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54th out of 100 books
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2 voters
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners
People Live Still in Cashtown Corners is the vivid record of the inner world of pump jockey and infamous couple killer Cliff Klyder. History is clear on what happened at that lonely intersection over the course of one particularly bitter winter: six couples were brutally murdered and cannibalized. What history doesn't give us is what exactly was missing in Cliff Klyder tha...more
Paperback, 205 pages
Published
October 26th 2010
by Chizine Publications
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so i love this book, but writing the review for it is pissing me off a little bit. as a procrastination tactic, because i really didn't feel like burrowing back into my paper just yet, i thought, "i shall write a very informed review for once; one which edifies its readers and is full of facts and figures and well-constructed sentences and no cursewords or animal pictures."
seriously, that isn't going to fucking happen.
because i may be being fooled. i don't keep up on true crime stories from can...more
seriously, that isn't going to fucking happen.
because i may be being fooled. i don't keep up on true crime stories from can...more
A wee bit frustrating, but full of stray delights. An earlier Burgess novel was adapted for a winning, oddball spin on zombie narratives--and "Pontypool" illustrated the author's talent for voice. The film had a DJ with an ear for opinions and diction about 30 degrees' slant from expected, and the best thing in Cashtown is the way narrator Bob Clark, who did not direct Porky's, can spin sideways in funny, frightening turns of thought. He ponders his actions attending a customer at the gas statio...more
12 likes · like · see review
One of the things I like to while I sit in my booth is pretend it's September 11. How awesome is that? Anyone can do it and it's like you have the greatest time for free. Your imagination can do whatever it wants to, of course, that's how we get things like sex with alligators and people who make baby bridges across rivers of lava. But every once in a while the imagination gets to step over its borders and be something. That happened on September 11.
Karen wrote a good review for this book and i...more
Karen wrote a good review for this book and i...more
14 likes · like · see review
I hadn't been aware of Tony Burgess until about three months ago. I was flipping through channels and found -- on IFC I think, but maybe it was FearNet -- a zombie movie I'd never seen or heard of before, and it was only 10 minutes in. It had the unlikely title, "Pontypool," which suggested correctly that it was a low-budget indy -- one set, enough awkwardly paced dialogue to suggest that second takes were a rare luxury -- but didn't imply anything to do with zombies. A zombie movie without the...more
Told in a chilling first person POV, this book grabs you right away and puts you in the head of a man whose mind has snapped.
His actions thereafter left an indelible mark on my mind. The random cruelty and unconscionable acts so easily performed on citizens of his small town, people he knew and those just passing through gives us pause to understand why this is happening.
Told in graphic detail from one evil act to another, our POV character questions his own actions even while carrying out each...more
His actions thereafter left an indelible mark on my mind. The random cruelty and unconscionable acts so easily performed on citizens of his small town, people he knew and those just passing through gives us pause to understand why this is happening.
Told in graphic detail from one evil act to another, our POV character questions his own actions even while carrying out each...more
“I sit without taking my eyes off her. The hole in her forehead isn’t closing or healing, but it isn’t festering either. Her eyes are shaded prettily in blue and purple. Bruises that haven’t changed. She pulls her long black hair back behind her shoulders.”
***
Tony Burgess is a very disturbed man.
From the author of Pontypool Changes Everything comes a sparse, economical novella about one gas station attendant’s sudden decision to become a mass murderer. Why would he do this? Boredom. A break from...more
***
Tony Burgess is a very disturbed man.
From the author of Pontypool Changes Everything comes a sparse, economical novella about one gas station attendant’s sudden decision to become a mass murderer. Why would he do this? Boredom. A break from...more
As I was reading, I found myself responding to this book in three and four syllables. Some examples:
WTF?
Oh my gawd.
Guy's nuckin' futs.
eeYUW....(OK, that's two).
You get the idea. When I was younger, I loved me a good serial killer yarn, or more appropriately, Bob Clark, our anti-hero, is a "spree killer." But as I've aged, I find it's hard to root for them; in fact, most of the time, I want to see them get the chair.
We're in Canada, so that won't happen. In fact, it's unclear what does happen t...more
WTF?
Oh my gawd.
Guy's nuckin' futs.
eeYUW....(OK, that's two).
You get the idea. When I was younger, I loved me a good serial killer yarn, or more appropriately, Bob Clark, our anti-hero, is a "spree killer." But as I've aged, I find it's hard to root for them; in fact, most of the time, I want to see them get the chair.
We're in Canada, so that won't happen. In fact, it's unclear what does happen t...more
Whenever an horrific crime is committed, it seems the first question we ask is, "What was he thinking?" Tony Burgess answers that question in detail from the killer's point of view. Of course, we are aware that he isn't channeling the killer, nor do I believe that Mr. Burgess is a psychopath, but the story rings as true. We are only left to decide whether Bob Clark is insane or super-vigilant and just trying to make sense of all the stimulation coming his way. He seems so normal until... Bob "us...more
I love that Burgess can show you the inside of a broken brain in a believable, instinctively understandable way. Of course this meant I spent half the book wondering if the act of understanding the book equated with being a sociopath myself. So that was.... creepy.
But while Cashtown has the intelligence of Pontypool and Idaho Winter, for me it just doesn't have the beauty or the heart. I raced through this book in a day without highlighting anything, re-reading anything or gasping out loud. Mayb...more
But while Cashtown has the intelligence of Pontypool and Idaho Winter, for me it just doesn't have the beauty or the heart. I raced through this book in a day without highlighting anything, re-reading anything or gasping out loud. Mayb...more
Wow. I just recorded this book for Iambik and it was compelling, startling, repulsive and unveiling all at the same time. Written from the internal dialog of a serial killer you can imagine ... well perhaps you can't imagine what goes on inside the brains (yes, two of them) of a deranged murderer.
Short book but well written.
Short book but well written.
I am lost for words in the face of such an extreme piece of literature. Burgess novel retells the story of massmurderer Bob Clark, the only inhabitant of Cashtown Corners, from the killers perspective. It's what makes this novel so compelling, aside from its true background, the reader can dive into the killer's mind. It's not always pretty, actually Bob Clark's narrative is erratic and becomes even delusional towards the end, but that is what I imagine a massmurderer's thoughts sound like. Tony...more
I really liked this book it starts out with an amazing story there are a couple of times that I got a little lost as to what was going on but it did all come together at the end. I really enjoy reading something that is new and refreshing horror at least to me this was.
Disturbing, but in the right kind of ways. Wonderful, evocative language that is inventive (without drawing too much attention to itself) while effortlessly carrying forward the narrative. Made me believe I was in the mind of a mass murderer.
This book blew me away. Incredibly graphic and evocative language. A different perspective ~ POV is the killer. WOW, is all I can say about this book.
Full review forthcoming on Books and Blossom.
Full review forthcoming on Books and Blossom.
This was a deeply unsettling audiobook.
The story is that of a gas station owner who suddenly starts to kill people. I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't say more, except that the author made a great job at imagining how the killer fills (the killer is telling the story). The battle between his two minds, his old and new self, is quite interesting.
Phil's narration is superbly appropriate for this book. He does sound sane, but still you can guess the madness raging in there once in a while...more
The story is that of a gas station owner who suddenly starts to kill people. I don't want to spoil the story, so I won't say more, except that the author made a great job at imagining how the killer fills (the killer is telling the story). The battle between his two minds, his old and new self, is quite interesting.
Phil's narration is superbly appropriate for this book. He does sound sane, but still you can guess the madness raging in there once in a while...more
Cashtown Corners was possibly my favourite book of 2010. It's a quick, frenzied and violent journey through a patch of rural Ontario, told by an insane and unreliable narrator.
If you aren’t reading Tony Burgess, you are missing out on one of Canada’s best authors, period, not to mention some of the most gripping, experimental horror in the genre.
A creepy Canadian tale. Burgess' description of the clean-up after a particularly nasty murder is disgusting and, yet, humourous. A short, easy read and a good introduction to Burgess' style of writing.
Probably a closer look into the mind of madness than I ever actually wanted to have.
WARNING: Do not read while eating.
WARNING: Do not read while eating.
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I really don't know how to feel about this one... I'm not sure I even know what happened....
Holy hell. I haven't read a book that made me this uncomfortable since American Psycho. Short, sweet, and bloody disturbing. Hats off, Mr Burgess. Hats off.
This is a very odd little book. Written from the perspective of a random killer, it's masquerading as a true story but is just fiction, and strange fiction at that. It is disturbing subject matter, interesting from a psychological standpoint and at times, goes off the deep end in a way that may be consistent with the thought patterns of a mental breakdown. I don't quite know what to think of it still.
What a hell of a read. This story moves like a boat on extremely choppy waters, and I never saw what was coming. One starts to hope, and then suddenly every thing falls out from under the reader's feet. Scary ride through a disturbed mind.
Five scribbled heads out of five.
Five scribbled heads out of five.
An unchaperoned trespass into the nightmare of schizophrenic murder.
Wow, what an uncomfortable, grotesque but engrossing book.
Very strange, and horrifically revolting. I like it.
May 18, 2013
Steph Coleman
marked it as to-read
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Tony Burgess lives in Stayner, Ontario, with his wife Rachel and their two children. He is the author of The Hellmouths of Bewdley, Pontypool Changes Everything, Caesarea,
Fiction for Lovers
and
Idaho Winter
. Pontypool was made into a film by Bruce McDonald
More about Tony Burgess...
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“And now, no matter what I thought I had done or why I did it, it has become completely untrue because of what I have done since.”
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2 people liked it
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Apr 08, 2012 05:36am
Apr 08, 2012 07:57am