false 24199530 249603 101172 0316473049 9780316473040 46 http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171476782m/101172.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1171476782s/101172.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101172.The_Pugilist_at_Rest_Stories 4.13 434 persist--even in the face of the hell that exists right here on earth. It's not all gloom, doom, and napalm, however. There's also the surreal, Gogol-esque humor of "The Black Lights," in which the pysch-ward protagonist insists his only problem is epilepsy, yet hallucinates a giant, shuddering rabbit caught under his bed at night ("It's that rabbit on the Br'er Rabbit molasses jar. That rabbit with buckles on his shoes! Bow tie. Yaller teeth! Yaller! Yaller!") Then, too, Jones creates images of startling, surreal clarity amid the horror, like the dying lieutenant who remains on one knee even after being shot, "his remaining arm extended out to the enemy, palm upward in the soulful, heartrending gesture of Al Jolson doing a rendition of 'Mammy.'" Take a decidedly grim world-view, add a dose of existential slapstick, some Schopenhauer, an encyclopedic knowledge of pharmaceuticals, and a soundtrack by the Doors, and you have what may be the darkest, funniest, most urgent fictional debut in years. --Mary Park]]> 58428 3.95 964 98 1993 4 0 false Tue Jun 10 20:40:34 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 20:40:43 -0700 2008