Bailing Water is John Dempsey's vision of life on the edge of reason. On the other hand, it might portray life on the verge of success (or total failure). Dempsey is hard to pin down.
Bailing Water is either a brutal commentary on reality today or pure creative fantasy concocted by a man trapped in modern society's overwhelming maze of conventions and expectations. The reader must decide.
Whether Dempsey writes to entertain or to exercise personal demons, his work evokes widely varying emotions from readers. It has been called realistic, thought-provoking, humorous, disturbing, artistic, obscene, unconventional, sad, and illuminating (among other things).
The disquieting yet amusing quality of Dempsey's work is that readers often recognize themselves in his stories. Therein lies Dempsey's talent; the ability to draw the reader into a story and force a memory of the way things once were or the way readers always hoped things would never turn out.
Professional Reviews
Reviewer: Sue Hess
March 25, 2004
St. Louis, Missouri
Dempsey's writing is always tough, gritty and insightful. Bailing water holds true to pattern, giving us a realistic (not always pretty but always interesting) look into the life of the writer, and more important, into his mind and the thoughts that motivate him.
In It's Like This, Woke Up This Morning, and Sometimes the Legs Won't Spread, we see him struggle with his views of himself as a writer, sometimes insecure, more often cocky but always true to his vision. Although we catch glimpses of some of the great avante garde poets that came before him, Dempsey is a talent in himself, no copy or wannabee.
In Letch and Mid Afternoon Identity Crisis, and my personal favorite, Dear Sir, we can't help but enjoy the humor and Dempsey's ability to laugh at himself and his behavior. I, for one, kept telling myself he exaggerates his zany, sometimes bizarre acts, while another part of me asks "Does he exaggerate or is this the real Dempsey?" Either way, I enjoyed the journey.
Whether serious or tongue-in-cheek, Dempsey is on his way to being one of the great writers of our time. I look forward to much more of his writing.
Reviewer: Leon Schlossberg
December 21, 2003
Fayetteville, North Carolina
John Dempsey is either crazy or one of the best story tellers of this generation. His stories, or poetry, or whatever you want to call them remind me of my teen years when my parents pointed at people like the characters in John's stories and threatened I'd turn out like that if I didn't do as they said.
It didn't take many pages to become comfortable in John's world. Of course, I'm a man. Female readers might find John a bit irritating, obnoxious, chauvinistic or even overly insensitive towards women and their needs. But then, some may find him appealing - or even sexy. Interesting world.
Dempsey writes about big-city life, the struggle to be successful and quite naturally, the necessity of getting laid. Dempsey is an education unto himself and in some perverse way I hope he really does live the life he writes about. Women would say it serves him right and I just say, "cool." Hang in there John - Drinks on me at the Sanremo Hotel.
Reviewer: Kristi Swadley
January 14, 2004
Independence, Missouri
There is a kind of sordid vicariousness with which I read John’s Bailing Water. I’ve conversed with The Italian; collaborated with an Arab; flirted with a wolf-grin bearing gay man; and eavesdropped on a creepy conversation between two men about one’s wife. Oh yes - and done just about every drug and a few women in New York.
All this without leaving my house, drinking a drop of liquor, dropping a hit of acid, or making it with an unwholesome type woman. But I’m buzzed, man, and thinking of getting tested for STDs, because it was real (and so surreal) in every molecule of my body.
In short, a manic you-had-to-have-been-there-but-in-a-way-you-were read.
