#363 Self-Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo: A Manual

#363 Self-Design Faults in the Volvo 760 Turbo: A Manual

There are many different kinds of humor, but for the sake of this story, lets say there are only two. There is the kind of humor where something is funny and you laugh, physically, verbally, noticeably, etc. Then there is the type of humor where you cerebrally recognize something is funny, don’t actually laugh and say something like: “Hey, that clever.” Will Self writes this second type of humor. I sometimes find it clever, but never actually laugh out loud.

This is written as a car safety manual, containing sections headed: “instruments and Controls,” “Body and Interior,” “Starting and Driving,” “Wheel and Tyres.” What it really is a manifesto for urban adultery. Bill is trying to rationalize his infidelity and like the ego/id-driven male archetype, he connects sex with automobiles. See? Clever!

Rating: 7-8-6-6 Total= 27

#248 Knock Knock- Chuck Palahniuk

#248 Knock Knock- Chuck Palahniuk

We start 2016 with some excitement. For avid readers, there is nothing quite like beginning a new book. So, you can imagine my excitement in knowing that over the next 3 weeks I will start no less than 15 new short story collections! Add to that a few leftover from last year and a couple of The Best American series, and the first half of this year is going to be some fun around here.

None of the authors I plan on reading during this span is quite like this one. Chuck Palahniuk is such a singular voice in fiction, writing some of my favorite books like Rant, Survivor, and Fight Club, but this is his first collection of short stories. I have the feeling that Make Something Up: Stories You Can’t Unread is going to be quite a ride.

We get the story Knock Knock right out of the gate. It’s a story about a young kid being raised by a father ill equipped to raise a child. All he knows how to do is tell jokes. The kid is way too young to get most of these off-colored, dirty, racist jokes, but he’s not to young to understand that laughing is good, and laughing at Dad’s jokes is all that’s required of him.

“How I learned to say I Love You was by laughing for my old man—even if I had to fake it.”

The Dad gets cancer and will die. All the kid knows how to do is tell jokes and try to heal his father through laughter like he’s seen in the movies. But of course that doesn’t work. Now the kid is all alone having learned nothing but dirty jokes that he doesn’t even understand.

At times touching, at times heartbreaking, Knock Knock, like you would expect from Palahniuk has a dark uncomfortable strain that is like a truthful coat of paint laced with lead poisoning.

Rating: 8-8-9-8 Total= 33

#120 Relief- Peter Ho Davies

#120 Relief- Peter Ho Davies

O. Henry Award Story Friday!

I read the first sentence and it’s a story about flatulence. Then I look again at the story title, Relief, and groan. Is this really a story about farting? And for the most part I guess it is. There are many topics one might take on while writing a short story, I guess something as ubiquitous a gas would eventual make it into one.

However, the title is a double entendre of sorts, or maybe a triple one actually. The senior officers are gathered at dinner when Lieutenant Wilby makes his social gas-gaff. The men are gathered round and telling war stories. When Lieutenant Chard is asked someone facetiously how it felt being a hero.

“I would have to say, principally, the sensation is one of relief. Relief to be alive after all…but also relief to have learned some truth about myself. To have found I am possessed of – for want of a better word—courage.”

Chard continues to expound on his bravery and reveals himself to be a blowhard. Wilby offers his comic “relief” (yes I went there), and we are left wondering was Wilby’s fart the real flatulence or was it what just can out of Chard’s mouth?

Wilby’s final relief comes when the room shares stories of their own public farting, and it becomes a bonding point between fighting men. All except Chard of course:

“Now that man…mark my words—has never farted in his life. It’d break his back to let rip now.”

Funny story.

Rating: 7-6-8-5 Total= 26