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My Fake War

by Andersen Prunty (Goodreads Author)

4.23 of 5 stars 4.23 · rating details · 64 ratings · 26 reviews

The absurd tale of an unlikely soldier forced to fight a war that, quite possibly, does not exist. Saul Dressing is a flabby middle-aged librarian who just wants to be left alone to listen to jazz, watch porn, and cultivate his toenails. All of this changes when a soldier in a camouflage sweat suit shows up to draft him into the army of the United States of Everything. His...more

Paperback, 127 pages

Published June 1st 2010 by Eraserhead Press (first published May 13th 2010)

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Jul 01, 2011 Stephen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro, ebooks, 2006-2010, science-fiction, humor-and-satire

I do a fair amount of reading and, given how much time I spend eye-banging the printed page throughout the day, originality in both plot and style are attributes that I prize highly because they help keep the reading experience fresh spicy. Genre-wise, I read SF, fantasy, mystery, horror, crime, historical fiction…you name it. I ask only that the story produce sufficient jaw-droppings or cause a throbbing eye-bulge with the concomitant shout of OMG or WTF.

Funny or scary are both fine so long a...more

39 likes · like · see review

Oct 07, 2010 Mykle rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you love freedom and hate Andersen Prunty, you might not like this book.

I remember a time where "hey! stop fighting! war is bad" seemed like a pointless, worn-out message, too stupidly obvious to be worth saying. But these days, it bears repeating: war is really, really bad.

This book is a simple anti-war fable, set in the same surreal, degrading, comical landscape as many other Prunty stories. The messages here are not hard messages to get. They're not that "deep." But they are sure worth re...more

8 likes · like · see review

Jul 02, 2010 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi, first-reads

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

What's the first thing that springs to mind about this book - bizarre! That sums the whole book up. An overweight man who delights in his ever lengthening toe-nails is drafted by the United States of Everything (which was the USA) to start a war in a country that he (or most people for that matter) has heard of.

The completely over the top satirical USA of the future is hilarious but also sobering at the same time. The author uses it an...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 12, 2011 Marvin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, kindle-lending

One of the things I like about the writings of Andersen Prunty is that each book is different. Some are bizarro fantasy, some border on horror and My Fake War is political satire. This novel is satire in the most absurd sense. Hints of Beckett and Vonnegut abound and if Prunty doesn't quite reach those hallowed heights it isn't because he's not trying. My Fake War is deliciously funny but uncomfortably serious at the same time. It is difficult not to compare our real time war with Prunty's fake...more

2 likes · like · see review

Sep 13, 2012 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: comedy, science-fiction, src-fall-12

Pretty funny in the beginning and fooled me into thinking it would be absurd and pointless, two things I love, but then, about midway, it disintegrated into a boring, predictable, poorly paced kumbaya. Still enjoyable overall.

1 like · like · see review

Dec 10, 2010 Kirsten Alene rated it 5 of 5 stars

"My Fake War" follows its protagonist, Saul Dressing, an average, middle-aged library worker with huge, taloned feet as he is drafted by the military, abducted from his home and sent on a pointless and frustrating mission in the mysterious country of Grisnos.

My first introduction to the Bizarro genre was Prunty's spectacularly surreal love/adventure story, "Zerostrata." I was instantly a fan of the book, the author, and the genre. Since reading "Zerostrata" I have read a lot of Bizarro and "My...more

1 like · like · see review

May 21, 2013 Melki rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: bizarro, humorous-fiction, science-fiction, war

"Saul Dressing, you've been drafted."

Why?

Why would the army send an out-of-shape, middle-aged librarian to a seemingly insignificant country to start a war?

There's got to be oil involved, right?
Or at least some sort of nation-building contract for Halliburton...

Right?

“Sometimes it’s not good enough to defend freedom at home. Sometimes you have to promote freedom throughout the world.”

Ah. The old promoting freedom ploy...

I fell completely in love with this book during the second half, where Saul...more

3 likes · like · see review

Mar 06, 2012 Matthew Vaughn rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro, 2012, reviewed

Prunty delivers again with another great book. In this one he strays from the horror he writes about a lot and goes for more of a surreal and comical story. He still puts his main character through the wringer in typical Prunty fashion.
Saul Dressing has been drafted by the army of everything. He’s being sent to a country that threatens their freedom, his job is to observe and declare war on any hostiles. He’s the right man for the job, or is he? And are there even any hostiles to declare war on...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 24, 2010 Nick Cato rated it 4 of 5 stars

Loner Saul Dressing is interrupted one night by a knock at his door. A stranger wearing military fatigues forcibly drafts him into the Army of the United States of Everything. He soon parachutes (also forcibly) into an unknown country known as Grisnos with one objective: to get one of its citizens to start with him so the U.S.E. can declare war on them. The only problem is Saul becomes friends with the first person he meets, a lizard-man named Bob Weathers (who also happens to be the ONLY inhabi...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jul 05, 2010 Nicholas Reardon rated it 2 of 5 stars

OK I have read it and yes it is bizarre… It is short. It is odd. And it is just what it says on the label.

If you like: strange, odd, absurd, bizarre and strange, (ok I said strange twice but it is strange). If you like that sort of book then you will love this one.

It is easy to read
It is short
It flows

Did I say strange?

Suspense? Yes you will never guess the ending, which is good in a book or in fact the middle, you will never ever guess the middle, the middle, yes I am still working on the middl...more

1 like · like · see review

Mar 08, 2012 Leza Cantoral rated it 4 of 5 stars

What I like about this book is that it unfolds with understated grace. It is dark, it is bleak, but a beautiful light shines through all of that. Human compassion breaks the barriers of a tyrannical world, ruled by warmongers and greed. The sheer power of giving a shit and trying to imagine the unimaginable saves the characters from a world consumed by vicious blackness and despair. The atmosphere reminded me of Saint Exhupery's The Little Prince. The sweetness and the loneliness are palatable a...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Katy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those seeking thought-provoking yet satirical fiction re: wars, consumerism, etc.

Shelves: ebook

Book Info: Genre: Bizarro
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Those looking for a book that will make them think
Trigger Warnings: Violence

Disclosure: I picked up this book from Amazon while it was on free promotion, inspired by a review I had read. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: The absurd tale of an unlikely soldier forced to fight a war that, quite possibly, does not exist. Saul Dressing is a flabby, middle-aged librarian who just wants to be left alone to listen to jazz, watch porn, and cu...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jan 21, 2012 Anthony Chavez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro

If you like Andersen Prunty's writing, "My Fake War" will not disappoint. Andersen has a knack for making realistic, believably-flawed characters, who start off in an wild mundane setting, and then it all just goes weird and bizarro. My Fake War makes some strong social commentary statements, but there's no preaching. As with Zerostrata, My Fake War would make an excellent starting point for Bizarro fiction. There's plenty of weird, but the writing is extremely understandable, and the focus is a...more

9 likes · like · see review

May 27, 2011 Steve Lowe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro, military

My Fake Review

I found this book in the bargain bin at a Yonder Readin' House in Pensacola, Fla. It was written in 1937 by a gypsy woman named Andersen Prunty, which was the most common name in that time for vagabonds and gypsies, according to Wikipedia. Miss Prunty was a poor girl suffering under the yoke of Communist aggression, forced daily to author tomes of propagandist literature for meager scraps. Hers was a life of toil and inhuman hardship. My Fake War was one of her many works.

Andersen...more

10 likes · like · see review

Jul 25, 2010 Bradley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Andersen Prunty is a friend of mine. I guess more of a "colleague" if you want to get pretentious considering we are both involved in the bizarro fiction scene and only see each other once a year (although we speak on the phone once or twice a month, maybe.) Andy, as he is known by people who speak on the phone with him once or twice a month, sent me this book for free, likely because he is familiar with my status as a dirt poor graduate student. So I was talking on the phone with him tonight an...more Andersen Prunty is a friend of mine. I guess more of a "colleague" if you want to get pretentious considering we are both involved in the bizarro fiction scene and only see each other once a year (although we speak on the phone once or twice a month, maybe.) Andy, as he is known by people who speak on the phone with him once or twice a month, sent me this book for free, likely because he is familiar with my status as a dirt poor graduate student. So I was talking on the phone with him tonight and asked him if he wanted me to write a review, considering receiving free books makes me feel obligated to reciprocate with a review. And he said, "Ok."

I would like to add here that I strongly dislike writing reviews. I find them difficult to do well and they usually take me longer to write than ANYTHING else, so I recently vowed to never write a review again. But I asked Andy if he was ok with a review that I put absolutely no effort into, and he was, so here is a review that I am putting no effort into. Perhaps what I write below this will be helpful to the potential reader. Perhaps it will not.

Anyway, I see a lot of reviews of bizarro books by bizarro authors, and I think a potential buyer may think they lack some degree of validity, and this may be the case. But they would be less necessary if more readers were writing more reviews (the small press needs your help!).

So as a preface, I think I'm more critical of bizarro books than most of the authors who are involved in the scene (although I usually keep my mouth shut in public forums). This makes me feel like a jerk sometimes.

So let's get to My Fake War, but not just yet. First I want to mention Andy's other books: I love love love love his novella, Zerostrata. His others are decent, but do not excite me like Zerostrata.

I have also published a few of his stories in my literary journal, and one of them excited me, but not nearly on the same level as Zerostrata.

Ok, so it's time to talk about My Fake War. I usually do not like "war books." There is something about them that turns me off. I do not know what this is. But the first half of My Fake War excited me. Probably because it is a fake war book rather than a war book. The first half excited me as much as my Zerostrata reading experience. Silently in my head, I was screaming, "Andy Prunty is back! He is back!" And considering the protagonist is alone with no one to talk to throughout much of this section, this is quite an achievement. It is difficult to engage the reader with a protagonist who is mostly spending his time alone.

But then the second half comes along, and my excitement dwindled. It was too action-y for me. Like zombies, I think action is better translated in the medium of film. It usually gets boring for me, although there are the occasional exceptions, often dealing with zaniness and unreality. There was a little of this, but not enough.

So if you like action in your lit, this is a freakin' awesome book. Buy it if you're looking for a good introduction to Andy. If you're more like me, get Zerostrata, which is a surreal/absurd romance that will, pardon my cliché, blow your mind.(less)

7 likes · like · see review

Jul 07, 2010 Andersen Prunty rated it 2 of 5 stars · (Review from the author)

Shelves: books-i-wrote

I began writing My Fake War in 1978 at the suggestion of Kurt Vonnegut (RIP). We were in the library of Truman Capote’s New York apartment comparing tweed blazers. His had buttons. Mine had duct tape. Vonnegut kept making me smoke unfiltered Pall Malls and I tried to tell him that I had TB so he would stop. He didn’t. I told him he looked like he should be in porn and he told me I looked like a paper bag. I don’t remember much of what else happened that night but I awoke the next morning with th...more I began writing My Fake War in 1978 at the suggestion of Kurt Vonnegut (RIP). We were in the library of Truman Capote’s New York apartment comparing tweed blazers. His had buttons. Mine had duct tape. Vonnegut kept making me smoke unfiltered Pall Malls and I tried to tell him that I had TB so he would stop. He didn’t. I told him he looked like he should be in porn and he told me I looked like a paper bag. I don’t remember much of what else happened that night but I awoke the next morning with the desire to write my magnum opus. Actually, it would be my first book. Or my fifth or something. Things were hazy then. I imagined it to be 1,503 pages long. I decided to take three years off for research and preparation. I divided those three years between Los Angeles, Tijuana, and Tibet. I decided to get busy writing and then realized my lease had expired and I no longer had a home. I called my agent and harangued her until she gave me the number of J.D. Salinger’s agent. I called J.D. Salinger’s agent and harangued him until he put me in touch with J.D. Salinger. I told the agent I was a very powerful man. I told him I was the King of Datsuns. J.D. (or “Jerry”, as I called him) allowed me to stay in the basement of his New Hampshire home provided I didn’t “talk too much.” I spent a week in Jerry’s basement, writing, drinking Miller High Life, and punching myself in the mouth every time I spoke out loud. At the end of the week I had finished five pages. By this time I was feeling burned out and fatigued. It was 1981. I decided to take the next twenty-eight years off. I explored the Great Ohio Desert. I was nearly consumed by an airborne toxic event. I was told this was not an exit. I moved to a modest house in posh Dayton, Ohio, and picked up where I had left off. I decided I was too lazy to write and decided to amass a sweatshop of unemployed elderly from around the neighborhood. They were non-threatening but cranky. I put them in my basement, gave them old typewriters and told them to get to work. Most of them had arthritis. A couple of them had no hands. I was a bad recruiter. Their work ethic was poor, their ingenuity non-existent. I told them I would do it myself. They made coffee for me while I worked for the next six months. The coffee they made was sub-par. I suspect it was instant. By the time I was finished I had my 1,503 pages. I submitted it to my editor and she suggested I “whittle it down.” She also pointed out the fact that there was no evident research and suggested I had come unhinged from reality. I laughed but was quickly consumed by a black wave of depression. I told my sweatshop to get to whittling. They were finished sometime later and I was able to submit it to my editor under the original title: A Treatise on Porn Enthusiasm. She made me change the title and a month later it was on the New York Times Bestseller List. Success, Mr. Prunty! Raging success!(less)

34 likes · like · see review

Jul 18, 2010 neko cam rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro

Hoooooly crap, that was not what I expected.

I'm a big fan of the absurd, and 'My Fake War' fed my hunger to satiation. It's satirical, I get it, but who can be bothered reading into the deeper meaning with a narrative as strange and fascinating as this. The whole time I was reading I was engrossed completely by the bizarre characters, the bizarre events, and the bizarre logical flow that underpins the whole shebang; the plot progresses logically, sure, but it's in such a crazy direction!

To say t...more

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Apr 28, 2011 Craig Rettig rated it 2 of 5 stars

From the way it started out, I was expecting a satire of the current U.S. geopolitical situation. However, the book went nowhere quickly and resulted in a completely anticlimactic dud of an ending.

This is a trend I'm seeing in the four bizarro novellas I read: The author comes up with a unique weird idea, expands on these a bit, but then has no idea what to do with the plot, so s/he just rushes out an ending to finish the tale.

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May 15, 2011 Dustin Reade rated it 5 of 5 stars

"Andersen Prunty Can't Lose" was my favorite TV show in the early nineties. His adventures continue nowadays, and he chronicles them in his books. One of which is this one.
A strange, hilarious story about a man (Saul Dressing) who is forced to fly to a country he has never heard of to start a war with a race of people who may or may not exsist. You really don't need to know much more than that.
Pick up a copy, open it, and read what is written on the pages.
You will be glad you did.

1 like · like · see review

Jan 08, 2012 S.T. Cartledge rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro, reviewed

After my first exposure to Andersen Prunty (with Jack and Mr. Grin), I braced myself for the bizarre, psychotic horrors I’d find within this next book. I was actually fortunate enough to get this book as a bonus with my signed preorder of the Sorrow King (listed below). This book was one of the first bizarro novels one of my friends bought and read right when we came across the genre and were picking out a few titles to entertain us. I remember him telling me a bit about it and being really into...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Dr Edward Diesel rated it 4 of 5 stars

Good stuff! Funny, off-the-wall and clever!

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May 10, 2013 Anastasia Geffe rated it 3 of 5 stars

A deceptive delight. Fast and enjoyable read.

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Jul 06, 2010 Lucas da colts #1 fan added it

Shelves: first-reads-i-won, read-2010

i have just won this book and cant wait to read it!!!!

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Dec 13, 2010 William III rated it 5 of 5 stars

The best bizarro book EVER. The best book of any genre this year. Read this NOW.

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Jun 20, 2012 Ken Sodemann rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is entertaining, but not as compelling as Morning is Dead.

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Oct 13, 2010 Athena Villaverde rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: bizarro

Absolutely awesome! This book is so odd and cool.

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May 04, 2013 Sarah marked it as to-read

May 01, 2013 Lauren Bishop marked it as to-read

Apr 29, 2013 Jada turner marked it as to-read

Apr 29, 2013 Daniel Volpe rated it 5 of 5 stars

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About Andersen Prunty

Andersen Prunty currently lives in Dayton, Ohio. He writes novels and short stories. Visit him at www.andersenprunty.com.

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