We know, and probably have even riffed-on the idea previously, we will get the interns on that, that we have a way, both us specifically, and all of us generally, to group things, people, ideas, events, what have you. That there is something inherently human, and maybe even necessary, that drives us to understand and organize things by means of clumping. Personally, we endlessly do this with everything, but certainly with books and writers, and we think this has something to do with the sheer amount we read and our efforts to understand and manage the endless words we consume, and something to do as well with laziness and convenience, two books fall into our laps around the same time and we start thinking almost immediately about their similarities versus say their differences. We want to make sense of the world, we suppose, and so here we find ourselves with two books by two TBWCYL, Inc. favorites, Sex Dungeons for Sale! by Patrick Wensink and Don't Smell The Floss by Matty Byloos, both authors trying to make sense of the world in their own way, yet similarly in that they are absurdist takes on the world, and lean towards the bizarro, a genre we might otherwise avoid, Seinfeld's most excellent bizarro episode not withstanding. The Wensink favors humor, as further evidenced by the recently consumed Black Hole Blues, taking situations that we almost know, or might know, both mundane and scary, buying a house, adultery, corporate marketing, suicide bombers and celebrity, and spinning them through his characters' cracked, and times confused, yet still humanizing, and humane, view the world. Byloos is less focused on humor, yet more absurd in his way in the subtlety of the stories and their ongoing focus on body parts, especially missing body parts, pornography, adultery, again and the ways children view the world around them. He is also different than Wensink in challenging the reader to ask what's real and what's not, with Wensink it's quite real, just off, and different, and manic, whereas Byloos leaves us to weigh what's metaphorical versus real, more darkness than light, and wacked regardless. Both authors though are ultimately about looking at what's around us, but doing so through the lens of fun-house mirrors, charming, but warped, funny, but terrifying, twisted, but filled with the promise of more to come, both on the page and off.
Club Sandwiches. Physics. And Kenny Rogers. That's a lot. Enough maybe. But that's not all. No, there's more, much more. As we read the Black Hole Blues by newest TBWCYL, Inc. favorite Patrick Wensink we thought about how we will sporadically bump into themes that somehow inch their way into a number of the books we're reading. This is unplanned usually. We think. But it happens. We can't remember when it happened last, but it did, and does, and here we are with the Black Hole Blues, a novel which has any number of wonderful things going on, but still had two things that especially jumped out at us. First, it is a tale of siblings, and sibling rivalry and old hurts, which reminded us of the new Barry Graham joint Nothing or Next to Nothing, and struck us as a theme we never write about, even think about really. Then there is the biopic thing Wensink has going on here, in this case that of a faux legendary country singer, which reminded us of The Mimic's Own Voice by Tom Williams and its use of the faux biopic, which again is a theme we never to think to write about ourselves. Yet there it is, right there, a whole history created just like that and right in front of us. Meanwhile, embedded in the middle of all this sibling rivalry, old hurts, Kenny Rogers and the whole biopic thing, there is a story about the end of the world, maybe, possibly, and something else, parody and satire and touches of magic realism, as guitars and tour buses reflect on the world around them. And look at that, again, stuff we just don't write, or even think about writing, which ultimately reminds us how wonderful it is to meet new writers and not only lose ourselves in their work, but find ourselves waiting in anticipation of what comes next. Assuming of course, that the world doesn't come to end before we have the chance to actually find out.
"Once in a while a book comes at the right time in your life. Tanzer's book of a 30-something guy dealing with his maturity and a budding family arrived perfectly timed. It's eerie how well Tanzer dissects the mind of a married man with wit and love and uncomfortable truth."
Quite stellar author and by far our newest and favoritest BFF Patrick Wensink has some quite kind things to say about You Can Make Him Like You on the Goodreads. Big thanks sir and quite enjoying the Black Hole Blues. More soon. Here. For real. And drinks on us for sure whenever, and wherever, we next meet.