Customer Reviews

Stray Not Beyond

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I enjoyed Stray Not Beyond very much, it is, as my title suggests, a fun read. I have a warped sense of humor and this book with all it's strange locations, off center people and bizzare situations fit the bill exactly. This comedy/mystery book goes from light to dark humor and back again, the story is both terrifying and hilarious at the same time, I saw traces of H. Allen Smith, Ambrose Bierce and Lewis Carroll in the story and that is great company to keep. I won't go into the plot, that has already been done very well by the other reviewers on this page, but needless to say it is highly original and very entertaining. It's Stephen King meets Mayberry meets Porky in Wackyland.

I highly recommend this reading to anyone who dares to stray beyond the threshold of what is familiar and comfortable into a world of twists and turns with a variety of flavorful and unexpected encounters, delightfully descriptive scenes, events, emotions, characters and the overall mystery of what happened to who and whatand when. The adventure will perk your imagination up and perhaps make you appreciate the return to your home and comfortable surroundings. I could not put the book down and now write with blurry eyes to tell my friends NOT to miss "STRAY NOT BEYOND"

Loved this book; it's pure brain candy! The characters are vivid and surreal, which adds to the book's appeal.
Fetch a glass of iced tea, settle into your recliner, and escape the workaday world with 'Stray Not Beyond.'
Within minutes, you will forget your worries as Carslile enounters a kaliedoscope of hilarious characters.

Is it fair to criticize Stray Not Beyond for not telling the story I wanted it to tell? Stray Not Beyond takes the problem to an extreme.

The novel starts on a folksy, low-key note, as protagonist Irving Carlisle recounts how a sample of the preternaturally sumptuous Suttlespyce (Number 17) pipe tobacco arrived, unsolicited, in his mail one day from a Theodamus Rroyhall in Otterwood, North Carolina, and how Rroyhall equally suddenly stopped responding to Irving's orders two years later. So Irving sets off for Otterwood to investigate.

In Otterwood, the locals start by giving Irving the run-around, and then become even more hostile when Irving persists. And although the novel's tone becomes increasingly dark, I thought I knew, at least generally, what I was in for: the story of Irving's investigation into the mysterious Rroyhall and his Suttlespyce (Number 17). I wasn't sure how dark the story would get, or exactly where the plot was headed. But the laid-back, appealing narrative style and intriguing plot had me primed and eager to see how the mystery would play out.

But then, on page 56, everything changes. Irving finds himself no longer in Otterwood, but in a quite literally different world altogether. From that point, the novel proceeds through an episodic series of surreal, hellish encounters as Irving struggles to find a way home. Although author Michael Pinkey ultimately does tie everything together in a fairly satisfactory manner, the story of Rroyhall and Suttlespice (Number 17) -- and, indeed, any story beyond Irving's bare struggle for survival -- takes a distinct back seat for the remainder of the story, as Stray Not Beyond essentially becomes a travelogue through a nightmare.

To be fair, Stray Not Beyond is a very well-written travelogue. Pinkey recounts the individual elements of Irving's nightmare journey with consummate skill, and individual scenes are genuinely creepy and effectively convey Irving's desperation and hopelessness. Unfortunately, these scenes never come together into a compelling overarching narrative: they remain a serial assortment of disparate events.

And so Stray Not Beyond is, above all, frustrating. Through page 55, I did not know exactly where the story was going, or even what genre the novel was going to end up being (it seemed capable of going anywhere from whimsical rusticity to black comedy or even violent thriller), but I did expect that the story as already started was going to continue. Unfortunately, when Irving loses his way, so too does Stray Not Beyond.

Stray Not Beyond is a fantastic book. There is a great deal of entertainment to be had here! The story is fascinating, hilarious, scary, surprising... Many scenes come to vivid life in the imagination. For more discerning readers, the book contains various significant themes as well. I didn't hesitate to give a hard copy to my friend when he asked for a great book to take on a trip; he, in turn, shared it with his traveling companion. And at 99 cents for the Kindle, it's a steal!

I greatly enjoyed this book when I read it. I found a copy lying around the house and picked it up. The quality and subject are no surprise once you have met the author. Just think what it would be like to live with him.

Irving Carlisle, age and occupation unstated, has spent years refining his pipe smoking habit. Perhaps his biggest challenge has been to find a truly satisfying pipe tobacco. One day he receives a piece of junk mail. Addressed to "Occupant," it offers for sale a tobacco with the odd name of "Suttlespyce (Number 17)," which he orders on a whim. When it arrives weeks later he finds it transformative: it is the life-changing blend he has dreamed of, a true miracle. He becomes a regular customer for two years, until suddenly all his orders and further communications with the address are ignored, leaving him utterly desperate.
He takes leave from his job, and he and his cat Tweedler drive to Otterwood, North Carolina to get to the bottom of the mystery. He meets a succession of increasingly odd characters and bizarre situations which eventually become almost psychedelic in their strange randomness. I found myself thinking of Alice in Wonderland, except the present characters and situations are not nearly as endearing or totemic. The fictional territory of Stray Not Beyond's never-neverland part of North Carolina is more disorienting and threatening than charming.
As I plowed through the hallucinatory episodes that constitute the bulk of Stray Not Beyond I kept telling myself it might all be worth it if there were a point ahead, either a plot-related or other thematic justification. I have nothing against novels which do not fit existing genres (I am the author of several), but I do ask that a novel have unity, and that the parts of it be there for a reason. Thus I was rooting for the story to come together at the end, and hopefully disclose the raison d'etre of the strange conceits that predominated throughout.
There is a conclusion, at least to the mystery of the disappearing tobacco, though I cannot say that it made the odyssean, fantastic ramblings of the main character any clearer. The prose was cleanly written and there was minimal profanity, sex, and gore. I don't reject those things out of hand, but in this case on top of all the bizzareness they would have been too much.
Carlisle did find his pipe tobacco. I was also pleased to see that my favorite character, Tweedler, survived despite being sadly neglected in the middle of the story. Stray Not Beyond is a work of considerable imagination, and as such might appeal to readers who enjoy sheer fantasy. For my part, I prefer my fantasy (or whatever style) assembled a little more purposefully.