In this striking novel-in-stories, a series of strange apocalypses have hit America. Entire neighborhoods drown in mud, glass rains from the sky, birds speak gibberish, and parents of young children disappear. Millions starve while others grow coats of mold. But a few are able to survive and find a light in the aftermath, illuminating what we’ve become. In “The Disappeared,” a father is arrested for missing free throws, leaving his son to search alone for his lost mother. A boy swells to fill his parents’ ransacked attic in “The Ruined Child.” Rendered in a variety of narrative forms, from a psychedelic fable to a skewed insurance claim questionnaire, Blake Butler’s full-length fiction debut paints a gorgeously grotesque version of America, bringing to mind both Kelly Link and William H. Gass, yet imbued with Butler's own vision of the apocalyptic and bizarre.
Scorch Atlas
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Editorial Reviews
Review
Blake Butler’s Scorch Atlas is precisely that — a series of maps, or worlds, “tied... so tight they couldn’t crane their necks.” Everything is either destroyed, rotting or festering -- and not only the physical objects, but allegiances, hopes, covenants. Yet these worlds are not abstract exercises, he is speaking of life as it is, where there might be or may be, “glass over grave sites in display,” and where we will be forced to make or where we have “made facemasks out of old newspapers.” The sole glimmer of light comes in recollection, as in: “a bear the size of several men... There in the woods behind our house, when I was still a girl like you.” —Jesse Ball
Blake Butler engages in a struggle worth witnessing. Amid the loosely woven threads that constitute his story, shards of crystal poetry strand the reader in wonderment. There’s something so big about Blake’s writing. Big as men’s heads. Each inhale of Blake’s wheeze brings streamers of loose hair, the faces of lakes and oceans, whales washed up half-rotten. You can try putting on a facemask made out of old newspaper. You can breathe in smaller rhythms. But you won’t be able to keep this man out once you’ve opened his book. Open it! —Ken Sparling
I am always looking for new writers like Blake Butler and rarely finding them, but Scorch Atlas is one of those truly original books that will make you remember where you were when you first read it. Scorch Atlas is relentless in its apocalyptic accumulation, the baroque language stunning in its brutality, and the result is a massive obliteration. —Michael Kimball, author of Dear Everybody
Blake Butler engages in a struggle worth witnessing. Amid the loosely woven threads that constitute his story, shards of crystal poetry strand the reader in wonderment. There’s something so big about Blake’s writing. Big as men’s heads. Each inhale of Blake’s wheeze brings streamers of loose hair, the faces of lakes and oceans, whales washed up half-rotten. You can try putting on a facemask made out of old newspaper. You can breathe in smaller rhythms. But you won’t be able to keep this man out once you’ve opened his book. Open it! —Ken Sparling
I am always looking for new writers like Blake Butler and rarely finding them, but Scorch Atlas is one of those truly original books that will make you remember where you were when you first read it. Scorch Atlas is relentless in its apocalyptic accumulation, the baroque language stunning in its brutality, and the result is a massive obliteration. —Michael Kimball, author of Dear Everybody
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By BJ
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
A short form series of stories about the apocalypse you haven't been warned about.
This is pure bizarro apocalyptic fiction at it's best. There are no central characters in these stories, just Mom and Dad, my sister and my brother, the neighbors...
In the world of "Scorch Atlas", you may find that -
Felons are forced to wear plastic jumpsuits with bubble heads to prevent their breath from spreading their corrupt ideas
Dry flakes of charcoal as big as men's heads slather from some great overhead fire
Fathers may shoot free throws to prove their manhood
Butler's writing is good and isn't so far out there that only the enlightened ones can understand it. These aren't stories about the future, their tales about an alternate world where the following things rain down from the sky -
Ash
Gravel
Glass
Caterpillars
Static
Teeth (animal and human)
Ink
Manure
Flesh (gristle, cartilage, tissue, tendon, vein and bone)
Glitter
Manure
Light
If you've read "Scorch Atlas" and enjoy the bizzaro fiction genre, check out some other great books -
Morning Is Dead, Angel Dust Apocalypse and Sideshow PI: The Devil's Garden!
Enjoy~
This is pure bizarro apocalyptic fiction at it's best. There are no central characters in these stories, just Mom and Dad, my sister and my brother, the neighbors...
In the world of "Scorch Atlas", you may find that -
Felons are forced to wear plastic jumpsuits with bubble heads to prevent their breath from spreading their corrupt ideas
Dry flakes of charcoal as big as men's heads slather from some great overhead fire
Fathers may shoot free throws to prove their manhood
Butler's writing is good and isn't so far out there that only the enlightened ones can understand it. These aren't stories about the future, their tales about an alternate world where the following things rain down from the sky -
Ash
Gravel
Glass
Caterpillars
Static
Teeth (animal and human)
Ink
Manure
Flesh (gristle, cartilage, tissue, tendon, vein and bone)
Glitter
Manure
Light
If you've read "Scorch Atlas" and enjoy the bizzaro fiction genre, check out some other great books -
Morning Is Dead, Angel Dust Apocalypse and Sideshow PI: The Devil's Garden!
Enjoy~
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Santiago
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Blake Butler is such an amazing writer. This books is a series of short stories about the end of the world. I think this kind of writting is getting popular because it is inspired on global warming. This book is different because it talks about the end of man kind always from a personal point of view. Butler has a very extent vocabulary and I constantly needed to check out dictionaries to understand some of the words. It is one of the darkest books you will ever find.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read this book in one sitting, and time must have moved forward like it always did. If the world ended during the time I was reading it, then I would have been the last to know. I read it onscreen, and I'm sure the paper version would have been far more traumatizing.
Scorch Atlas is stark, decadent, and beautiful. I inhaled the dank things in this tiny unnamed world, and they do not easily wash off. Blake Butler is reluctant to name his dysfunctional characters. Perhaps, he knows we already have an idea who they are. He writes: "...so many buildings everywhere gone tilted, smothered..." -- and I believe him.
Scorch Atlas is stark, decadent, and beautiful. I inhaled the dank things in this tiny unnamed world, and they do not easily wash off. Blake Butler is reluctant to name his dysfunctional characters. Perhaps, he knows we already have an idea who they are. He writes: "...so many buildings everywhere gone tilted, smothered..." -- and I believe him.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazing
Fantastic novel of interconnected short stories about people trying to survive the apocalypse. Crisp prose and haunting emotion makes this book stand out among most other... Read more
Published on October 5, 2010 by Grant Wamack
3.0 out of 5 stars
Happy Days?
This book was chosen for a book club meeting and it's not my particular taste. What I find interesting is in spite of it's utter bleakness, there were rather sadistic parts that I... Read more
Published on May 28, 2010 by N. Chanting
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite Work of Fiction This Year
Where do you start when you talk about the words within these pages? You can read the description above, but nothing will do this book justice until you immerse yourself in the... Read more
Published on October 9, 2009 by Keith Montesano
5.0 out of 5 stars
Masterwork
Butler sculpts bombspaces, atomic sentences of premium sublimity. An alive object beyond relic that exists to replace heads with better saliva. The strongest lit on the market now. Read more
Published on October 5, 2009 by Sean T. Kilpatrick
5.0 out of 5 stars
Snapshots of detached destruction
SCORCH ATLAS, more than most of Butler's, really has the Brian Evenson dystopia going on. In a completely complimentary. Read more
Published on September 29, 2009 by Caleb Ross
5.0 out of 5 stars
Scorch Atlas as Jar
Scorch Atlas is a jar. It's a jar in which a writhing snake is successfully captured. It's a jar which is then filled with blood. The snake learns to breathe it. Read more
Published on September 27, 2009 by Mel Bosworth
5.0 out of 5 stars
You Cannot Have Any of My Scorch Atlases
I bought two copies of Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler.
It was an accident, yes, but I am keeping both of them. Read more
It was an accident, yes, but I am keeping both of them. Read more
Published on September 26, 2009 by A. Niedenthal
5.0 out of 5 stars
An important, beautiful artifact
It's amazing, what this book does. What the stories do. Every word is a little trick.
You kind of have to hold it to see it to believe it.
You kind of have to hold it to see it to believe it.
Published on September 25, 2009 by Adam Robinson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Word chunks to bend against you.
Blake Butler hails from another planet, a planet where fiction isn't just stale, old junk. Butler and writers like him are reviving my hope for fiction. Read more
Published on September 24, 2009 by Maurice Burford
5.0 out of 5 stars
Disjointed Apocalypse
Post Apocalypse fiction is all the rage right now, what with The Road hitting so big and all. Blake Butler's Scorch Atlas isn't a copy of the flood of end of the world fiction out... Read more
Published on September 24, 2009 by Nathan Tyree
