Ronald Reagan, My Father

by Brian Joseph Davis

“An elegant, wise-ass rush of truth, hiding riotous social commentary in slanderous jokes… It almost feels like he’s leading a palace coup.” Spin Magazine on Portable Altamont “Davis’ brilliant media deconstructions are pointed and hilarious at the same time.” Kenneth Goldsmith “The book of your fever dreams.” Slate on I, Tania The elderly take to the streets at night for illegal and cathartic electric scooter racing. (Think Two-Lane Blacktop but starring Abe Vigoda and Estelle Getty.) A copy editor suffers brain damage from West Nile virus and is suddenly filled with cannibalistic violence and award-winning minimalist poetry. (It’s a little like Awakenings, but directed by David Cronenberg.) Mayor McCheese visits a sexually repressed British couple in the early 1970s and touches their lives forever. (Okay, try this: Pasolini’s Teorema but with Mayor McCheese.) A Texas doctor transplants the mind of a meth-addicted convict into the body of a suburban web developer, resulting in America’s first “death-penalty case that turned into a custody case that turned into a right-to-die case.” (It’s like a hole drilled in your head and five HBO original movies poured in all at once.) Startlingly original but anchored by vivid characters, Ronald Reagan, My Father weaves all these ideas, and more, into a bleakly hilarious vision that’s both human and uncanny — as if Raymond Carver was marooned on Mars with ten hours to live.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Sal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apart from the two performance pieces ("Johnny" and "Voice Over"), which were a slog to read as transcribed on the page, this is a wonderfully funny collection of oddball stories

[snott · Rating 3 out of 5]

The collection is bogged down by two stories that are made up of movie taglines and decontextualized movie lines about 'Johnny'. While both stories are pretty good ideas for other mediums (and they do have performance art or whatever incarnations), they're punishing to read as short stories.

Otherwise, the collection is fairly strong. Highlights include the Unicorn story bookends, and the one about the lady who gets West Nile virus and becomes obsessed with ear eating alongside the ability to write some fantastic, sparse poetry.