Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged [Paperback]

Vincent W. Sakowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 2001

Join The Man and his Nemesis, the obese tabby, for a nightmare roller coaster ride into this postmodern history.

Take Alice in Wonderland, Dark City, and Pilgrim's Progress. Put them in a blender with a lot of dry ice. Mix and serve in a dirty, broken glass. And that's just the first chapter of Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged.

This postmodern fable examines the need for myth, metaphor and identity. The story satirizes many of our everyday obsessions, including the pursuit of wealth and materialism; the thirst for empty spectacles and violence; and the need for obtaining social status. This absurd tale will delight you in the tradition of Camus' The Stranger and Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"If H.R. Giger wrote stories instead of painting pictures, if he read Lewis Carrol and found himself equally influenced by Terry Gilliam's Brazil, he might well have written something like Vincent W. Sakowski's Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged, a work that is similarly aloof, Wonderland-like, and given to satiric social commentary." - SF READER

"An ambitious novel, dense with layers of meaning and rife with irony. Sakowski has a gift for illustrating the absurd." - THE DREAM PEOPLE

"Full of images and situations that stretch the imagination" - PEEP SHOW

Product Details

• Paperback: 156 pages
• Publisher: Eraserhead Press (December 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971357226
• ISBN-13: 978-0971357228
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,125,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Put This On Your Reading List, Twice., April 29, 2003

By 

J. Barnes "earsphere" (Landover Hills, MD) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged (Paperback)

UNPLUGGED has been billed as an anti-novel and believe me it delivers. Sure you've read plenty of books with anti-heroes but how about anti-villains of the polite and genteel variety? UNPLUGGED is an ambitious novel, dense with layers of meaning and rife with irony. Sakowski has a gift for illustrating the absurd.

Follow our "hero", The Man, as he makes his way through countless ridiculous and chilling situations. Picture a kingdom of marionettes ruled by an Emperor, a penguin of course. Meet half-crazed citizens clutching their most prized possessions close to them, their misfortunes. Sounds a bit like your average cocktail party in the modern day.

Stylistically UNPLUGGED is like an amputating scalpel under operating theater lights. Razor sharp and clinical, Sakowski's words cut to the heart of the matter while casting glittering reflections on countless topics. The combination of stripped bare prose with complex images and ideas creates a dizzying effect which makes you wonder how such a slim volume can contain so much. Put this one down on your reading list, twice.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This book surprised me, June 15, 2006

By 

Nuclear Blue Girl (Amherst, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged (Paperback)

After discovering Eraserhead Press through reading a book by Carlton Mellick III that a friend leant to me I decided to check out what else they have published and bought this book. In the description, this book says that it is post-modern but I wasn't exactly sure what that meant in relation to literature so I looked it up on wikipedia. One of the definitions described postmodernism as:
"A culturally pluralistic and profoundly interconnected global society lacking any single dominant center of political power, communication, or intellectual production."

Which I think really sums up the setting of this book. First of all, the main character has no name, he's known only as "The man". In fact, none of the other characters have names either. At first this was a little off putting, but after a couple of chapters the allegorical purpose became more clear. This story is interesting and funny. Set in an extremely surreal landscape with anthropomorphic appliances and personified animals every object, plant, and action seems to have a deeper meaning. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in art films or offbeat literature.

4.0 out of 5 stars GREAT, June 26, 2011

By 

Donald Armfield (Mass.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Some Things Are Better Left Unplugged (Paperback)

An allegorical tale, the story satirizes many of our everyday obsessions, including: the pursuit of wealth and materialism; the thirst for empty spectacles and violence; and climbing whatever social, political, or economical ladder is before us

I expected a little more from this book, still give 4 stars, because it keeps you reading.