The Worm and the Ring by Anthony Burgess My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Worm and the Ring is remarkable not so much for Anthony Burgess taking a crack at his former colleagues at Banbury Grammar School, but rather for the author’s creativity in animating a school serving ‘drearily picturesque towns’. Burgess had already … The Worm and the Ring
2. Shanghai University (draft) Concentrating on his footing because the drizzle had made the paving stones slippery, Kurt glanced up only to avoid walking into the trees planted in the middle of the footpath. The trunks, white with insecticide paint, glowed in the darkness, and Kurt struggled to believe the skeletal branches would grow leaves … Sulphur Lake Chapter 2
Irish Lightning by Travis Lee My rating: 5 of 5 stars Mark tries to relive his glory days as a famous high-school jock in an American small town. Why? Because as an adult he’s a failure. The familiar plot and setting contrast with other stories I’ve read by Travis Lee which plunge the reader into … Irish Lightning
Spitting Off Tall Buildings by Dan Fante My rating: 5 of 5 stars Bruno Dante is a loner, a guy who wants to spend time in his room reading Tennesse Williams’ plays but has to venture out to earn money. He cleans windows, drives a cab, and is an usher at a theatre. He hates … Spitting Off Tall Buildings
Butterfly Stories by William T. Vollmann My rating: 4 of 5 stars Butterfly Stories is set in the early 90s when the Khmer Rouge was still causing trouble in Cambodia. Vollmann went to Cambodia to cover this trouble, and I’d have liked to know more about his journalistic mission. However, what we get is a … Butterfly Stories
The Snowman by Jörg Fauser My rating: 3 of 5 stars Blum is selling Danish porn mags in Malta, he eats a nice dinner once a week, but the rest of his time is spent in seedy hotels and bars. Fauser speaking through Blum has an expert eye for little disappointments, the shabbiness of reality. … The Snowman
Law of the Jungle by Christina Hoag My rating: 5 of 5 stars A great adventure involving scientific research, jungle survival and vengeance. In Christina Hoag’s ‘Law of the Jungle’ British scientist Rowena Aldus has been hiding away in the Venezuelan jungle studying spiders whose venom can help with – wait for it – erectile … Law of the Jungle
A novel by Anjo Bordell My rating: 4 of 5 stars Tapped out in a mouldy Shanghai apartment, the paranoiac writing in DEFAULT makes me want to tell the author to lay off the weed. But no lazy pot smoker could write such energetic sentences. Impending doom hovers over Anjo Bordell, author and protagonist of … DEFAULT
White Monkey by Carlos Hughes My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a hilarious take on the English teacher in a foreign country story. To those who have been there, the stages are familiar. For the rest, it goes like this: A twenty-something with a university education but limited prospects accepts a job in … White Monkey
Smoko is available on Amazon. A second paperback edition will be published by Piwaiwaka Press soon. I sat on an uncomfortable chair with a thick manual in front of me. As I read about the history of the postal service, two more trainees, a woman and a man, arrived. ‘Cutting it fine, guys,’ Norm … SMOKO Chapter 1
