fiction
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Review of Little Men by Louisa May Alcott
Out of the 3 books in the series, I enjoyed the first the most. Little Women was a heartwarming read. Little Men follows the perspective of the boys under Jo’s care. The reader is meant to follow their development as human beings, as they learn lessons and make decisions. They…
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Review of Roxana by Daniel Defoe
Not very impressive in every way. Roxana seems at times like a rewrite of Moll Flanders. The similarities are obvious. But the main issue is Defoe’s verbosity. It wouldn’t be so bad if it weren’t for the repetition. He often tells the reader things they should already know. Assumes the…
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Review of The Girl with the Barbed Wire Hair by Carlton Mellick III
Some CM3 books are not really bizarro. This falls into that category. There is the usual horror, gore, sex and supernatural stuff, but none of it is particularly avant-guarde punk. The barbed wire hair visuals are slightly bizarro, but not really. Aside from faltering when it comes to conjuring a…
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Review of The Knickknack Case: A Tony Flaner Mystery by Johnny Worthen
My first foray into the Tony Flaner mystery series. This is a good place to start with the work of Johnny Worthen. I will be reading the other mysteries in this series. I find the voice and the sarcastic narrator irresistible. The mystery itself is nothing to write home about.…
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Review of 8-Bit Apocalypse by Amanda Billings
I purchased this novel to feed two addictions I have willfully acquired: reading about video games and bizarro fiction. Though this was published alongside other more grotesque works by a primarily bizarro publisher, this was more an ode to video game history in fictional form than a bizarro novel in…
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Review of Mneme’s Stoned by Luke Delin
After reading Orbo and the Godhead, I was overwhelmed by the fantastic fusion of ideas and subdued force of that novel. Where that novel was ecstatic and full-throttle, this novel was a quieter whirlwind. Mneme’s Stoned possesses many qualities of the previous work: absurdism, magical realism, drug use, mental illness,…
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Review of Eyes: Novellas and Stories by William H. Gass
Gass makes impressive use of language to describe the thoughts and feelings of inanimate objects. By exploring perspectives in this way, he is able to layer on a bunch of observations.It would appear that he holds plot and character development in contempt. Instead, he maneuvers the reader through a skewed…
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Review of A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
Admittedly, I have asked ChatGPT to write plenty of sequels to “The Library of Babel.” I have thought about the story ceaselessly. I have written my own fan fictions here and there. Borges was quoted as saying “I imagine Heaven as a kind of library.” The author of this book…
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Review of The Al-Alam Revolution by J.S. Xander
The Al-Alam Revolution is a well-written story of a pretty good length featuring a 15-year-old protagonist in a creatively fictionalized world. A lot of futuristic novels offer a nihilistic worldview, but thanks to Nili’s idealism, most of the book’s somber undertone is lightened.The pages were easy to turn in this…
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Review of Solenoid by Mircea Cartarescu
A depiction of the remarkable wealth of one man’s inner life amid the bodily poverty and blindingly dull inheritance of the paltry years allotted to him on a damaged and ravaged earth in a squalid and unforgiving metropolis. Drenched in cosmic surrealism and accoutered with interlocking symbols. The author pursues central…
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Review of Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
Japanese Slice of Life Versus American Literary Fiction. Slice of Life: mundane day to day events occur regularly. Characters go to work, commute, go shopping, etc. They interact with others in quirky and amusing ways. Characters make decisions, but the consequences are not usually earth-shattering. Readers have the chance to…
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Review of Of Kings, Queens and Colonies by Johnny Worthen
Humans have relocated to a ten-planet system called Coronam. Each planet has its drawbacks and advantages. Various factions proceed to war over the resources and ownership. This is an epic with medieval warfare, space ships, and political subtexts. Told through 16 points of view, the tale could get a little…
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Review of Ruins by Peter Kuper
A worthy and important work of graphic storytelling. A married couple take a sabbatical in Oaxaca. He is a struggling insect-enthusiast, and she is working on a novel. They gravitate away and toward one another while they explore the urban desolation and natural splendor of their surroundings. It resonates strongly…
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Review of by Crystals of Empire Trilogy by M. Poyhonen
The Crystals of Empire is an immersive fantasy tale with a steep learning curve. In time, the pieces fall into place, but the beginning eased me in with a recognizable setting steeped in mythological undertones and relatable character interaction. While I did not get on with the dialects, the dialogue…
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Review of End Man by Alex Austin
The first thing I appreciated about End Man was the Vaporware/ Outrun aesthetic of its cover, followed by its intriguing premise. Wherever corporate corruption is brought upon the chopping block I am game for a foray into speculation. Then you get oodles of commentary on mortality and how the virtual…
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Review of Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
2 stars for Neil Gaiman and 6 stars for old Norse authors. A glance at the cover would lead one to believe that Neil Gaiman wrote this book. He is the “author” after all. But what did he actually do? He retold the tales. His language is entertaining, but he…
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Review of Anthem by Ayn Rand
Writing in the first person plural toward a central theme, Ayn Rand tests the reader’s patience. I recommend Doris Lessing instead. Her wonky, awkward descriptive power is more attuned than Rand’s. Rand has a tendency to produce a monotone. I was picturing THX 1138 the whole time. Naming characters with…
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Review of Liar, Dreamer, Thief by Maria Dong
Told in first person present tense. A dysfunctional protagonist leads us through her obsession with a coworker. The main character self-consciously sabotages herself through ritual superstitions and coping mechanisms. The list of her disorders is not delineated but the reader may observe tell-tale signs of nearly every social issue a…
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Review of My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
Not much left to be said about this brilliant book. It was brilliant and disturbing and a perfect reading experience. Another first person narrative by this famous author plumbing the depths of human loneliness, wish fulfillment and modern society. A magnificent satire and unputdownable headlong plunge into the heart of…
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Review of Lapvona by Ottessa Moshfegh
My ranking of Ottessa Moshfegh’s books. 1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation2. Homesick for Another World3. Lapvona4. Eileen5. McGlue6. Death in Her Hands Lapvona was midrange Moshfegh, in my opinion. It lacked the intimate first person perspective of her other works and possessed a cold, alien tone, making use…
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Review of Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Why do people read literary fiction? I ask myself this whenever I try to define the difficult term “literary fiction.” I think of Philip Roth and John Updike most readily. I see that Moshfegh manages to impress literary readers while also capturing a large audience, ie, being a bestseller. But…
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Review of My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
Listening to 80s Synthwave Halloween mix on Youtube while writing this review. This was the kind of audiobook I had to invent chores to continue listening to. An incredible audiobook performance first of all. And a beautifully written book, oozing nostalgia from every acne-scarred pore. The angst. The rich details,…
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Review of Edgar Allan Poe: Collected Works by Edgar Allan Poe
It was nice to pick up a leather bound edition of Poe for my Halloween rereading of his stories. I rediscovered amazing stories like “King Pest” and “The Devil in the Belfry.” this activity reminded me of the many qualities I admire about his writing. I was disappointed in the…
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Review of The Exalted and the Abased by Damian Murphy
Several more novellas with occult-aesthetics from the master of neo-decadent novellas. It is a niche genre perhaps, but the sumptuous descriptions and elegant interior design, the descents into esoteric epiphanies, the occluded worlds steeped in reverent awe of dark forces – none of these things get old when the prose…
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Review of The Neo-Decadent Cookbook by Various
A fun companion piece to the other Decadent anthologies from Snuggly Books (though this was published by Eibonvale) featuring returning favorites: Brendan Connell, Quentin S. Crisp, Justin Isis, Damian Murphy, and several others. The short tales center around food, ingredients and people. They are rich in detail and surprising in…
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Review of Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
This surreal collection of short stories put me in mind of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls, Smart Ovens for Lonely People, and Life Ceremony. It uses the same recipe of injecting everyday tone with bizarro aesthetics. This is upmarket bizarro. Genre fiction pretending to be literary fiction. A popular…
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Review of Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams
Brutal, Bloody Realism. Impressive in every way. While Williams’ old-fashioned style suits the atmosphere of this tense book, his sentences are florid in places. But the graphic depictions and tangible grit make this journey unforgettable. It reminded me of the film Wages of Fear. I mourn the millions of buffalo…
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Review of Through the Abyss: Supreme Creation Seriesby Sidney Son
The first thing you may notice about this book is that the cover is reminiscent of Andy Weir’s books. But I approve of covers that convey a book’s comp titles. The author provides a highly detailed style which coalesces into atmospheric descriptions without sacrificing a quick pace. There is a…
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Review of Stoner by John Williams
Good storytelling. A memorable picture of American life. Steinbeckian. Stoner the famer becomes Stoner the stubborn professor. We witness his heartbreaking home life and his harrowing professional life–two spheres most middle class Americans dwell in like split personalities. It has been called a perfect novel. I would like to point…
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Review of People from My Neighborhood by Hiromi Kawakami
Hiromi Kawakami collects here a dreamlike conglomeration of semi-related characters and events from her part of town, if the title and interior clues are to be believed. The random nature of the images and events lend the collection an experimental feel. The writing is smooth and simple and unadorned. Her…
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Review of Frankissstein: A Love Storyby Jeanette Winterson
Just great, bold, immersive writing. The various perspectives sustain their storylines and characters through intense and quiet moments. Introspective, but with plenty of dense, quippy dialogue. Outrageous sex doll business planning discussions, Mary Shelley in bed with P. B. Shelley, pillow whispering poetry. Humans as monsters and monsters as humans.…
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Review of Letters of Thanks From Hellby David Vardeman
I’ve finished all of Vardeman’s published works. Now I have to resist the daily urge to search the web for new publications by this author. LoTfH is a dramatic play taking place hundreds of years ago, with historically appropriate syntax and vocabulary. But somehow, Vardeman avoids confusion and localization, modernizing…
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Review of Great Jones Street by Don DeLillo
I have read 16 Delillo novels so far. His literary cobbling definitely intrigues me. The sense of place, the weird characters saying off-the-wall things. The long, unnecessary, wandering, plotless sections of simply intriguing writing. My ranking of Delillo so far: 1. Underworld2. Americana3. Cosmopolis4. The Angel Esmeralda5. The Body Artist6.…
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Review of Palm Mall: A Vaporwave Novelby Oliver Neale
I have been searching for a ‘real’ Vaporwave novel. My Vaporwave shelf contains some works which analyze the genre and some books that taunted me with similar aesthetics, like Ballard’s retro futuristic descents into madness and Philip K. Dick’s vibrant dystopias. I came upon this 728-page Vaporwave novel with hesitation.…
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Review of A Cool Million by Nathanael West
Greasy satire of the most malicious kind. A rags to rags story about one man’s valiant pursuit of the American nightmare. A surprisingly smooth and cinematic journey through the underbelly of America, which is not an underbelly so much as a carcass here, teeming with greedy maggots. The swindles are…
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Review of Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian
I needed this. More unrestrained than Kawabata. Less brutal than Mo Yan. The voice is folkloric, the storytelling all over the place but always entertaining. With beautiful language, Gao depicts a China in transition, whose government and people are full of contradictions, but also resonant with long-standing traditions, suffused with…
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Review of Later Stories by Alexander Theroux
Not short stories but novellas. While I disliked the tone of most of the stories, and much of the subject matter, I enjoyed the dollops of sophisticated prose. The companion volume, called Early Stories, is half as long and less bloated. it is a better distillation of Theroux’s capabilities and…
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Review of Two Stories by Osvaldo Lamborghini
A certain type of reader may find the book interesting. Though, it is more of a pamphlet than a book, being 35 pages, with notes and an introduction. The reader would be completely at sea without a lifeboat if it weren’t for the notes, but they constitute a translation of…
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Marked to Die: A Tribute to Mark Samuelsby Justin Isis
The Weird Tale, as a genre, plays host to stories of far more diversity than most other genres. It can combine elements of horror, literary fiction, historical fiction, humor, adventure, science fiction, and fantasy. Examples abound of Lovecraftian experiments in cosmic dread and Machen-esque descents into sub-realities, but no author…
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Review of We Love Glenda So Much and A Change of Light by Julio Cortázar
Cortázar had the face of a lion and the ability to defamiliarize the everyday. His lengthy paragraphs are more entertaining than Henry James’ because more happens, but the subtle connections between his warring ideas are often obscured by leaps in logic, incongruous character behaviors, and piquant observations. Cortázar doesn’t hold…
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Review of The Anthologist (The Paul Chowder Chronicles #1) by Nicholson Baker
Baker’s deep dive into poetry analysis and history succeeds on every level except for his audiobook narration, which is uneven, ranging from blasting your ear drums out to indecipherable murmurs. The whole book is a poetic interlude about an anthologist failing to write a poetry book introduction. The minutia of…
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Review of Trafik by Rikki Ducornet
Quirky even for Ducornet. Suffused with her characteristic charm, wit, sensuality and signature linguistic exuberance. A vivid dreamscape of “tonguefeels.” A melancholic deepening of post-atomic exotic, nebulous human-wannabes on the edge of the pendulous nostalgia-fueled singularity of an entire dissolving civilization. Memories, avatars, simulations, showerhead massages, spacey antics: both delicious…
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Review of Winter in Sokcho by Elisa Shua Dusapin
A short, atmospheric novella relating the enigmatic beauty of an unremarkable life. A quiet, heartfelt rendering of human beings intertwined in the awkward embrace of modern life in an out of the way place. I really enjoyed the setting. A well-structured short work, but less striking than a more-developed novel…
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Review of The Breast by Philip Roth
A plot worthy of Woody Allen initially turned me off, but I’m reevaluating my impression toward Roth, and this was short enough to read in one sitting. Pristine prose stylings are why I read this author. Not always polished to a high gleam, not Nabokov, but well-rhythmed, easy to read,…
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Review of Heaven by Mieko Kawakami
I am cautiously optimistic regarding Mieko Kawakami’s literary future. She is a rising star of popular Japanese fiction, but I see her writing style suffering from common traits plaguing the English translations we are getting within the past several years. It is a kind of commercial dumbing down of the…
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Review of The Green Child by Herbert Read
This bizarre novel was broken into three disparate parts, and by ‘broken,’ I mean ruined. For part one, he might merit 5/5 stars, for part 2, 2/5, and part 3, 4/5. The longest middle section is a droll account of the main character’s life story, his toppling of a dictator,…
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Review of To Hold Up the Sky by Liu Cixin
The short stories in this volume cover many topics, including concerns and ideas that also appear in The Three-Body Trilogy, but they are used in different settings. Super-string computers, hollow earth, the value of poetry, total perfect vision of time and space achieved by simulating the original Big Bang and…
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Review of The Sleep of the Righteous by Wolfgang Hilbig
My third Hilbig novel in quick succession. Whereas his others were solid blocks of interior narration, this one perfectly captures an elegiac wonderment characteristic of childhood’s hurtle through strata of growth, confusion, and sadness.The author summons reality with abundance through the distorted mirror of his character’s psyche. He is a…
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Review of Unclean Jobs for Women and Girls by Alissa Nutting
The most creative short story collection I have ever read. While technically belonging to the bizarro genre, this collection passes itself off as literary fiction. The author has, by now, established herself as a literary figure. It always bothers me how a slight literary polish makes all the difference between…
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Review of Tampa by Alissa Nutting
Are you a brave reader? If you read Lolita unfazed, made it through American Psycho, and graduated to Story of the Eye, maybe you’re ready for this one. But ask yourself, what do you want to get out of literature. A thrill? Shock value? There’s a multi-part series on Youtube…
L. S. Popovich 