This is the novel the publishing industry was afraid to publish. The twisted, sort-of-true story of Toby, a freewheeling ten-something with too much time on his hands, The Bellybutton Fiasco forces us to confront-for, like, the fifth time-What Has Happened To Our Children? Not that many novels have the courage to attack the Loch Ness Monster myth, nor the poetic accuracy to describe its characters' dreams. The Bellybutton Fiasco has this, and so, so much more. It promises to be the most important novel you'll read this year, or the most important novel you'll read while reading it. Filled with insight, heart-warming candor, and necrophilic subliminal imagery, The Bellybutton Fiasco is a novel. A fictional novel.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Tom Bissell studied fencing at the Salk Institute and currently lives with Amish shepherds in Jerusalem. He is a practicing Zoroastrian and juggles frequently.
Webster Younce has had his work appear in journals, letters, diaries, email, grocery lists, term papers, and loan applications. He lives in his apartment.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Not the best recipes I ever tasted, but just about...,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bellybutton Fiasco (Paperback)
I totally disagree with the previous reviewer. I believe that both authors of this co-authored fictional novel owned dogs during their youths. That's not to suggest I condone dog ownership or childhood, only that I acknowledge such things occur, even in middle class neighborhoods with a spice rack in every kitchen.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Laura Miller from Salon.com says:,
By "salamandersal" (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Bellybutton Fiasco (Paperback)
This floridly wretched work is the creation of two young book editors (one a Salon contributor) who wrote an article for Harper's magazine arguing that Xlibris and other for-fee online "publishers" are in fact exactly the same as old-fangled vanity presses. To prove their point, they concocted this intentionally bad book (subtitle: "A Fictional Novel"), making it an amalgam of all the dreadful elements familiar to slush-pile readers everywhere. Xlibris was happy to "publish" it, though as the authors pointed out in Harper's, there's a big difference between actually publishing a book and just printing it. And there's a big difference between the average digital vanity press novel (with which Salon Books is, alas, pelted) and "The Bellybutton Fiasco," a really pretty funny mess of a book. It's what you might call a coming-of-age thriller about a sensitive young boy in the throes of first love who discovers that he has the power to shoot flames out of his navel. Not that the authors stick very close to the story line, though. There are a lot of blistering movie reviews, and a hilarious passage in which Bob Costas and Doug Collins commentate on the Trojan War. There are parodies of earnest protests against irony ("But it gets old -- this knowingness. It wears a mask that eats its own face") and of bad sensitive literary fiction. Plus, it contains a review of itself. And all of this can be yours.
12 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
young literary tigers overreach their hoop and hit flames,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Bellybutton Fiasco (Paperback)
this was obviously written by two smart alecky publishing types--it reeks of the stale air and desperate humor found in the slushpile trenches. (how can something be both pile and trench? when it's slushy, i guess.) but it's pretty funny. in a puerile way. if you're the kind of person who likes to get stoned and play star wars trivial pursuit, i guess. it tries a little too hard, though. especially in the wyndham lewis sections. and i could have done without the homage to jerry lewis, not to mention the alexander pope/elton john/kissinger conspiracy theory. the movie reviews are great! but I don't think either author ever had a dog.
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