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Bury Me in a Borrowed Suit
After his release from jail, Whitey Keller returns to his run-down apartment and his job at Red Light Video, a seedy porn shop where he mans the register alongside a misfit crew of employees, consisting of an over-the-hill punk rocker, an alcoholic manager, and an autistic, cigar-smoking, baseball-obsessed janitor. Together they watch over a revolving cast of customers who bring with them a mix of comedy and misery in their obsessive search for sexual gratification.
197 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 29, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 2, 2011
Very light on plot but enjoyable nonetheless. I noticed a lot of grammatical errors though, which really should have been picked up and corrected before publishing.
April 3, 2011
I enjoyed this book, it was fun, bizarre, and didn't really go anywhere, but I enjoyed it for what it was - an exploration of post-adolescent lack of direction with a little bit of character growth involved. Also, half of the scenes happen in an "adult store" which made a lot of the main character's personal contemplation scenes pretty hysterical.
January 11, 2011
decent self-indulgent story. the editing was horrible; non-existent even.
June 18, 2011
It was a free ebook and I can see why...I would not normally have read this, but the title caught my eye. At least I didn't feel like I threw my money away.
August 15, 2018
Don't immediately dismiss this book because of its subject matter. Yes, it's about the sex industry, but that's not all it's about. The author makes some very astute observations about the state of Wisconsin. There are so many places I bookmarked some very lucid, insightful, succinct and eloquently stated thoughts on the changes Wisconsin has experienced.
Set in Milwaukee, we follow Whitey through his day to day existence as he runs through the gamut of clientele encountered working at the Red Light. As Whitey works his shifts, we are privy to the varied scenarios the clerk bears witness to. Not much shocks Whitey at twenty-four.
Is the younger generation a bit jaded and burned out. Perhaps. They use drugs as easily as they drink beer. The future looks bleak. Bury Me in a Borrowed Suit clearly illustrates how alike and predictable we have all become in our routines.
There were so many great quotes, I will leave you with a few of my favorite excerpts:
"The sun was no friend of mine. The light of day drew out the good people of the world, people who often preoccupied themselves with devising ways of making my life more difficult than it needed to be. Having tired of playing the game, I had organized my life opposite to their schedules and bowed out altogether. And so my nights often ended this way: in a hustle to beat the sun. And considering my current situation of not having shaved or brushed my teeth or washed my hair or self with anything but water for two weeks, the world did not need to see me coming."
"His wisps of gray hair fired upwards in conflicting angles giving the illusion of having just woken, even though I knew he had been up since five. No alarm clock was needed for this; a lifetime of answering to a time clock had conditioned him into an early riser, despite having nothing to get up for anymore. After leaving the Navy, Bob landed a job at the canning factory, the only job he would ever have. For his lifetime of servitude, the company coerced him and all other full-time employees bloated from health benefits and a livable wage, into early retirement, bestowing him with a meager severance package and an ice-cream cake on his last day. He and the others were promptly replaced with seasonal migrant workers who were paid half as much, received no health insurance or other benefits, and could be let go on the off season without compensation. Understandably, Bob took it all hard and now spent his newfound free time chaining unfiltered Lucky Strikes, downing salty Budweisers, and listening to the endless stream of static and bad news delivered via police scanner."
Really well written. I enjoyed it.
Set in Milwaukee, we follow Whitey through his day to day existence as he runs through the gamut of clientele encountered working at the Red Light. As Whitey works his shifts, we are privy to the varied scenarios the clerk bears witness to. Not much shocks Whitey at twenty-four.
Is the younger generation a bit jaded and burned out. Perhaps. They use drugs as easily as they drink beer. The future looks bleak. Bury Me in a Borrowed Suit clearly illustrates how alike and predictable we have all become in our routines.
There were so many great quotes, I will leave you with a few of my favorite excerpts:
"The sun was no friend of mine. The light of day drew out the good people of the world, people who often preoccupied themselves with devising ways of making my life more difficult than it needed to be. Having tired of playing the game, I had organized my life opposite to their schedules and bowed out altogether. And so my nights often ended this way: in a hustle to beat the sun. And considering my current situation of not having shaved or brushed my teeth or washed my hair or self with anything but water for two weeks, the world did not need to see me coming."
"His wisps of gray hair fired upwards in conflicting angles giving the illusion of having just woken, even though I knew he had been up since five. No alarm clock was needed for this; a lifetime of answering to a time clock had conditioned him into an early riser, despite having nothing to get up for anymore. After leaving the Navy, Bob landed a job at the canning factory, the only job he would ever have. For his lifetime of servitude, the company coerced him and all other full-time employees bloated from health benefits and a livable wage, into early retirement, bestowing him with a meager severance package and an ice-cream cake on his last day. He and the others were promptly replaced with seasonal migrant workers who were paid half as much, received no health insurance or other benefits, and could be let go on the off season without compensation. Understandably, Bob took it all hard and now spent his newfound free time chaining unfiltered Lucky Strikes, downing salty Budweisers, and listening to the endless stream of static and bad news delivered via police scanner."
Really well written. I enjoyed it.
March 10, 2025
Day in the life type read about a directionless young man. It was fine. Needed more editing!
February 9, 2012
I had downloaded this free ebook onto my Kobo so didn't have high hopes for it ... but it turns out that I really enjoyed it.
The description from Smashwords doesn't do it justice ... you also get to know Whitey's friends including Jason, the drug dealer; Sarah, Whitey's girlfriend, whose brother committed suicide and his bedroom door has been locked since; Scott, a fella who goes into the porn shop to try and seduce Whitey on a regular basis; Sam, Whitey's friend who lies a lot; Bob, Whitey's widowed grandfather.
It's a wacky story as Whitey tries to find himself while he's working in a porn shop and figure out what he wants to do with his life. I enjoyed the writing style and it's quite funny. There are some grammatical errors but you should overlook them since it's free.
Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2011/03...
The description from Smashwords doesn't do it justice ... you also get to know Whitey's friends including Jason, the drug dealer; Sarah, Whitey's girlfriend, whose brother committed suicide and his bedroom door has been locked since; Scott, a fella who goes into the porn shop to try and seduce Whitey on a regular basis; Sam, Whitey's friend who lies a lot; Bob, Whitey's widowed grandfather.
It's a wacky story as Whitey tries to find himself while he's working in a porn shop and figure out what he wants to do with his life. I enjoyed the writing style and it's quite funny. There are some grammatical errors but you should overlook them since it's free.
Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2011/03...
December 16, 2010
kind of depressing :s
January 30, 2011
Another following the footsteps of Ellis in talking about a bunch of degenerate youth high on drugs and alcohol.
January 30, 2011
its a good read kinda funny to
February 25, 2011
I really liked this book. Even though there was much of a plot, I still found it very interesting. At times I swore he was writing a book about MY life. Very believable!
March 16, 2011
I finally got my ereader to work and this is what I'm reading. It's interesting . . . and a quick read.
June 29, 2011
This was an easy read but I have to ask.....was there a point to the story at all?
April 24, 2012
Dark drama about drugs and working at a porn shop.
December 20, 2012
This was a real pleasant surprise! Well written and hard to put down!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews