Customer Reviews

By the Light of the Jukebox

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This collection of eight darkly erotic short stories bear witness to a strange and shocking variety of dark worlds. In "Python" reincarnation proves to be an unsettlingly reality as a snake longs for her past membership in a secret club for adventurous housewives of the 1950s. "L'Annonciation" brings forth the emotional pain of sexual addiction and dysfunctional relationships.
Explicit descriptions of strong language, violence and sex.

This book was a surprising find. There are only eight stories in it and the book has received little wide-spread national attention: however, each story shows the versatility and complexity of the author's mind and pen. I did some research and discovered that one of the stories in the book has been selected for this year's "BEST AMERICAN SHORT STORIES" and another has won the very prestigious writers' "PUSHCART AWARD". I also found in this book four other stories which I would say are as strong or stronger than the two selected by the juries. The stories range from the grittily realistic to absolutely surreal. Readers of intellectual fiction and book collectors should grab copies of "By the Light of the Jukebox" before the first edition sells out!

With echoes of Camus by way of John Hawkes, and a little Ballard thrown in, Paschal's first collection isn't exactly totally "original", though it can be quite riveting--a good first night out for an author with some penetrating sensibilities. This collection, more than most, is one that needs to be read to be understood, rendering a normal review almost churlish--and I suggest you DO read it, if you enjoy fiction with an "edge" that runs deep and leaves one with a lingering visceral twinge.