Meat Won't Pay My Light Bill

by Kurt Eisenlohr

Meet Lupus Totten. A young midwestern man with two dead end jobs to support his bar binges and floundering art. He's convinced that only one thing can help him straighten out his winning back the love of his life, Tia Correlia, the woman who kicked him out of Chicago. Lupus constantly writes futile letters to his "only one" while waxing and wallowing in drunken pity that borders on rapturous philosophy. Will Tia forgive him and invite him back home? Will Lupus become a famous painter? Or will he lose an arm in a meat grinder accident first? In this debut novel, Kurt Eisenlohr tells the hilarious and touching story of a young man trying to learn enough about love to claim it as his own. His direct poetic narrative accompanied by his own primal art makes Meat Won't Pay My Light Bill a truly resonant experience.

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Robert Monk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Maybe it was the espresso, maybe it was Mr. Eisenlohr -- maybe that question is Mr. Eisenlohr's kind of question -- but doses of this fast-reading, shit-on-conventions-but-have-sympathy-for-our-entrapment-in-them romp through young manhood in the age of meaning-killing plenty inspired me to be a better human being -- actually got me committing to spend more time doing real stuff, and to do that stuff with more of a commitment of my true being, to risk that and figure a burst of humanity can land like shit in the fan, but it's also what we pay our geniuses and great artists to do...

[Kq · Rating 3 out of 5]

Purchased this book randomly a few years ago at Powell's Books in the "Local Author" section. It's not bad, I got lucky. Kurt Eisenlohr's writing (at least in this book) reminds me of Mishka Shubaly (of Kindle fame), or rather vice versa, since I read this book years before I read any of Mishka's Kindle deals.

[lianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

i highly recommend this book to those kids struggling to get by. more so those kids who could just give a damn about working for the man and go about life living paycheck to paycheck just to get another slice in life.

also, this book is hard to find. good luck.

[brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

i make a point to read this book once a year.

[Isaac · Rating 3 out of 5]

The drunken diatribes of a derilict drifter.