Bob @ Beauty in Ruins
PLEASE NOTE: I'm rarely active here anymore, but please feel free to follow me on Goodreads, where I post regularly.
These are the chronicles of a book addict, a photo junkie, and an aspiring author, rewriting the very fabric of reality one page (and one snapshot) at a time. From the strange to the unusual; the abandoned to the abnormal; the haunted to the historic; the supernatural to the surreal; the forests of dark fantasy, the cemeteries of gothic horror, and the post-apocalyptic ruins of science fiction are the landscapes of my imagination.
Currently reading
WTF Friday: Hung Hounds by Donald Armfield
They're often an underground of sort of literature, best shared through guilty whispers, and often with embarrassed grins. These are our WTF Friday reads!
When a story takes the reader from spicy wing night at the local bar, to a bathroom catastrophe, to a room full of dismembered corpses, to a bar full of well-hung monster hounds, to a confrontation with an equally well-hung homeless guy named Kickstand, all in the space of the first two pages, you know you're in for a wild ride. Hung Houndsis a weird, wacky adventure that fully demonstrates Donald Armfield's love for (and knack for) all things Bizarro.
There's so much going on here, all at a frantic pace that barely leaves room for face-palms and belly-laughs, that I wouldn't even dream of trying to summarize the plot. Just know that it involves a clueless hero, a sexy sidekick, a retired porn stud, a crossdressing monkey, a Russian scientist in a ridiculous furry costume, an oversexed mermaid . . . and a Hulk Hogan hologram.
It all adds up to a story that, if I had to make the comparison, is what I imagine would happen if Harold and Kumar slipped into an unlicensed Indiana Jones parody, as directed by David Lynch. It's very odd, and very bizarre, but a ton of guilty fun. Style-wise, it's a bit abrupt and in-your-face, and sometimes the urge to cram in one more crazy detail outpaces the narrative itself, but that's less of a complaint and more of an observation on the whole Bizarro genre. While some of the early sexual innuendo is wasted, he more than makes up for that with a pair of climactic (pun intended) scenes.
For Donald's first novella-length piece of fiction, Hung Hounds is actually quite strong. It's a lot of fun, and firmly establishes him as a Bizarro author to watch.
2
3