Customer Reviews

Morning Is Dead

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This is the second book that I've read by the author and when I hit the "free sample" button I started to feel like a junkie and I knew I was going to buy it a few chapters in. I'm glad I've found Prunty and I like his style. This book is very good. I really enjoy how the author has a tendency to tell several stories as once in his books and lets the reader decide which one is best, plausible, favorable or meaningful while keeping the ride bouncing and humorous. In this book reality is much more fragile than people would care to admit and perspective can shatter one to the next and I like his jabs at industry in general. I particularly like how he bounces between two characters in this story and builds suspense in the process. I found myself falling into his trap and I started turning pages faster as it built and I really wanted to see where things were going. I don't want to spoil anything so I'll just say that I recommend it and I have hit the "free sample" button once again. This author is going to get all my money ... GD the pusher man LOL

Andersen Prunty, Morning Is Dead (Grindhouse Press, 2010)

The big twist at the end of this novel has been revealed in a couple of other reviews I've read. I will avoid doing so here, but were I you, I would avoid reading other reviews of the book until after you've read the book itself in order to save yourself for the final chapter. Anyway.

Coming into this book, I thought I knew two things. The first was the word on the street that Andersen Prunty was poised to become the first bizarro author who could actually break into the mainstream, as opposed to mainstream authors who've been co-opted into bizarro (Robert Devereaux and Steve Aylett being obvious examples). The second is that there were zombies. Turns out the first is accurate, anyway. I can't claim to be anything remotely close to widely read in bizarro, but what I have read of it has often seemed the work of inspired amateurs; enjoyable, but lacking the sort of experience and polish that it takes to sell a novel to Doubleday or Grand Central or whoever the big publishing house is these days. (I've been out of the bookselling business for a while. When I was still in it, Random House was the big deal...) Prunty definitely has the enthusiasm of the inspired amateur about him, but there's also a bit of that spit and polish, as well. It's obvious there's an overarching theme here, there's a sense that Prunty really thought about where he wanted this book to go and what he wanted it to do, rather than just sitting down and seeing where the ride took him, and I cannot overestimate the importance of that in putting together a piece of professional-quality fiction. In short, I'm telling you that if you're intrigued by this whole bizarro thing and you're looking for your first intro to the genre, this is an excellent place to start.

Plot: Alvin Blue is in a coma in the hospital. His wife April is sitting beside his bed, waiting for him to either come out of said coma or die. The narrative goes back and forth between April conversing with her friend Maribel in the hospital room and pieces from Alvin's perspective. Are they horrific nightmares? Is he living some sort of purgatorical atonement in his head? Is something else entirely going on? Or, as it seems, has he truly slipped into an alternate dimension, where the local industrial plant (the Point) is actually a shadow government that controls all of Dayton, Ohio, where the sun never shines, where women make money by selling fetuses to Dr. Lucky's Abortion Clinic, where the cops are drugged-out sex fiends and radiation-scarred mutants walk the streets in search of fresh prey?

Morning Is Dead is a blissful, somewhat gross (though not nearly so much as most of the bizarro I've read) amalgam of Anthony Burgess' The Wanting Seed and Dark City, the Alex Proyas film. Those are two influences that it would be pretty darned difficult to screw up, at least as far as I'm concerned, given a writer with any talent whatsoever. And while Prunty's stuff does have the rushed, sometimes skeletal feel that's been common to the bizarro I've read over the past few years, he is undeniably a talented writer, and he does a solid job with this story. Well worth picking up, and as I said before, a very good introduction to this new-ish subgenre. *** ½

"Morning is Dead" kicked my a..!

This is the blackest rabbit hole you could possibly fall down!

What's an Andersen Prunty?

I loved this book, the characters, the storyline, the absurdity. For only having 142 pages, you get more then you'll ever bargain for.

Alvin Blue is gone. Gone, gone, gone down so deep he no longer sees the morning light!

The book has a little bit of everything: sex, corrupt cops, mainly two aptly named Officer F...pants and Officer B....hole, an obssesed archer, people who rust when they sleep, fetuses, radiation victims and in this world houses are chosen randomnly for detonation (thus the cover of the book).

I've read two of Prunty's other books My Fake War, Slag Attack and his book of short stories The Overwhelming Urge and "Morning is Dead" is by far my favorite!

Anyone can make up a bizzare story, making that story readable and interesting is the hard part, Prunty has done that at it's finest!

Take the trip that is "Morning is Dead" and you won't regret it.

Buy it, read it, tell your friends!

For other great bizarro short fiction, check out Jeremy Robert Johnson's Angel Dust Apocalypse!

Enjoy~

Andersen Prunty's night people in MORNING IS DEAD are an intriguing breed. They are fornicators and wretches, consumed by violence and sex and all manner of vice. As they "process" deeper into the night, their hopelessness grows and their humanity dims. What makes Prunty's night different here is that it is populated by radioactive people called "rades", all-night abortion clinics and its overwhelming clientele, covert technicians who wire homes to detonate, and a police force more dangerous than the worst thugs on the streets. The Dayton, Ohio depicted in MORNING IS DEAD is ruled over by a monolithic company called the Point, which seems to be behind every bad thing that happens to Dayton and its inhabitants, including the protagonist, Alvin Blue.

Alvin and his wife have grown apart and as this realization begins to dawn on him, the night suddenly decides to take him in to be processed, meaning he will never see the daylight, or the morning, again. With no job and no ability to conceive children, Alvin's usefulness to society seems to be all used up, leaving only his skin, which is valuable to the Point for reasons that won't be revealed here, lest too much of the story be spoiled.

What most interested me about MORNING IS DEAD is the notion of an alternate reality within the night. Drive through nearly any downtown in America and you see dark places - alleys and corners and buildings that seem different at night. In between these cracks lies another world where many dark things exist, which is what makes Prunty's night feel all too real and unsettling. What would happen if someone who lives a daytime existence - work from 9-5, normal interactions with others, an employed family man or woman - was suddenly thrust into this other reality, where drugs and prostitution and vice is a way of life? This book examines such a scenario, and does so to dark, imaginative and entertaining results.

The other intriguing theme in MORNING is the town of Dayton itself, a Rust Belt city in Ohio that grew up around manufacturing and the auto industry. Just a couple years ago, GM plant closings near Dayton were called a "death knell" to the town because of how intertwined the company was in so many aspects of life. That vibe is echoed in MORNING and its fictional company, the Point. Though this is not directly discussed in the story, it shows up in clever ways, such as the scene where Alvin inspects the home of a "sleeper" or a person who never wakes during the night. The sleeper, who lives in the daytime and is (presumably) still a productive member of society (no doubt employed by the Point), is what Alvin used to be, but on closer inspection, Alvin sees that the man has begun to rust. He soon discovers he is rusting as well.

All aspects of life tend to ebb and flow through the Point, as is common in manufacturing towns where huge companies can employ as much as half the population, while a great many more are employed indirectly. The same holds true with the Point, which is insidious in its ways of using, and using up, the people of the town until there is nothing left. This is, of course, my opinion of what Prunty was going for here, or at least what I got from it. I could be way off on his intentions with this story, but if nothing else, at least he got me thinking, which is what I love about and look for in good fiction.

MORNING IS DEAD is a dark, disturbing glimpse at an alternate reality that, upon closer inspection, does not seem so farfetched, which makes it all the more unsettling. This was my introduction to Prunty's work, and I look forward to more from him. His writing is crisp and intelligent, and MORNING IS DEAD is a great example of unsettling horror that relies on ideas and imagination rather than shock value and gimmicks to impart its message and leave a mark. But there's still plenty of shock and blood and shoot-`em-up violence in here to make it a tense page-turner, as well. I highly recommend it.

Alvin Blue is having a hard time remembering when he last saw the sun ...

I've read a few of Mr. Prunty's works and this is by far his best. He's created such a unique (VERY SURREAL!) world. To be honest I still don't know if the entire story was a consequence of psychosis or something much more fantastic. It's short. The prose is conservative and well executed. In less than a 150 pages, Mr. Prunty developed likeable, and more importantly, believable characters. My favorite being a man of the night named Archer.

But be warned; this is a very, very dark story. You will not feel good about the resolution.

Pick it up. Read it. Love it.

I've read about 4 of Prunty's books so I'm pretty familiar with his writing. One reoccuring theme in Prunty's work seems to be the fear and paranoia of losing a spouse. Another theme is the heartless consumerist society taking over. Jack and Mr. Grin took on the first theme in a close, personal way. Market Adjustment had to do mostly with the second theme and had a larger, almost Lovecraftian approach.

Morning is Dead is somewhere in between.

It deals with the fear and paranoia of losing your wife to someone who looks like you (but more attractive) while also dealing with criticisms of society, law enforcement, and so on. It's a downer of a book. It's not a feel good book by any means. But that's not a bad thing.

Morning is Dead is an emotionally devastating descent into bizarre horror. If Philip K. Dick wrote horror, I imagine he'd write something like this. It's the book to read when you want to feel paranoid about your marriage, your work, your neighbors, your town, and your life in general. Don't worry, though. You'll enjoy every second of it. This is a creepy page turner.

I suppose every honest review needs to have some bit of criticism so I'll try. Honestly, I can't think of anything real negative about this book except that maybe it could have had a few more pages in the beginning to set everything up a little better.

A bonus is the great cover art and the fact that this is number 000 from the new publisher Grindhouse Press. Get this while you can.

This review contains massive spoilers. Don't read this until you've read the book.

This book is, like I've titled this review, a suffocating nightmare. And that's a good thing! Sure, we've all enjoyed stories featuring a confused narrator experiencing the threshold of death's door a 'la "An Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge," but this yarn is a very clever and relevant take on this trope. Not only is the character of Alvin leaving his life as he roils in a coma, he's not leaving much of one behind in the first place. The "afterworld" of Alvin's twilight is a hellish circus of sex, drugs, and radio static. Sorry, no rock n' roll here. The denizens of this perpetual night are processed into a bleak, sickhouse reality that punishes them for playing by the rules of a corporation-dominated prime reality and daring to get out of it. As a reader, you will ask yourself: "was this exactly Alvin's fault?" No, but it illustrates how the Company Store oppresses even in the afterlife, as if they have a patent on even it. Fascist. Relentless.

The writing is quick and surreal without the po-mo confusion of a Burroughs cutup or being the conundrum known as "Gravity's Rainbow." He doesn't go into too much detail with the strangeness Alvin experiences because he cannot. There is no time to soak in the intricacies of Grandmother's hope chest when you're being chased by radioactive revenants and an insane archery enthusiast. Or a hooker's vagina. I'm already reading another one of Mr. Prunty's stories and that is even better than this one. I wish Amazon had six stars.

I hope nobody other than Ti West, Lucky McKee, or even Lloyd Kaufman would dare to direct a film version of this. Sooner or later, someone in Hollyweird will take note of this genius. Just hope it's the right one. Ok, scratch Lloyd. He's too funny and there is nothing funny about this book despite its pervasive absurdity.

I have this love/hate relationship with the things that Andersen writes. The love part is in reading what he puts out. The hate part comes in when I finish a story by him because I then want to read something else that he has written.

Morning Is Dead is a fun read. Like others, I am not going to get into the plot, others have done that. If you've ever read anything by Andersen and like another reviewer has said you know that you are going to be taken on one crazy ride.

I'll also say that if you, like me are a fan, this is another book that you should add to your collection. At the current price it's a steal. Give this one a chance you will not be disappointed.

This is an extraordinary read. What happen to Alvin & April Blue is the question. The back and fourth narrative of April at Alvin's bed side talking to her friend bout Alvin's past. As for Alvin who is in a coma or an alternate universe where radioactive fades walk the streets to kill off humanity. I'll leave it at that a must read with a twist at the end not expected.

Morning is Dead, the first book released through Grindhouse Press, could very well be Andersen Prunty's darkest book next to The Sorrow King. All the more impressive is that Morning is Dead is only a fraction of the length of The Sorrow King, yet still manages to pack just as much crushing bleakness into its pages.

The story is deceptively simple: Alvin Blue spots his wife in the arms of another man, and then finds himself inhabiting a surreal dream-world populated by murderous, sex-crazed policemen, glowing mutants, and detonating houses. And then things get weird.

You would think, having read most of Prunty's work, that this book wouldn't have such a devastating effect, but the unforgiving plot refuses to let go and keeps dragging you further into the blackness. Once Prunty gets his literary hooks in you, there's no escape. You have to read to the end, no matter how much it hurts.