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My Goat Ate Its Own Legs: Tales for Adults
by
My Goat Ate Its Own Legs: Tales for Adults by Alex Burrett is a debut collection of tales that explores the weird what-ifs of evolution, devotion, and universal disaster.
"Burrett's imagination is as fertile as that of Jorge Luis Borges's, and he's more readable, and funnier." —The Independent on Sunday (London)
In a voice so unfailingly chipper it's suspicious, Alex Burrett ...more
"Burrett's imagination is as fertile as that of Jorge Luis Borges's, and he's more readable, and funnier." —The Independent on Sunday (London)
In a voice so unfailingly chipper it's suspicious, Alex Burrett ...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
June 30th 2009
by Harper Perennial
(first published November 23rd 2008)
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This week while I was in an elevator on my way to lunch after a really crappy morning at work when the phone started ringing. The elevator phone... God? is that you? Buddha? My ex? Mom? My mind raced with the possibilities. I was duty bound to answer it just to settle my own intense curiosity. Who calls an elevator?
M: Hello? (cautiously still expecting my mother to be on the other line scolding me for that fifth cup of tea and third pain killer I just had)
Lady: Is this Santa Barbara Media Pro?
M ...more
M: Hello? (cautiously still expecting my mother to be on the other line scolding me for that fifth cup of tea and third pain killer I just had)
Lady: Is this Santa Barbara Media Pro?
M ...more
Yes, it's a bizarre book.
It has lots of strange stories, some of them are not "original" at all, but had been written in an intrigue form that give them a new meaning.
I totally recommend this book, it's easy to read, it's funny and original, it even makes you think about all the metaphors from life-love-death-good-bad.
It has lots of strange stories, some of them are not "original" at all, but had been written in an intrigue form that give them a new meaning.
I totally recommend this book, it's easy to read, it's funny and original, it even makes you think about all the metaphors from life-love-death-good-bad.
Aug 22, 2019
Kathy Pinsent
added it
I stumbled across this collection of short stories in a second hand bookshop and it has illumined my day. What a creative, surreal, hilarious and satirical writer. Each story has transfixed me, made me laugh and gasp. Uncomfortable at times but very engaging.
These short stories almost had me rolling on the floor. I was intrigued by the title and I won the ‘judge a book by its cover’ jackpot in this instance. Darkly humorous, this is confection for adults who are messed up. Really messed up. Adults like me; people who would find a story about a goat actually eating its own legs not only hilarious but oddly sweet, a book to soothe a wrecked and twisted psyche, or perhaps to indulge it. I recommend! Waiting for the author’s next offering is pretty clos
...more
I'm not usually a fan of short stories but these are very engaging. Without seeming as though they are trying too hard they present familiar ideas from a new perspective, with twists that will open up your mind to new ideas and, to some extent, new philosophies.
Most stories are in some way dark and provocative, without feeling too much as though they are courting controversy for controversy's sake.
I'm being vague, but to say more would be to spoil.
Most stories are in some way dark and provocative, without feeling too much as though they are courting controversy for controversy's sake.
I'm being vague, but to say more would be to spoil.
Well written, interesting, thought provoking. This is well worth a read, especially if you enjoy short stories that are a bit odd. The writing is definitely four star, but I just didn't love it. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't make it onto my favourites list. And three stars is definitely respectable.
Possibly, one of craziest collection of short stories I have ever read. A lot of these stories were quite ironic in either a laughable or depressing sense yet quite entertaining. It was fantastic. (Although, my edition still had plenty of typos).
wow. really just a great bunch of the randomest, funniest, heartfelt and most imaginative stories i've ever read. and somehow still mature
Twisted, bizarre, hilarious, often gruesome collection of short stories. I picked it off the shelf for the title and weird shape - bite taken out of the corner edition.
The title story is awesome!
Extremely surreal. X-Rated, definitely not for the faint of heart, but still quite good.
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Alex Burrett grew up in South Wales near Wordsworth’s Tintern Abbey. He’s been writing creative material since single figures. (Saying that, don’t most of us write creative material when we’re in single figures?) Work and leisure have taken him around a fair bit of Britain and Western Europe, over to the US a handful of times – with a couple of trips to the Eastern Mediterranean thrown in for good
...more
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