Review: 'Black Jesus' by Simone Felice

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Black Jesus is Simone Felice's latest novel, published by Allen&Unwin this year. The fact that the book is published by A&U, an Australia-based publisher, while the writer himself lives in the Catskill Mountains in New York State, arguably the backyard of the largest English-language publishing hub in the world, New York City, is perhaps indicative of the novel itself. 

The story, centred around a marine, who returns home from Iraq blinded, named Lionel White, or 'Black Jesus' (his marine nick-name)and a woman named Gloria/Desiree who flees to the Catskills where Black Jesus' home is, to get away from a (very) abusive partner in LA. It is fate that brings the two together at Lionel's mothers flea market - a meeting that helps them both find their centre and redemption through a renewed belief in reality. 

I do not wish to go too far into the story - the outline above gives you the premise, but it is Felice's language that will draw you in. He has the power of making the mundane and drab into the poetic and exciting. For the sake of comparison, the book reads as a bastard-child of DBC Pierre's 'Vernon God Little' and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland', mixing black humour with a southern gothic edge. 

I read this novel in an evening, effortlessly letting the story wash over me. You care for all characters, all beautifully flawed, and the story stays fresh and keeps moving. The only criticism I have is the about the inclusion of the useless side-story involving Gloria/Desiree's ex after she has left him - it adds nothing to the novel as a whole and, in fact, distracts from the main story-line and could be cut without leaving any kind of gaps. That said, this is a great read, and I highly recommend it. Apart from the lovers of, obviously, DBC Pierre and Mitch Cullin's 'Tideland' anyone who likes a dark quirky story will enjoy this novel.

 

Review: Starfucking Hipsters, 'From the dumpster to the grave'

This album bores me. Which surprises me. I've loved nearly everything STZA has done so far, from Choking Victim to Leftover Crack and now the Hipsters. The first 2 hipster albums were great adding a sense of melody to the crusty ska-sounds of the preceding 2 acts. Both albums had coherence as a unit, leading the listener through the record. I lose attention listening to 'from the dumpster to the grave' half-way through each and every time. Which makes me sad. I really wanted to like this album and listened to it a number of times over a few weeks, but no dice. Musically the album is all over the place, hopping uselessly between genres, from ska to metal to rap, which previously they were able to do, but on this occasion completely miss. The use of three different female vocalists is distracting, even though they're good, and when they throw in a rapper halfway through the album, you've lost me.

This is aside from the politics, which gets more and more obscure with each album. The conspiracy theories STZA spouts, centering around killing cops and 9-11'inside-jobs' and FEMA camps, are not so different from leading theories currently promoted by the militia and sovereign citizen movements, making me feel very uneasy.

Musically they've lost me and that combined with their questionable politics has me tune out and turn off. Shame.

Behold the weird starfucking rapness....

Richard Brautigan

I am currently reading Richard Brautigan's 'Sombrero Fallout' (1976) - an incredible surreal novel where two story lines intertwine - a story about a sombrero fallen from the sky is half-written, then ripped up and thrown in the waste basket, where it, unbeknownst to the author, continues to 'live' and develop into a catastrophic chain of events - the other story line is that of the writer, who ripped up the first story, who pines after his lost love. Written in short bursts, tiny chapters, it is absurdist black humour, while at the same time displaying the real pain of the author-character - who presumably is Brautigan, was briefly married to a Japanese woman, Akiko Yoshimura, although strangely enough, if Wikipedia is right, that would have been after he wrote this book. Perhaps he was with her for a while - it turned sour - then they found each other again? 

Anyway, I am reviewing a book before I have even read it completely - I just want to tell you that this one is worth a read - as seems all of Brautigan's stuff. 'Trout fishing in America' is great - as is 'A Confederate General in Big Sur'. 

Brautigan also recorded an album - which is worth a listen, maybe two. It is long out of print, but if you hunt around for it you should be able to find it on some sort of blogspot - the title is 'Listening to Richard Brautigan' - go fetch!


It has this beauty of a poem on there: 

Hagfish

The hagfish wasn't born pretty.

(New Scientist)

The Charles Bukowski Tapes

(number 1 of 52, see below. thanks to vekoja for uploading.)


From the video description:"The Charles Bukowski Tapes are a collection of short-interviews with the American writer/poet Charles Bukowski, filmed and assembled by Barbet Schroeder and first published in 1987 in the USA. Today, the video documentary is considered a cult classic.

The Charles Bukowski Tapes are an altogether more than four hours long collection of 52 short-interviews with the American cult author Charles Bukowski, sorted by topic and each between one and ten minutes long. Director Barbet Schroeder (Barfly) interviews Bukowski about such themes as alcohol, violence, and women, and Bukowski answers willingly, losing himself in sometimes minute-long monologues. Amongst other things, Bukowski leads the small camera team through his parentss house and his former neighbourhood, but the largest part of the interviews takes place in Bukowskis flat or backyard. The documentary includes a scene in which Bukowski reacts violently toward his wife Linda Lee.

The documentary was assembled from about 64 hours of film footage, which accrued during the three-year lead time for Schroeders motion picture Barfly, for which Bukowski wrote the autobiographical script."

James Joyce's Ulysses (Film)

The Poetry of John Berryman - interview

You need to read more John Berryman

This is number 1 in a series of 6


Thanks to erp65 for uploading