Customer Reviews

Misadventures in a Thumbnail Universe

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Reading Mr. Sakowski's compact Bizarro prose is like swallowing Lord Buckley in reverse slow motion. He donates shining hammers to the groin in perfect guise of paragraphs, thereby sprinkled with laudanum and small campfires behind the eye. Buy this to scrub your face with the ink in praise of some holy avant thirst or die willing in some traffic of automatic dreamscape. The strange pagan-ite calligrams homed beyond this glowing cover will follow you like smoke until you dis-acknowledge the weak function of any heart.

The peeling need of the Bizarro movement is flexing its muscle above the tombstones of literature. Keep drooling over the television shoes.

Vincent W. Sakowski, <strong>Misadventures in a Thumbnail Universe</strong> (Eraserhead Press, 2007)

Vincent W. Sakowski is a young, somewhat cracked, Canadian writer who works in a realm he calls "blender fiction", as in "take influences x, y, and z, put them in a blender, and see what you come up with." What you come up with is very weird indeed, but don't let that stop you from picking this up. When Vincent W. Sakowski is good, he is very very good. When he is bad... I don't know, because there's not a bad story to be found in this book.

Sure, there are the gems and there are those that are less gem-like, but it's all good reads. I was going along okay, enjoying but not being completely sucked into the worlds Sakowski was creating in these stories (though Sakowski mentions in his afterword that "Television Shoes" is set in the same universe as an earlier novel of his, which definitely makes me want to go back and read that). They suffer from the same problem, early on, that I have with a number of bizarro authors; I can't really find enough emotional depth in the characters to push me into really caring for them, because the pieces, be they stories or novels, are so short that there's not enough time for that to develop. All that changes, however, when you get to "The Other Side of the Fence", as good a short story as I've read in recent memory, and one where Sakowski uses the bizarre surroundings in which he sets his character to do more than be bizarre. Yes, it's all allegory, but it all <em>works</em>, and works very well. Even if "The Other Side of the Fence" had been the only story to reach the heights it does in the book, I'd be telling you that you need to go buy this thing posthaste.

And then comes "See Emily Play?". And it will roll over your head with a steamshovel and you will ask for more. Aside form the utterly gratuitous Pink Floyd reference in the title (and that can never be a bad thing), the story itself is an odd and entirely wonderful blend of steampunk, "Jabberwocky", and Jacqueline Susann that must be read to be believed. If you're not used to bizarro trappings, it may take you a while to adjust to some of the odder set pieces Sakowski uses in these stories, but once you've connected with that particular vein, it's wonderful stuff, well worth your time, and Sakowski, with this volume, plants himself at the top of the bizarro heap with Forrest Armstrong and Andersen Prunty as "most likely to become a rock star (even if of the <em>Hard Core Logo</em> variety)". You want this. ****

I loved the ten tales of surreal strangeness you get with "Misadventures". Sakowski builds a world within these tales, one you can envision the characters bouncing around in. It starts with "The Screaming of the Fish", which was one of my favorites. The narrarator explains the misunderstood life of his friend, who has a fishbowl for a head. It felt very personal to me, like Sakowski had poured his heart into it. The man feels pressured by society, but doesn't let it phase him, he tunes it out.

Another story that stood out to me was "On the Other Side of the Fence". A young girl constantly cleans her yard of the dead chickens, burying them in the ground, but they continue to appear. You can feel that she is trying to escape something, but cannot. It was a disheartening story, which ends with a blossom of hope. Yet, another beautifully emotional piece.

The obvious crowning jewel was "It's Beginning to Look a Lot like Ragnarok". A couple is tricked into believing it's the end of the world by the Norse god Loki. It's a very dark satire that will have you smiling throughout the entire story. This was the first book I have read by Sakowski, but I will grab more based on this collection. Every story is worth the money. He made great use of the metaphor. Read IT!

This is one of the underrated gems among the collective bizarro collection. Self described as "blender fiction" these stories are just that, little bits of scifi/surrealism/fantasy/mythology blended into a fine smoothie that tastes of old tires and painful memories.

Reading the stories in this book produces images in your mind that seem to be filtered through a sickly film, creating dark moments that shine through despite the obvious weird elements. Sakowski also includes a brief remembrance of how each story came to be, which is a fun little tidbit that I wish I saw more of in short story collections.

Personal favorites in the collection include "Wrong Turn, Pterodactyl Man" "Under a Flesh-Filled Sky" and "Television Shoes" which features a character from Sakowski's full length work, Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged.

Good collection. I liked the spin off from the Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged book.

This is a good short story collection. As all collections go, I can't say I loved every single story, but there were a few that really stood out. My favorites were:

"Peel and Eat Buffet" one of THE weirdest strip scenes I have ever read or seen in my life. It will truly stick with you in a slightly disturbing not sure if you are turned on or weirded out kind of a way.

"The Screaming of the Fish" an absurd story about a guy with a fishbowl for a brain.

"On the Other Side of the Fence" about a girl with a dead chicken problem.

and

"Television Shoes" about a guy who trades in his "radio eyes" for some "television shoes"...literally. <-- this one is set in the same world as Sakowski's novel Some Things Are Better Left Unpluggedwhich I would highly recommend. The short story collection is a good introduction to this authors style but his novel is excellent.

A bizzaro collection from avant-punk writer Vincent W. Sakowski. This book is novella sized, many of the pieces being "flash fiction". 'The Screaming Of The Fish', 'Peel And Eat Buffet', and 'It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Ragnarok' all appeared in 'The Bizarro Starter Kit', a collection of bizzaro genre authors. His new additions in this collection are noteworthy as well.

Table Of Contents:
· The Screaming Of The Fish
· The Miracle Babies
· Television Shoes
· On The Other Side Of The Fence
· Peel And Eat Buffet
· Under A Flesh-Filled Sky
· See Emily Play?
· Wrong Turn Pterodactyl Man
· It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Ragnarok
· Morphia

Followed by author's notes on each story which are quite interesting.

"Weird" doesn't even begin to describe these stories. There is a man with a fishbowl for a head, a young woman who gives virgin birth to a litter of carnivorous bunnies, a man who coughs up living hairballs, an obese tabby cat that sells television shoes, and the end of the world (called Ragnarok) for a young couple named GQ and Vogue.

My two favorites are 'On The Other Side Of The Fence', a tale about dead chicken balloons that explode from the noxious gases on Deborah's tiny piece of land, and 'See Emily Play?', a story that includes a parrot made of fine metal and glass named Mr. Calm, a handicapped woman encased in bronze named Emily, and a spider legged woman named Maria who tries to make a new body for Emily, first from bronze and then from glass. But what pleases Emily is the body of oiled black leather, latex foam rubber, and PVC pipes, is spite of its nasty drawbacks for maintenance.

Fans of the 'Bizarro Genre' will love this novella sized collection of shorts from Vincent W. Sakowski. It takes a sickly twisted mind to come up with tales that will leave you laughing, scratching your head, and occasionally grossed out. Surreal and satirical, 'Misadventures In A Thumbnail Universe' is a great addition to your Bizarro collection. Enjoy!