Lumumba Mthembu ’s Reviews > The New Bedside Playboy > Status Update

Joyce Carol Oates is another recommendation I followed up on. "The Swimmers" puts her in a different league to other authors in The New Bedside Playboy.

A couple of pages into "The Swimmers" by Joyce Carol Oates. It's easy to see who the professional authors are with writing this polished and compelling.

Grover Lewis writes well but he's crazy. Addressing himself in the 3rd person is dated and pretentious. It was probably convention at the time, but seeing it on the page has inspired me never to do it. Rather address your reader in the 2nd-person, or write in the 1st, than say, "The writer saw he was in trouble..."

"Dunlup Crashes in" picks up the mood when it is sorely needed. The idea of a cuckold seeking revenge in a dancehall by ploughing his potato chip truck through it, in order to mow down the adulterers, is singular. I'm disturbed 1 of the revellers doesn't wanna see niggers when she's celebrating but that's not far removed from east Texans. I'd be interested to learn this short story's year of publication.

An adoptee from hell terrorises his family in "King Bee," which is as good as their racist asses deserve: "Adoption had seemed the way to go, though Pat was distressed by the fact that so many of the babies were - well, she didn't like to say it, but they weren't white. There were Thai babies, Guianese babies, babies from Haiti, Kuala Lumpur and Kashmir, but Caucasian babies were at a premium." (276)

The illustrations are giving me wallpapers for days!

Playboy's Party Jokes are the mid-section's saving grace. The commentary and memoirs do not hold a candle to the fiction.

The New Bedside Playboy churns out another author recommendation in Donald E. Westlake.

Thank goodness a Tyrannosaurus Rex appears in the mid-section, cos the effect of "Furry's Blues" and some of the "Humour" sections is positively tranquilising 😪

Can't wait to share Playboy's Party Jokes.