After ten years, Hansel Nothing returns to his boyhood home, unable to remember anything that has happened to him since he left. Back home, he stay...
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Jul 24, 2011
Dan
rated it: 
Depressed 20-something Hansel Nothing returns to his mother's house to recapture the zest for life he had in his childhood. It's just as he remembered it. His dad has run away to become a superhero, his brother hasn't left the house in two years, and his mother is addicted to prescription drugs. While sitting in his tree house, Zerostrata, he notices a naked girl running through the woods and immediately knows his life is going to get better...
I didn't really know what to expect fro More...
I didn't really know what to expect fro More...
6 comments
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(19 people liked it)
Feb 07, 2009
Greg
rated it: 
Zerostrata is yet another book that should be rated higher than three, it's more of a three and a half star book. The title comes from the name of the narrators tree house that he had as a child. Now the narrator is an adult and he's returned home and finds refuge in the tree house. The entire atmosphere of the book could best be called absurd, things happen that at times feel like they are just being weird for weirds sake, but after taking in the whole book they instead all seem to fit into
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4 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2008
Jason
rated it:
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
As I've said here before, I'm glad that CCLaP's becoming known as a place that is friendly to absurdist and surrealist literature; these are experimental art forms to begin with, with many of the projects outright bad, making it difficult for even the good ones to get any kind of publicity. More...
As I've said here before, I'm glad that CCLaP's becoming known as a place that is friendly to absurdist and surrealist literature; these are experimental art forms to begin with, with many of the projects outright bad, making it difficult for even the good ones to get any kind of publicity. More...
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(3 people liked it)
Nov 28, 2008
Garrett
rated it:
Do you remember the first time you saw Cinema Paradiso, It's a Wonderful Life, Amelie? These are films that people can accuse of being saccharine or silly, but not without risk of losing out on a kind of existential validation that anyone can use. Zerostrata is the same way. Fans of a darker, harsher kind of Bizarro might dismiss Zerostrata as overly cute or naively positive, but they'll miss out on a wonderful story about fighting banality and finding joy where you can, involving a treehouse, a
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(7 people liked it)
Mar 28, 2011
Marvin
rated it:
I expect a lot of weird crap when I read an Andersen Prunty novel.
Heart-warming is not one of them.
Zerostrata is heart-warming...in a bizarre, naked running in the woods, bad hallucinogenics sort of way. It is a kind of romance where the weird and unthinkable becomes kind of normal. That is Prunty's forte; making the impossible seem plausible. His world is strange and impossible but the characters deal with it as it is like any other day. While the previous novels by Prun More...
Heart-warming is not one of them.
Zerostrata is heart-warming...in a bizarre, naked running in the woods, bad hallucinogenics sort of way. It is a kind of romance where the weird and unthinkable becomes kind of normal. That is Prunty's forte; making the impossible seem plausible. His world is strange and impossible but the characters deal with it as it is like any other day. While the previous novels by Prun More...
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(3 people liked it)
Feb 07, 2009
Jasmine
rated it:
I want to give this book five stars. I even have the power to give this book five stars. Perhaps I will, but I feel like that special thing, that thing that really is just some stupid chemical reaction in my brain that says five stars you idiot just didn't happen here.
I love the main character. I love that he ignores the fact that everything around him is completely absurd. Not because he doesn't realize (a poor plot device in my opinion), but because he doesn't seem to see a particul More...
I love the main character. I love that he ignores the fact that everything around him is completely absurd. Not because he doesn't realize (a poor plot device in my opinion), but because he doesn't seem to see a particul More...
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(1 person liked it)
Mar 14, 2010
William
rated it:
Imagine a movie written by Wes Anderson that is directed by Michel Gondry - you'll have something close to Andersen Prunty's "Zerostrata".
The book focuses around a lost young man named Hansel who is trying his hardest to find his place in the world. After a few years of soul searching, Hansel returns home in hopes to rekindle any kind of happiness that may have been left over from his childhood.
But his strange, eccentric family doesn't make it an easier on hi More...
The book focuses around a lost young man named Hansel who is trying his hardest to find his place in the world. After a few years of soul searching, Hansel returns home in hopes to rekindle any kind of happiness that may have been left over from his childhood.
But his strange, eccentric family doesn't make it an easier on hi More...
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 19, 2008
Lance
rated it:
I am a fan of Andersen Prunty’s books so it’s no surprise that I enjoyed Zerostrata. Mr. Prunty has a knack for telling a whacked out story and making it believable. Some of the more “out there” books that I have read really seem to try too hard to show how bizarre they are and it comes off as forced and detracts from the story. It’s as if some authors have to scream it at you, “look at me, I’m crazy and so is my book. My book is so crazy and hard to follow and if you don’t get it then you’
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(3 people liked it)
Jul 17, 2011
Anthony
rated it:
A great book I couldn't put down and finished with just one break for lunch. Not too many books grab me like that. This is an amazing story, that as someone else stated, could totally be a bizarro Tim Burton unconventional love story. I had never read Prunty previously and I gotta say the man is an amazing storyteller, the story at times does play out like a dream world, but this bizarro dreamworld, called Grayson, Prunty builds well, I never once questioned the quirky things going on around the
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(3 people liked it)
Jul 04, 2011
Gwen
rated it:
Andersen Prunty's Zerostrata is an amazing work that ties surreal literature, a coming of age story, and Gimm's fairytales in an original way that is an absolute pleasure to read. The characters and scenes are wonderfully dynamic and interesting. I read this work in one sitting, and I plan on picking up as many other works by this author as I possibly can.
The plot of Zerostrata is a dreamlike romp. It follows Hansel Nothing as he wanders around his home town trying to remember his past More...
The plot of Zerostrata is a dreamlike romp. It follows Hansel Nothing as he wanders around his home town trying to remember his past More...
Dec 20, 2010
Edmund
rated it: 
Andersen Prunty's warm romance set in a town called Grayson has, like a one-night stand, given me mixed feelings.
Hansel Nothing is the lucky recipient of this romantic plot, though before the words "That was when I saw her" end an early chapter, he returns to his childhood home. His mother and his brother, Zasper, in drug-dependent and floor-dwelling disrepair, have decayed as much as the eponymous tree house, Zerostrata. Hansel does not feel disgusted by this return to old m More...
Hansel Nothing is the lucky recipient of this romantic plot, though before the words "That was when I saw her" end an early chapter, he returns to his childhood home. His mother and his brother, Zasper, in drug-dependent and floor-dwelling disrepair, have decayed as much as the eponymous tree house, Zerostrata. Hansel does not feel disgusted by this return to old m More...
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(1 person liked it)
Jun 21, 2010
David
rated it:
While I haven’t read everything by Andersen Prunty, Zerostrata is so far my favorite. It’s a weird fable for adults. It’s a horror story that’s more like a love story. It’s a love story that’s more like a horror story. It really is just plain magical.
Prunty leading man, Hansel Nothing, is returning home to his supremely dysfunctional family. He doesn’t know where he’s been but he definitely knows why he left home. Hansel is kind of a blank slate, but that’s because this story i More...
Prunty leading man, Hansel Nothing, is returning home to his supremely dysfunctional family. He doesn’t know where he’s been but he definitely knows why he left home. Hansel is kind of a blank slate, but that’s because this story i More...
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(2 people liked it)
Mar 14, 2011
Kathryn
rated it:
Zerostrata is the nearest to a bizarro romance I expect to find. The story reminded me of a Wes Anderson film, particularly The Royal Tenenbaums, forever a favorite of mine, though much more strange. The main character is straight out of an Anderson film at least, as with his eccentric and disturbed family.
I liked Morning is Dead by the author a little more than this, though not by much. Zerostrata is not quite as dark, a little more lighthearted, a difficult thing to do in the biza More...
I liked Morning is Dead by the author a little more than this, though not by much. Zerostrata is not quite as dark, a little more lighthearted, a difficult thing to do in the biza More...
4 comments
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(3 people liked it)
Oct 14, 2011
Sarah
rated it:
Can you go home again? If you do, are you sure that you wanted to? Hansel Nothing returns to his family's depressing home after ten years of doing things that he can't remember. When he meets the girl of his dreams (actually, it's someone else's dream) Hansel is introduced to a world where anything is possible. I adore this story. Simply, it's a story about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. It's also about shedding the past and moving on. Oh, and trampolines. It's also about trampolines.
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 23, 2011
Lea
rated it:
I honestly do not know how to describe this book. Maybe as a dream? The story DOES have a plot, but that's not the best part. The best part is the surreal, meandering quality to the story. Truly bizarre things happen, but it's all very mellow and understated, in a way -- you know that everything is going to turn out just find, so just sit back and enjoy the ride.
I'm not sure what it all means -- jeez, I never do with these bizarro stories -- but I absolutely loved the style. The More...
I'm not sure what it all means -- jeez, I never do with these bizarro stories -- but I absolutely loved the style. The More...
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(4 people liked it)
Jan 08, 2011
Rich
rated it:
Oddly infantile and mature at the same time. It seems never that the Hansel himself is strange, but more or less rational in a chaotically silly world.
Dec 15, 2011
Padre
rated it:
I was torn between giving Zerostrata 3 or 4 stars, but then I realized, how good this book made me feel. Sometimes it's a bit incomprehensible, but at the same time it's nostalgic and optimistic. It works.
Aug 19, 2009
Grant
rated it:
Zerostrata is more than a good looking book. It's heartwarming and overflowing with bizarro love.Buy it and cherish it.
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 05, 2009
Buck
rated it: 
Umm... Ok... WTF?
It was like reading someone's dreams. I know they weren't my dreams because there wasn't any banana pudding or midgets.
It was like reading someone's dreams. I know they weren't my dreams because there wasn't any banana pudding or midgets.
May 26, 2010
Chris
rated it:
I don't think I'd want to associate with anyone who disliked this book.
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