Don't Drink & Die...

A LIFE ON FIRE by Chris Bowsman (2011 Grindhouse Press / 110 pp / tp)


Patent Clerk Gerald McManner is tired of dealing with moronic inventors and is bored with his life in general.  Saddened over the death of his wife Tracy, he begins to drink excessively and eventually finds himself popping in and out of an alternate reality where strange creatures dwell, his late wife speaks to him, and a man whose death he's partially responsible for gives him hints on how to deal with his new surroundings.


Bowsman's short novella is a decent man-loosing-his-marbles tale, although I found myself hoping there'd be more interludes told from Tracy's viewpoint during her bathtub suicide (the final one is quite heartbreaking).  A LIFE ON FIRE is an entertaining (although depressing) piece of dark fiction.