Showing posts with label dark comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dark comedy. Show all posts

March 18, 2012

Felix Shill Deserves To Die by Gareth Busson

Felix is a married man with a daughter and a steady well paying job.  But everything is falling apart.  His life is miserable.  His wife wants out, his daughter is on her side and his boss is a total self-righteous ass.

He's running late to catch a plane for a business meeting.  As he runs into the terminal, he feels the onset signs of a seizure approaching.  He leaves the terminal, runs into the bathroom and proceeds to seize and pass out.  When he awakes he takes himself to a nearby hotel and sleeps off the effects for the next day.  He wakes up knowing that he's lost his job... and if he's lost his job, he's sure to have lost his family too.

But then he turns on the news... and what he sees, blows his mind.  The plane he was just about to board, was the target of a terrorist attack and had been blown to pieces, leaving no survivors.  And everyone thought he was on this plane.  So everyone thought Felix Shill was dead.

Over the next two days, Felix finds himself in one dangerous situation after another as he questions his existence and purpose.  Maybe his family is better off without him?  Maybe there's always been a reason why everyone in his life leaves him eventually?  Maybe he's cheated death one too many times?

This book is extremely well written.  The characters each speak with such distinct voices and the dialogue is often hilarious.  This book reminded me somewhat of Fear And Loathing in Las Vegas because some of it was trippy and unbelievable!  Be warned, there is a lot of drug use and profanity in this book... but it is essential for Felix's demise.  While I enjoyed the book, I felt it was a tad too long and depressing.  But an interesting read, none-the-less.

3 Stars

I was given a complementary copy of this book for the purpose of my honest and unbiased opinion. 


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January 26, 2012

The Pleasure of My Company

The Pleasure of My Company is a comedy novela written by the hilarious and smart Steve Martin.  I got this one off Amazon for only $1 through some special offer... looked good, funny guy, why not?

The book follows a single 20 or 30 something (depending who he's talking to), Daniel, through his mundane daily life.  He suffers from massive, compulsive OCD.  His OCD keeps him in a world that is a tapestry of rules, regulations and ridiculousness.  He can't step off curbs, he's a pathological liar and he obviously can't hold a job.  He holds long conversations in his mind and has truths that are the truth to only himself.

This book is really well written, and it's funny.  Even though the entire book pretty much takes place inside Daniel's mind, it is not boring or slow moving.  There's not much dialogue, but with a brain like Daniel's, not much is needed.  This is one of those stories that's weird and you have to turn the page out of pure curiosity.

The book also has a beautiful twist that redeems it completely.  In fact, the last 10 pages made it for me.  For that, I give it 3 stars.



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