Brian Alan Ellis's Blog, page 33
January 11, 2014
LEAD AND SADNESS
Go to work an do your job. Care for your children. Pay your bills. Obey the law. Buy products. by Noah Cicero
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“I did another body count in the morning. Two more people had disappeared. I didn’t ask anyone where they went. I knew I would not get an answer. I didn’t know what I was doing at NEOTAP. The place seemed terrible to me.”
The latest novel by Noah Cicero locks you into the claustrophobic mind-fuck that is NEOTAP, a prison where the employees are just as screwed as the prisoners themselves. Protagonist Mike takes the job for its healthcare benefits, before realizing he has just given away whatever freedoms he once had. Shit.
The bleak, Orwellian-as-fuck subject matter keeps you glued and guessing until the Natural Born Killers-shit-hits-the-fan-like finale pumps you full of lead and sadness.
This is a very ambitious work by a brave young writer willing to evolve his craft, taking readers into strange and unexpected places. Worth the trip.
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AMERICAN GENIUS
The Collected Works, Vol. 1 by Scott McClanahan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This was my primer to the genius of Scott McClanahan.
His first two short story books are collected here, beginning with a senseless introduction by Black Butler, which you should skip because, like most introductions, it is worth skipping.
Standouts include: “The Rainelle Story,” about One Armed Johnny and how he became that way; “The Homeless Guy,” about a man who loses his sanity (and everything else) after a bum throws a bologna sandwich at his truck; and “The Prettiest Girl in Texas,” about a stripper with a special gift. In fact, most stories in this book could qualify as a favorite.
There is even an afterword where (“ARE YOU READY?”) writer Sam Pink discusses his fantasy of wanting to strangle McClanahan to death, which is very entertaining.
Here, McClanahan offers up a fresh take on southern storytelling which newer generations (those too young and/or inexperienced to have yet discovered Larry Brown/Richard Ford/Bobbie Ann Mason) can enjoy.
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ONE MAN. ONE MISSION. INFINITE DEATH.
Rico Slade Will Fucking Kill You by Bradley N. Sands
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Rico Slade shows up at Baron Mayhem’s secret fortress to discover the front door unlocked. Slade can’t believe this crap, so he closes the door and kicks it down—just demolishes it—with his steel-toed boot. Because that’s the way Rico Slade does things. He can’t tolerate this ‘unlocked business.’”
This book sends a roundhouse kick to your funny bone before blowing it up. If you disagree, I won’t consider you a person. You will be a terrorist towards good books, good movies, and good taste in general. Rico doesn’t stand for terrorists. He will fucking kill you, terrorist. If he doesn’t kill you immediately (he will), just wait for the sequel.
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January 10, 2014
The Mustache He's Always Wanted but Could Never Grow
Originally, I decided to review this anthology work by work, which seemed like a good idea at the time. Halfway there I realized that some of the stories were simply too short to merit a good revie…
Author LM Langley kindly reviewed The Mustache He’s Always Wanted but Could Never Grow on her blog:
The book blurb purports that it is humorous. Sure, if slipping on the carpet and bouncing onto the sliding with the back of your neck while holding a scalding hot cup of coffee is humorous. This is the same type of affair. Grim stuff, not grim enough to be funny, but grim enough to make you grimace (see what I’ve done here?) and think ‘What the fuck?’ which, let’s be honest, is the point of post-modern art.
January 8, 2014
READ JON DAMBACHER!
Los Angeles writer Jon Dambacher sent over some books that I’m really enjoying.
Sour Candies, a slick-looking collaboration with painter Eliot Benjamin, has a lot of really excellent short stories (and images) that remind me of the “dirty realism” stuff popularized in the mid-late 1980s (Frederick Barthelme, Lydia Davis, Charles Baxter), which I love. It’s a book one should definitely seek out, for it looks as nice and as strange as it reads.
Dumacher’s latest, a poetry novella entitled Green, is available now on Amazon.com. Check it out!
December 31, 2013
SICK-SAD THOUGHTS
"Some nice, short, sick-sad shit. I read it while sitting in a waiting room with a bunch of smelly sick-sad people. It is worth the 10 minutes it will take to read it. I have found that reading it while sitting amidst a crowd of tubercular coughers even enhances the sick-sad enjoyment."
- Lance Carbuncle, author, Grundish & Askew
In 33 Fragments of Sick-Sad Living, a twenty-something ne’re-do-well attempts to piece together his life following an epic drug and alcohol bender which leaves many unanswered questions: Why is he staying on his buddy Hector’s piss-scented couch? Did his ex-girlfriend leave because he’d eaten her roommate’s food? Will he get stabbed on the way to his shift at the Dish’n’ Chicken? There are things to consider. It’s real tough to think sometimes.
December 25, 2013
Heart In a Jar: Nackles - The TV Christmas Horror Classic That Wasn't
A good Christmas-themed read for fans of Harlan Ellison and the Twilight Zone!
December 24, 2013
Stuff your stocking.
Stuff your stocking.
December 20, 2013
Here I am drunk, dressed as King Diamond, and making an ass of...
Here I am drunk, dressed as King Diamond, and making an ass of myself on stage during the Ex-Boogeymen set at FEST 12, November 2013. (Video by Todd Weissfeld)
December 18, 2013
“THE MUSTACHE HE’S ALWAYS WANTED BUT COULD NEVER GROW” OFFICIAL BOOK TRAILER!
Check out the official book trailer for my short story collection, “THE MUSTACHE HE’S ALWAYS WANTED BUT COULD NEVER GROW,” directed by my buddy, Adrian Orellana!
Pick up a copy now, at:
amazon.com/author/brianalanellis
Feel free to tweet and re-blog so people can see how shitty of an actor I am.
Cheers,
Brian Alan Ellis
