Bucket of Face in Q&A with Eric Hendrixson

Oct 25, 2010 Steve Lowe rated it it was amazing

Shelves: nbas

My kids discovered those 'Charlie the Unicorn' YouTube videos recently and have been playing them constantly, which is to say, I've watched a lot of Charlie lately. (See the video below in case you're not familiar with Charlie) I got the same feeling reading Bucket of Face as I get watching Charlie - puzzled intrigue about where the story was going, delight at the bizarrely funny moments scattered throughout, and mild shock (in a good way) over the smattering of violence. In a good way.

The story ...more

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Jun 15, 2011 Gabriel rated it it was amazing

2015 ReRead:

A palate cleanser of sorts was what I needed. I also have been hoping to revisit this book since I had fond memories from the first read (see below review). This time through, I may not have laughed as loud or hard ... but I saw how tight the entire book was. I think this is still my favorite NBAS book, and in my list of top Bizarro books that I've read.

Original Review:
Buy this book now.

I knew, knew , that I was going to love this book when I read the premise. I don't think I could ...more

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Mar 17, 2011 Kate rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro

So, this week, I was hopped up on cold medicine. The kind that come in tabs and disolve in four ounces of water. I was under the weather and sleeping a lot, so I needed to read something, errr...shorter, so I chose this book and I'm really glad I did because it was a fun journey to take while not being in a 'normal' state of mind.

I must admit here and now that bizarro noir and mafia tough guys have become my most favorite off shoots of the bizarro genre, mix that with some absurdity, and it's mo ...more

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Oct 28, 2011 Aaron P. rated it really liked it

This was my first bizzaro novel, I've been intrigued by the genre for months [after seeing goodreads giveaways of bizarro titles]I never did win any of those giveaways, and haven't been able to find any bizarro at the local library - so I finally decided to stop being a cheap bastard and bought some books. I can't say what I really expected , aside from a large dose of weird ; which I certainly got - though I can also say that I wasn't dissapointed. Bizarro seems to truly be a genre without limi This was my first bizzaro novel, I've been intrigued by the genre for months [after seeing goodreads giveaways of bizarro titles]I never did win any of those giveaways, and haven't been able to find any bizarro at the local library - so I finally decided to stop being a cheap bastard and bought some books. I can't say what I really expected , aside from a large dose of weird ; which I certainly got - though I can also say that I wasn't dissapointed. Bizarro seems to truly be a genre without limits. In Eric Hendirxson's debut fruits have gone sentient. Apples and Bananas are mobsters, a tomato is a hitman, and Charles our seemingly normal protagonist has a kiwi for a girlfriend. If you are laughing after reading that, or if you've even cracked a smile this book {and review}has served their intended purposes. Still being a relative noob to bizzarro fiction I can't pass too many judgments on the genre but I can give some tips to readers who might like to give it a try. First I will say that by in large the works seem to be short - so it should be no great loss of time if you pick one up to discover you don't like it. Second I would advise you to check your logic and conventions at the door - try not to think negatively before you've given it an honest chance ; so you think the plot sounds like a six year old's interpetation of a nyquil drenched fever dream. So what! I Thought the same thing when my mom tried to explain the plot of Lost to me a few years ago and that show was a HUGE hit. This book, and genre, aren't about being 'literary' masterworks. They are funny, pulpy stories where anything can happen. Just reading the desriptions of other bizarro titles [in the back of Bucket of Face] I want to read more and more of this stuff. Bizarro seems like what Kilgore Trout would have written were he a real author.
All told Bucket of Face was an entertaining afternoon read - and I will likely always remember it fondly for introducing me to the weird, weird, world of bizzaro. ...more

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Aug 11, 2011 h. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-fives-exceptional-reads

Can't recommend it highly enough. My favorite living author.

Here's my December Amazon review:
What I did not expect was tenderness between a man and a kiwi.

I bought Bucket of Face and sat down on a Winter's Eve to read. There are moments of poetry: Sharpies, fruit salad, Quality Lights. And there are faces in blenders, bodies cooked up in vats of strawberry jam, stewed into Dutch apple butter.

Romance and dead meter maids. Scones and scorched cups of coffee. Call it and Hendrixson can juxtapose ...more

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Apr 22, 2011 Tina on the Hill rated it really liked it

I have to say I am now a fan of Bizzaro Fiction...... I really enjoyed the strange twists and odd events found in "Bucket of Face"! A must read for anyone with an odd sense of humor!!! ...more

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Jul 28, 2011 NumberLord rated it it was amazing

Shelves: bizarro

Based on the description of Bucket of Face, I suspected that this would be a straight-up bizarro tale, with none of that pretentious intellectual nonsense that always seems to pop up in literature. Which is fine with me: if God had wanted me to think, He would have made me intelligent enough to finish this analogy. But Hendrixson fooled us. The bastard went and wrote a story with intelligence and bizarrousity.
Fundamentally, it’s a noir tale, in a similar vein as Garrett Cook’s Jimmy Plush Teddy ...more

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Dec 10, 2010 Madeleine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2012, head-in-the-clouds-nose-in-a-book, our-libeary

As it is with most things that casually saunter into my life only to thoroughly dick with my literary tastes (Bukowski, you charmingly dirty coot, I'm looking at you most of all), I'm not really sure how or when I discovered this gem of a novella, which, like any good Hell mouth, dragged me not unwillingly into the bizarro genre's fabulously deranged realm on the merit of its title alone. Goodreads does tell me that I added this book to my to-read queue in December 2010, which means that it's ta As it is with most things that casually saunter into my life only to thoroughly dick with my literary tastes (Bukowski, you charmingly dirty coot, I'm looking at you most of all), I'm not really sure how or when I discovered this gem of a novella, which, like any good Hell mouth, dragged me not unwillingly into the bizarro genre's fabulously deranged realm on the merit of its title alone. Goodreads does tell me that I added this book to my to-read queue in December 2010, which means that it's taken me an embarrassingly (though far from unusually) long time to finally buy and read this.... well, bizarre little story. And now that I've had time to digest the tale of sentient fruit and doughnut bakers who find themselves in sticky situations (and sometimes dishwashers), I'm wondering why I'm wasting my time with the classics when I could be devouring the other bizarro works in my midst.

The goings-on detailed within this book's seemingly scant 92 pages are delightfully imaginative variations on the Chandleresque crime novel, with some of the most disturbingly enjoyable instances of written violence I've ever had the maniacal glee to witness from afar. You know who dunnit right off the bat but that's not where the mystery lies. Will protagonist Charles and Sarah, his kiwi-fruit girlfriend, make it out alive? Where exactly did this silver pollen come from that made everything from apples to acorns suddenly arise as active citizens? And how the hell does Michael Jackson tie into everything? It's all resolved uniquely, brilliantly and even a little emotionally by the tale's end.

Yeah, my damnable proofreading superpowers couldn't help but zero in on the handful of typos scattered throughout the narrative (most hilariously, "pastry" being written as "pasty," which, given its context as part of a conversation between the only meddling police officers whose exchanges I've ever found entertaining, unintentionally added to the humor) but my grammar-police mindset couldn't even get too riled up about those because it was having just as good a time getting lost in the story as the rest of my brain: The plot was driven by much more than mafioso fruits and gritty though amusing mayhem, which is one of the story's strongest points. Sarah waxing philosophic about fruit's right to equality (after she's seen devouring a salad comprising chunks of her kinsmen) and minor characters' sneering regard for fruit-and-people mixed couples resonated with a too-close-to-real-life relevance.

This was a weirdly wonderful, delightfully original read. It tickled the deep itch of my demented side AND was one hell of an introduction to a previously unexplored genre. I'll be back for more. ...more

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Apr 07, 2011 S.T. Cartledge rated it really liked it

Shelves: bizarro, reviewed

Bucket of Face follows the story of an innocent bystander to a Mafia deal gone wrong, and the turn of events change his life forever. That aspect of the story seems pretty reasonable, right?

Well, I should probably mention the mobsters are a banana and an apple, and the merchandise they're dealing with are faces.

Ok, I'm just going to let that sink in.

Got it?

Right, well the protagonist, the 'everyman' donut shop employee has these two dead fruits, a briefcase of cash and a bucket of faces in his p ...more

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May 20, 2011 Gregg rated it really liked it

I am pretty new to Bizarro Fiction, and I have not always enjoyed the experience, but "Bucket of Face" has made me a fan. This is a funny, short, intelligent story that reads like a hard-boiled, noirish gangster pulp novel with...differences. It gives new meaning to "a good looking tomato with a pair of .45's". You will also learn a bit of horticulture as a bonus! ...more

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