Customer Reviews

Zerostrata

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is the third book by Andersen Prunty I've read. The first was THE OVERWHELMING URGE which I liked despite my general dislike of flash fiction. The second was JACK AND MR. GRIN a Koontz-like suspense tale with enough weirdness and hinted-at perversion to really keep things interesting.

My finances finally allowed me to get another batch of books and one of those was ZEROSTRATA, the third book by the author to be published by Eraserhead Press. I'll be honest that I was not as excited to go into this one only because from what I've heard, it was basically a love story with a positive theme and I guess I like my reading material to be on the darker side of things. Still, since I already liked Prunty's work I knew I had to give it a try because I also heard that it was a deeply personal book.

First, it's well-written so that's always a plus. Second, the plot is very dream-like without being overly weird. It reminded me of that children's book The Petite Prince a little bit. In fact, I'd say this could easily be adapted into a children's story or movie. The theme of "coming home again" is a common one but here it's done in a mysterious yet positive way.

I guess it's the cynic in me that would say that if you don't like love stories or ones about finding that true happiness, then you might want to skip this one in favor of another Prunty book. But even I found it entertaining, funny, and intriguing so even if you are a cynical person, skipping it might be a bad idea because aside from those themes, the situations in this book are unique and funny. At the very least, it's an entertaining page-turner and what else could you want from a book? But it has a lot more heart than most page-turners.

The whole book really comes across like a big dream... full of that dream-logic that makes sleeping either really fun or really terrifying. I like that. Prunty doesn't overdo it either. There is a lot of bizarro/absurdist fiction that tries too hard to be surreal or dreamlike only to end up with random situations with only a minimal plot or indea to keep it together. ZEROSTRATA is all about character and plot. It's a simple love story, basically, and seems to have been written straight from the heart, adding nothing more and giving nothing less. He's less a storyteller here (such as in JACK AND MR. GRIN) and more of someone who is letting you come along for the ride.

So pick if up if you feel like reading a bizarro yet sweet love story that you could share with your loved ones.

I am a fan of Andersen Prunty's books so it's no surprise that I enjoyed Zerostrata. Mr. Prunty has a knack for telling a whacked out story and making it believable. Some of the more "out there" books that I have read really seem to try too hard to show how bizarre they are and it comes off as forced and detracts from the story. It's as if some authors have to scream it at you, "look at me, I'm crazy and so is my book. My book is so crazy and hard to follow and if you don't get it then you're just a big square." Not so with Mr. Prunty's work. That is where his talent lies. He can tell a story that is absolutely beyond belief, yet the quirky and surreal aspects of Mr. Prunty's writings actually enhance the story. Once again, Andersen Prunty does a fine job of representing the Bizarro movement with Zerostrata.

Lance Carbuncle, author of Smashed, Squashed, Splattered, Chewed, Chunked and Spewed

Can you go home again? If you do, are you sure that you wanted to? Hansel Nothing returns to his family's depressing home after ten years of doing things that he can't remember. When he meets the girl of his dreams (actually, it's someone else's dream) Hansel is introduced to a world where anything is possible. I adore this story. Simply, it's a story about life, love and the pursuit of happiness. It's also about shedding the past and moving on. Oh, and trampolines. It's also about trampolines.

Andersen Prunty's warm romance set in a town called Grayson has, like a one-night stand, given me mixed feelings.

Hansel Nothing is the lucky recipient of this romantic plot, though before the words "That was when I saw her" end an early chapter, he returns to his childhood home. His mother and his brother, Zasper, in drug-dependent and floor-dwelling disrepair, have decayed as much as the eponymous tree house, Zerostrata. Hansel does not feel disgusted by this return to old memories, however, especially not when he returns to Zerostrata's loft. Up there, he mutters the aforementioned line when he sees a luminescent woman running naked down the street, and with some cynical advice from his psychologist he finds the courage to pursue her. Literally. The first chase proves fruitless, though with continued chases a romance does blossom between Hansel and the woman who introduces herself as Gretel Something. What flows from there is an imaginative experience, including the likes of the father of the Nothing family who has left to become a superhero, a ladder to the moon, and more. Dr. Blast, the aforementioned psychologist, may be the most interesting character of his kind ever encountered in fiction. In his first appearance alone he wins a make-you-say-something-first contest with Hansel using only a pair of skimpy black underwear and his flexing butt cheeks before suggesting a pistol duel in case of suicidal thoughts and jumping through a window in case of actually wanting to turn your life around. Towards the end, Zerostrata takes on a very dreamlike quality which was comforting to read through. Such is Zerostrata's main strong point - it is an uplifting read that does make a point to show that Hansel's life, and the lives of his family members, will be making much-needed improvements.

Because of how uplifting Zerostrata is, it feels Grinch-like to make a list of things I felt were flawed. There were many times where I was more interested in what was going on around Hansel and Gretel than what they were getting involved with. The rest of Hansel's family, it seems, could have made for a story all on their own and with just as much of an uplifting quality. There could have probably been stories for the kids made of lettuce and the stoned bus driver, as well - which brings me to this point: it is true that out-of-nowhere elements make more sense in later chapters, but... kids, dressed as pirates, made of lettuce, who decide to feed Hansel a salad instead of beating him up. It happens sometime shortly before the halfway point. Then there's one last complaint, which sadly runs into what may be one of the most pivotal moments of the romantic part of the plot: the "Raindrop Conversation" chapter, which is done entirely in dialogue. Without mentioning details, I will say that it was here that I found just how damn much Hansel and Gretel sound alike. There may be a well-intended effect to this, but in practice it made it difficult to follow who was saying what until I just said, "Eh, I can just pick and choose." It doesn't help that going back through the book showed this to be very much the case most of the time anyway.

So, with those mixed feelings still in mind I can nonetheless say that Zerostrata is a book which needs to be read at least once. Its soothing subject matter mixed with charismatic strangeness is well worth the effort to keep going even if, like it was for me, the journey is a bit rocky.

Andersen Prunty's Zerostrata is the tale of Hansel Nothing finding himself, his childhood tree-house, and ultimately, happiness. A superhero dad and brother, crazy mother, a running naked girl, evil grandmother, and a purple smoking cat round out the cast.

As with Andersen's other books, weirdness abounds, but the tone of Zerostrata is unbelievably positive. It is essentially the polar opposite of Prunty's Morning is Dead. The two would make an excellent bi-polar Bizarro boxed set.

I'm not sure that Andersen Prunty truly understands how much mythic power he wields. Once he does, we are all in danger. This highly stylized adventure travels through the very similar haze of nepenthe that both childhood and failed dreams provide. It's heartbreaking and beautiful. The real strength of it, though, as in his previous works, is that the characters feel truly lived in.

Imagine a movie written by Wes Anderson that is directed by Michel Gondry - you'll have something close to Andersen Prunty's "Zerostrata".

The book focuses around a lost young man named Hansel who is trying his hardest to find his place in the world. After a few years of soul searching, Hansel returns home in hopes to rekindle any kind of happiness that may have been left over from his childhood.

But his strange, eccentric family doesn't make it an easier on him. His father has become a superhero, his mother is a basketcase who suffers from all of the side-effects listed on the side of her medicine bottles, and his brother has been away from the family for just as long as he has, except he has never left the house - instead he locks himself in the basement and composes noise symphonies. His only hope of happiness lies in his childhood treehouse, Zerostrata.

Hansel eventually becomes infatuated with a girl named, yup - you guessed it, Gretel. Their story is touching, fun, and out of this world (literally).

Prunty is a bizarro master. The reader instantly becomes emotionally entangled with his characters and where they're going.

If you think bizarro means odd, horrific, and ultraviolent - read Zerostrata. You'll never look at bizarro fiction the same again.

If Zerostrata was a tea, I would call it "bracing, with a hint of undeniable sweetness." I would drink it on Wednesday mornings at work to make me feel on edge with anticipation of the day to come, and awaken me to the possibilities while simultaneously clearing my sinuses. But Anderson Prunty's Zerostrata is not a tea - it's a book - and a damn good one.

Zerostrata follows the story of Hansel Nothing as he returns to his childhood home in an effort to find himself and give his life some sense of meaning. He has no memory of where he's been for the last decade or so. In a normal story, the plot would quickly become a tiresome cliche in which the focus is getting back lost memories, but in Prunty's capable hands, the story stays firmly planted in the present - a present where a beautiful girl runs naked in the rain and a mysterious therapist named Doctor Blast prescribes a strange series of events that shake Hansel Normal's world up completely.

One of the best things about reading Zerostrata is the juxtaposition of bizarro humor and strange events with a real sweetness. Sure, there are gang members who make the world's most delicious salad from their own flesh, and liquid-like airspace complete with magically mobile trampolines to keep falling victims safe for their therapy, but at its core, Zerostrata seems to be a love story. Not in the traditional sense, but in the sense that once we find the right person, nothing else matters outside of that, no matter how difficult or mundane. There is a beautiful scene which I will not ruin for you involving raindrops toward the end of the book that contains a monologue I may ask Prunty for permission to use in my wedding vows some day. That's the kind of experience this book gives a reader - being carried through the strangest of places, only to come out on the other side and find some sort of magic.

This is a quest story where the protagonist doesn't know what the ultimate goal is, and as it is revealed to him, the reader sees it as well. That conceit alone makes this truly worth the read; highly recommended.

i have just finished reading zerostrata - a book written by andersen prunty. it arrived the other night and its plain yellow envelope package earned a few sideways glances from my wife.

i began reading during my lunch break - it's only a small novel of only 150 pages, and so i managed to consume it all bar the final chapter. it was hard to put down - terribly hard.

prunty has a soft, almost sublime style. he doesn't so much leap about his plot as lay it out like a railway line and ask you to follow at your own pace. he's got a definite handle on his dreamlike style, and it's a delight to read from beginning to end. i particularly liked the way he built small peaks of tension only to dismiss them in an almost lighthearted manner. it mirrored the quest for childhood in which all bad things are easily quashed by the positivity and boundless optimism of youth. the fears of such things as being mugged by teenagers, or having one's legs caught in bear traps, could easily be washed away if only you rearrange your expectations for a moment and allow the dream's plot to shift and recognise the fact that, like a fairy tale, it'll all be right in the end...

several odd characters litter the novella, and i felt prunty wasn't trying too hard to be "strange" with his story. he seemed very comfortable in himself and it showed in the reflective story he told.

the treehouse itself was an interesting feature. when the central character, hansel, is introducing us to his treehouse, you can feel all those overwhelming moments of childhood as they rush over and through him. the moment he stands inside the treehouse is, for him, a moment of awakening. it is like everything that has happened before this moment is washed away. he enters the story as a morose, almost nailbitingly annoying emo character, only to stand on his treehouse and immediately become an optimistic and curious character in search of his light. and he finds, in gretal (naturally), a beacon to which he can direct himself.

their relationship is subtle and amusing in parts, as they battle gretal's evil grandmother and visit the moon via a rope ladder before ending up in a gingerbread house with their ankles caught in bear traps.

the only parts of the book which made me cringe a little were a few sentences here and there which i felt weren't needed. such as "within minutes we were out of the woods but things were not any less strange."

i just felt the novel managed to be strange without having to draw attention to this. he did this a few times in the book, and i felt each time it was undeserved. i felt better having hansel just walk us through without him turning around and saying "wow, is this strange" as though i'm supposed to stop and say "woah, yeah! you're right! it IS strange."

i liked him better when he stayed subtle and just moved through his moments - such as the rather awesome lettuce pirate. i wanted to just go with the surreality, not have my attention drawn to the fact that it was strange. it felt a little contrived, is what i'm saying, when he just stated something was weird. but that's really a small criticism for a novel which really did entertain me and keep me interested until the end.

by far, my favourite scene was the one in which zasper is hanging from a branch after trying to fly, with hansel telling him he'll get some help and zasper's almost contented reply: "take your time."

all in all, a tight little novel woven with childhood dreams both lost and found and laced with a comfortable positivity which will both satisfy and bring a smile to your face. i most certainly will be ordering more of prunty's work!

Do you remember the first time you saw Cinema Paradiso, It's a Wonderful Life, Amelie? These are films that people can accuse of being saccharine or silly, but not without risk of losing out on a kind of existential validation that anyone can use. Zerostrata is the same way. Fans of a darker, harsher kind of Bizarro might dismiss Zerostrata as overly cute or naively positive, but they'll miss out on a wonderful story about fighting banality and finding joy where you can, involving a treehouse, a...more Do you remember the first time you saw Cinema Paradiso, It's a Wonderful Life, Amelie? These are films that people can accuse of being saccharine or silly, but not without risk of losing out on a kind of existential validation that anyone can use. Zerostrata is the same way. Fans of a darker, harsher kind of Bizarro might dismiss Zerostrata as overly cute or naively positive, but they'll miss out on a wonderful story about fighting banality and finding joy where you can, involving a treehouse, a mysterious naked girl and a pall of insanity that hangs over the protagonist's family. It is funny, sharp and positive, skillfully wrought and strong white magic. I hope this book finds a large audience, since just about anyone can benefit from its power and humor.