Surreal and satisfying
596859
Tremblay's 94-page novella is something of a tour de force: four stand-alone stories, in various voices and styles, which interlock in satisfying fashion in a mash-up of science fiction, horror, and noir.  All take place in the double milieu of City, a gritty urban environment, and Pier, the stripped coastal sequoia forest whose treetops somehow provide City's foundation.  (If this sounds surreal, wait until the balloons arrive.)  The hardboiled opener, "Meat's Story", gives us a mad-scientist weapons dealer, his hired muscle, a wayward son, and a dead druglord. "Dole As Ribbit" adds a doubting priest who mind-reads a demented homeless man at the behest of a corrupt cop. "The Strange Case of Nicholas Thomas," detailing the mysterious flotilla of balloons that arrives every 19 years, seems an outright homage to Borges (who also appreciated noir) with its library setting, its layered editorial pseudoscholarship, and its reality-bending implications.  Finally, "She Wants To Be Saved" picks up threads from previous stories and knots them in a tangle of blood and degradation, told backward, "Memento"-style. City Pier is preoccupied with fathers and sons and especially with the contrast between gritty adulthood and childhood innocence; like all good noir, it is steeped in melancholy.
4216920
If you are cynical, negative, and have a stunted imagination, you won't like this story.  However, if you enjoy upbeat, beautifully written fantasy tales, it's likely that you, like me, will adore it.  Granted, there are heart-wrenching, frightening moments and a sneering villian, but all comes right in the end and nothing truly horrific or disgusting happens.  What a relief from most modern writing!  The descriptive writing is exquisite; I felt that I was right there seeing, hearing and feeling everything.  There are some interesting mysteries which are neatly solved to the satisfaction of all.  The mood of the book is enchantment from beginning to end.
1879719
Before You Were a Prophet is so surreal that it feels completely believable. The world is a freakish place, and people do wierd things, but when strangeness is distilled into novel form it somehow seems quite reasonable.

Heldt is generous with his irony, humor and intelligence: I would say "this book can be read at multiple levels," except that would sound like the sort of cliche found in highschool English essays.  But I can read this when I want to look into human reactions, or when I want to ponder the workings of the world, or when I just want to be amused.  And it works well for all those purposes.
1416976
This hefty volume is a real page-turner--I was glued to it for about 4 days--as well as being an extraordinary tour de force. The plot is an intricate and far-flung labyrinth with unexpected twists at every turn. If you like to savor puzzles, this is a great one. It's patterned on a Victorian novel, and its scrupulously accurate descriptions of the wretched underside of Victorian society are extraordinarily vivid. Like a Dickens novel, it's populated with striking characters from all walks of life, especially the underclass. And the writing is very good.
But there was one aspect that put a damper on my enjoyment and stood out as a striking anachronism for a book aspiring to Victorian novelhood. The chapters have the kind of bouncy, chirpy period titles like those I remember from the cheerful books of my youth like Little Women and they led me to expect a certain Victorian-style heartiness in the tone of the story. However, except for the first section, the rest of the novel is a story of sheer unrelieved misery, evil, and hopelessness. The author seems to have bent over backwards to systematically demolish every prospect of help or escape and eradicate any possibility of lasting happiness or hope, no matter how small.
Even Dickens' grimmest novels offer comic relief, and they usually offer a ray of hope or a chance of happiness at the end for some decent character or other as well. Victorian writers lived in an optimistic era, and in the books I'm familiar with, glimmers of that optimism are generally evident in their work. (Villette is a striking exception, for those who like gloom.)
It's not that I prefer saccharin endings, but in my view, the relentless blackness of the Quincunx's worldview reflects more of the sardonic mindset of a'90's novelist than it does a Victorian one.  Whether this is supposed to make it more "realistic" to match the taste of contemporary readers, I don't know, but I don't think that's necessarily achieved by taking the opposite extreme in an effort to flee conventional happy endings.
In any event, the novel's inexorable woefulness wore me down after a while. In the end, it left me feeling unusually depressed and also  a little like I'd been had. I thought I was  reading a novel that was supposed to be faithful to the spirit as well as the form of a 19th century novel, but at the end I discovered that it was actually a bit of turn-of-the-millenium nihilism tricked out in elaborate Victorian duds.
1696698
Todd Grimson's new collection of short stories bears a strong resemblance to the characters that inhabit them:  It lives far out on the fringe, where all pretense of normalcy is stripped away and we confront the vast, forbidding and fascinating chaos that lurks below.  Here Grimson shows how humor, horror, compassion, courage and venality freely intermingle in endlessly complex patterns.  Life may be terrifying or lurid or tragic, but never boring or predictable.

The very first story takes us up a jungle river in the manner of Joseph Conrad, but then spins off into a wonderful mix of perversity and hilarity in the most insane instance of human barter imaginable.  In another, we land in Pre-Castro Havana, which wallows in steaming pool of decadence brought on by decades of US exploitation.  You can almost feel the perspiration as a young woman schemes to leverage her sexuality in a world dominated by men, money and violence.

In Stabs of Happiness, we're introduced to a contemporary "alt dyke" looking for sexual gratification in decidedly strange settings that are strongly reminiscent of the best of David Lynch's film work.  Then we take a trip with Jean Harlow to San Francisco for a weekend fling far more sensational than anything she ever did on the big screen.  If felt like an old black and white pornographic movie populated by characters full of a very robust sort of sleaziness.

The one tale where Grimson stays close to the bone is Wrong, a narrative built around a young man, his father, and a prostitute who becomes the object of a sustained and calamitous obsession.  The ending is truly devastating, but delivered in the calm, deliberate manner the characterizes much of the author's work.

Stabs of Happiness may be shocking to some, but for the rest of us, it's a really great ride by a true master of his craft.
4452879
A pure whim of a book, and one that dramatically reveals one's preconceived notions of what a book ought to do or be. When you begin reading, it feels like a strangely underdeveloped mystery story in which clues, instead of being saved for a grand reveal in the end, are being interpreted on the spot without much concern for how realistic the interpretation may seem. The reading, then, begins to feel like a yarn, akin to a ghost story spun over a campfire--it trains you to suspend your disbelief and go along with its little incredibilities. The climax, when it comes, is profoundly satisfying--things fall into place, nothing is left unexplained, and the wit of the entire parable inspires a sense of imaginative accomplishment in you, the reader.
3674772
I took a risk and purchased a Surreal CD...and it truly is sublime. Surreal's magic is that their writing sounds at once familiar and at the same time, unlike anything you've ever  heard. Lyrics and melodies spring  forth from singer Alan Semerdjian like a sparkling primal  spring. (I  should know, I walk around singing them for days!) The drummer and bassist  provide a bubbling, massaging undercurrent to this and the lead guitarist  sprinkles abundant firefly melodies throughout. On their website I learned  that they have been playing together since high school and it shows. They  have really forged something exciting and special.
2764051
I'll say this:  I couldn't put this book down.  The author has tremendous shaping energy, and the last 50 pages or so, especially, I read as fast as I could, with an impending sense of dread and anticipation.  To me, that's significant and rare; the atmosphere was built, and the climax and denouement were coming (no puns intended when I started writing this, really, given the sexual overtones of the book).  It reminded me of "Rebecca," with the Gothic setup and the closeness, the claustrophobia, not to mention the very open weaving-in of insanity and winter, the absence of sun, of hope, of spring.

The integral questions, for me--the ones that made me sit and think for awhile, after, and go back and re-read passages--were about what makes a life worth living, what makes people connect, and is it ever too late to change your path.  I found the exploration of the questions admirable and the resolution satisfying.  Also, I was surprised a few times, and that's a good thing.  If you can't get at least a step ahead of me, chances are I'll be bored.

The novel evokes time and place; I enjoyed immensely, recommend highly.
3294448
This is a weird but very satisfying book. I loved the way the author kept balancing both worlds, old print and digital age, without ever seeming to favor one, or implying the other was dead. It made me connect a lot with the story, as I am convinced both worlds are still valid.

The plot and characters are great, well drawn without the verbose character-defining page-fillers some authors use. This was quick paced but felt like a leather armchair in an old-fashionned English club. Really, a very satisfying story, all the more so since I bought it on Amazon's recommendation, and thus did not expect anything specific.
3646049
I've heard the budget for this film was quite low but you would not for a second know it because of the stunning production design, good acting, filming and over-all feel. The locations bring you back about 80 years seemlessly. But it's not just this great use of available resources that makes this movie something to at least rent (or at the current price, buy) it's how unusual and independent, even surreal and mystical feeling this film is. Threre is such a range of people who I've showed it to recently, and all have liked it for the reasons I mentioned and countless more. If you want a sober and surreal departure from the ordinary sub-par and formulaic hollywood stuff, this is the film for you.
2879329
I just loved this novel. An escape from ordinary, the story was mysterious, surreal, and enchanting. I would recommend this for anyone that wants a break from cookie cutter storylines.
4923333
This is an utterly surreal, joyous and irreverent look at Spike Milligans time as a young soldier in WWII.  This book takes us from the outbreak of war through to the beginning of 1943 when Milligan arrives in Algiers.  In between there is receiving his call up papers,  endless training  none of which he appears to have had any aptitude for  and his first steps into Show Business when he teams up with fellow jazz fans to play at dances.

As Milligan himself states in the introduction, many terrible things happened in the war, but humour helped him cope.  The names, whether made up or real, are straight from a Waugh novel  Battery Sergeant-Major Jumbo Day for example could easily have been a character in Men at Arms.  Everything is taken with humour and Milligan is full of wonderfully bad puns  when he finds that, during a romantic tryst in a lorry, somebody drives off with them on board, he returns to his friends who ask where he disappeared to, replying, I got carried away...

I am amazed it took me so long to get around to reading Spike Milligans war memoirs, but I am truly glad that there are many more books to read.
4377813
Everyman is a wild, bizarre story, written by an author who seems to me uniquely L.A. The novel starts with a typical 'everyman' of L.A., trying to break in to the movie business, walking home to his typical L.A. courtyard apartments. Then everything gets bizarre, the reader notices flesh growing like a tumor over their kindle, and they're in for a unique ride. Like the characters in the novel, you slowly start to realize what is happening. By the time you do, something physically has changed.

This book is very physical. Flesh and body and organs fill the pages. It is both horrific and at the same time `so cool.'  You won't be able to read this without thinking of the movie version. I won't spoil it and choose the director.

But besides the terror of the flesh, the overriding emotion you will feel is isolation. Characters are lost without the object they have trusted with not only their love, but their entire self-worth. Losing this person to an imposter is the biggest fear of all. Ironically, this same isolation is felt by the 'monster' himself. If you can be an `everyman,'  you are really 'no-man' and it is not you that others love, but that which you are pretending to be.

The implications in this novel are deep, the writing demands you pay attention, and the scenarios are a lot of fun.
252792
Michael is living in a stage of upheaval and transition in his life: his parents have just moved to a rather derelict house, his unnamed baby sister is drastically ill, and the house is often visited by `Doctor Death', the doctor sent to check up on his sister. On top of this, he now has to bus for school; the previous occupant of the house was dead for a week before anyone found him, and the outside garden is a wilderness. The garage in particular is a nightmare - slumping over, filled with junk and dead creatures, and liable to fall over any second. But Michael decides to have a peek inside, and finds an amazing discovery...

What is the strange creature hidden beneath the cobwebs and the dead flies? Is it a human, a bird or something else entirely? Calling itself Skellig, the strange being seems near death, and Michael longs to help it, feeling that in some strange way its fate is wrapped up with the fate of his baby sister. He befriends the girl living next door, Mina, who does not attend school due to her mother's belief that school stifles children's creativity, and soon the two have plans to move Skellig to the house across the road which is inhabited only by birds.

As his baby sister deteriorates and the family is thrown into worry and turmoil, Skellig begins to make progress, leading Michael once more to the question - what exactly is this strange creature, and can he do something -anything - to help the baby?

It is a rare book that can tell what seems to be such a simple story in such a clear, yet intoxicating way. Told in first-person narrative by Michael, David Almond effortlessly creates the point of view of a young boy in a gritty, realistic world. The language and behaviour in particular is wonderful - you can really see real people speaking and acting in the ways that he describes, and the interaction with Skellig is so natural that you have no trouble believing Michael's words.

On reading it for the second time, I also realised that not a single word is wasted in the telling of this tale - every single one serves a purpose in connecting the ideas and themes that Almond shapes together. From evolution and science to faith and miracles, to blackbirds and owls, to love and friendship - each are closely entwined together to make a complete whole. Such a complex melding of ideas and possibilities told in such an impossibly simple way, a complete lack of sophistication and yet so much depth and meaning is not something you'll find in just any children's book. I say again: not a single word is wasted.

Sad and joyful, poignant and funny, thought provoking and mysterious - the only book that I could possibly compare it to is "The Owl Service" by Alan Garner. The two authors seem to have the same style and techniques - telling the reader only what they need to know and letting them discover the rest for themselves. And what is discovered are endless possibilities for humanity, life - and yes, even death. The winner of both the Whitbread Children's Book of the Year and the Carnegie Medal certainly counts for something, and this deceptively slim novel certainly deserves more than one read and a permanent place on the bookshelf.
3960194
A neurotic psychotherapist and his patient who claims she was abducted by aliens, a time machine, a Mad-Hatter-like inventor who hides out in a Catholic church rectory, a homicidal police detective who gets religion, deadly femme fatales addicted to sugar, an endearing pet bird with genetically engineered super-intelligence.  These are some fo the elements of this stunning novel, which is as imaginative as Neil Gaiman's "Nevermore." By turns hilarious and suspenseful, with a surreal sense of humor reminiscent of Douglas Adams ("The Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), this book is a wild coaster ride, full of surprises and revelations.  But it is not purely plot driven.  The characters are engaging, original, and come to life.  If you're tired of the same old, same old, try this book!
727899
Maybe it has something to do with the late '60's, but this has to be one of the most surreal, tripped-out "Doctor Who" storylines ever. The weirdness starts with the Tardis (that ever undependable vehicle) getting stranded in a blank void outside of space and time, and the Doctor's companions Jamie and Zoe getting lured out into this vast expanse of nothing by hallucinations of their homelands. It gets stranger still when the Tardis flies apart into pieces and the characters are left clinging to the detached console, whirling in an eerily silent slow-motion spin. But all of this is only a prelude to the truly bizarre, as the Doctor, Jamie, and Zoe must then find their way through a labyrinth, challenged along the way by verbal games, mental puzzles, and (most of all) fictional characters from literature and mythology. Basically, the three of them seem to be stuck in an English Lit major's fever dream.

In the end there turns out to be a reasonably solid science fiction basis for all of it, of course. Still, this is a remarkably imaginative and unusual tale that plays around with the border between illusion and reality in intriguing and yet utterly entertaining ways. That along with the Doctor's infectious wit (Patrick Troughton is great as usual) and the wonderful chemistry between the characters all make this a rather understated but fine example of "Doctor Who" at its best.
2727271
There is a beautiful moment in 'The Dali Deception' that feels like the beads of a kaleidoscope suddenly falling into a stunning complex pattern that brings sudden, vertiginous clarity to a hitherto jumble of chaotic colours. It's brilliantly done, and like any heist story, the twist when it comes gives you a 'yes! moment' that is borne from a warmth for the characters that Maxwell has drawn, a warmth which he clearly shares.

It's also a relief, because this is a novel that envelops you in its complexities. You read it not quite suspending your disbelief, but wondering inwardly how events can be satisfactorily explained without disregarding the reader's desire for reason. Maxwell treads this precarious line between  reason and absurdity with wild confidence and some relish.

The main protagonist is a woman named Violet who has questionable morality and a murky personal grudge that is gnawing away at her. In time honoured heist tradition Violet has assembled a crew of 'the best' for an audacious assault on a well guarded prize. However tempting it is to think of The Ladykillers, this is no comedy, though there is humour in Maxwell's writing that nods affectionately not to only to Ealing but also his Northumbrian roots. The broad swathe of larger than life characters spring in technicolour noise from the page and I am reminded of Carl Hiaasen's gift for flawed heroes and casts of the weird and wacky; As with Hiaasen, you want to believe despite yourself, and the strength of Maxwell's lovingly created characters makes sense of the intricacies of the plot.

This is a book to be read in one breathless sitting, a whirlwind of imagination and an invitation to set aside the worries of the world and just enjoy a book that revels in its preposterous path with a nod and a wink.

You might think it's a crazy idea, it'll never work, and he'll never get away with it - but by God I think he just pulled it off.