TOILET: THE NOVEL [Paperback]

Michael Szymczyk (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 10, 2004

"If you love Kafka, then you'll love Toilet." TOILET This novel tells the surreal tale of two generations of toilet-people and a man in a wine cellar, slowly going insane, after a nuclear war. The novel breathlessly explores the fate of a toilet that is transformed into a man who is pregnant, but who will always smell like a toilet. It is a book that one author describes as, "a perfect portrayal of post-modern man, who filled with longing, loneliness and confusion, searches desperately in an everyday abyss for the joys we were promised. It is a representation of the dissolution of the nuclear family. It is, in short, a book like no other, one so disturbing it edifies."

Product Details

• Paperback: 180 pages
• Publisher: AuthorHouse (June 10, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1418423866
• ISBN-13: 978-1418423865
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #593,020 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Incredible, June 30, 2004

By 

Jay (Chicago) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TOILET: THE NOVEL (Paperback)

I came across this book when I saw "toiletthenovel.com" scribbled onto the side of I-55, needless to say, traffic was not moving, and I stared at it for about 30 seconds.
I went to the website and ordered the book. I received it three days ago, and read the whole novel through in a day. I've never read any book like it before. It's smart, different, funny, sad and really, above all, makes you think. Plus, the book has a nice spot in my bathroom for easy reading (the Intermission on the book, is in my opinion, the best part). I've found myself going back to Toilet the last two days, reading key parts over and over. There are allusions in the book to every great writer, from Dostoyevsky, Kafka, T.S. Eliot, Herman Hesse, Kerouac, Hemingway (again, the Intermission reminds me of some crazy spin on Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises) and many others that most people might not notice (I absolutely loved the reference to Herodotus and Ovid in Day 38 of the Intermission). I would recommend this book to everyone.

19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars We Are All Toilets, October 9, 2004

By 

Charles Bukowski (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TOILET: THE NOVEL (Paperback)

Welcome to the bizarre, warped world of Michael Szymczyk, a place where toilets turn into humans and scour the lonely, surreal, post-modern landscape in search of meaning. Toilet is a literary tour-de-force that examines the dissolution of the nuclear family and the insignificance of modern life.

Szymczyk's book is a bold, adventurous novel told in three parts. The first part of Toilet follows the exploits of Orestes, a lonely, emotionally starved toilet with the unfortunate infliction of consciousness. Orestes, used and rejected by the family he loves, sits in solitude until one day two mysterious Dionysian voices appear and transform him into a pregnant man that smells of excrement. Alone in the vast, bizzare American nightmare that is his world, Orestes searches for acceptance, but finds little.

The second part, or "Intermission", is an homage to T.S. Eliot's masterpiece 'The Wasteland'. A man without a name lies in a wine cellar after a nuclear war. Alone, he is left with his memories, thoughts and a growing sense of insanity, and appreciation for that which truly matters in life, life itself. This is by far one of the best parts of the book.

The final section, or Second Act, returns to the human toilet theme. T., a girl that smells of excrement, has no idea that she used to be a toilet. Rejected and ostracized, she is led by an impulse to consume waste from a toilet. T. discovers that this expunges her odor, and makes her attractive to almost everyone, but it also causes her to age faster. Szymczyk, in my opinion, uses this to make a comment on drugs, and how most of our addictions are emotional, rather than physical.

A daring novel of literary prowess, Toilet examines the insignificance of modern life and the social pressures that cause many people to become bathrooms for other people to use at will.

It's a classic, ahead of its time and well worth reading.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite book, December 19, 2006

By 

overlook1977 (Raleigh, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: TOILET: THE NOVEL (Paperback)

Ok...one of my favorite books. Other reviews I read made me think this book would be very philosophical and dense, possibly even pretentious. In reality, the book is existentialist philosophy intertwined with Stephen King. Its a great book. Ive never read anything remotely close to it...one of a kind!