gardens is Ranalli’s take on The Wizard of Oz.
The members of a Seattle punk band, Green is the Enemy, are trapped in a
buried city underneath Seattle called the Underground, where the punk heroes
battle the villains with their guitars as sidekicks, and must fight their
way out in time to make a gig in the Bay Area. It’s safe to say that with
Ranalli leading the way, we’re not in Kansas anymore. Contains: violence,
drug use, alcohol consumption, bizarre imagery.
Review by David Agranoff
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