The Send-off

by Christopher Leach

First edition. Very good hard cover, with unclipped dust jacket. Light shelf and handling wear to DJ, notable tanning. Pages are tightly bound, content unmarked. CN

103 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[Brandon S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually quite enjoyed this little parable. It's got a subtly surrealist vibe, and it often makes little sense just to make weird little moral points.
It was something akin to The Twilight Zone mixed with the slightest dash of Douglas Adams or Monty Python. The humor is not as explicit, but it's just under the surface and makes for an interesting read.

I may be swayed a bit by the fact that I expected this to be completely terrible. It's also essentially a novella, so it doesn't hurt to just plow through it and see how you might feel by the end.

[Paul Barnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

[Chatto & Windus] (1973). 1/1. HB. 103 Pages. Purchased from Blofield Books.

A strange, engaging plot. Peculiar characters. This short, darkly humorous novel is laced with surreal elements.

A “warm” ‘cadaver’ - which may (or may not) move (on the sly) and groan, once in a while - appears out of the blue in the kitchen of a residential property. The ‘body’, said to be that of a soldier, intermittently bleeds on an ongoing basis…

The family’s responses are callous, selfish and bizarre - one way and another, there’s plenty of food for thought.