A modern-day Billy Liar ... meets Donnie Darko; a dark comedy for grown-ups that explores alienation, loss, and what can happen when a young man's imagination spins wildly out of control.
Losing your grip on reality is a real bummer.
Just ask Leon Blank. Not that he'd know. Seems those losing their marbles are always the last to find out.
Until recently, Leon would have argued that a tendency to become easily side-tracked on a regular basis wasn't that odd.
And what's so unusual about hearing a voice inside your head? Doesn't everyone? Isn't that just thinking? But his recent visions aren't so freely dismissed; especially the angry-looking clown who's following him around with a baseball bat.
Time to act, Leon decides: perhaps keeping a log will shed light on the mystery. Then again, could 'seeing-things' just be sexual frustration? It's been a while! If only he had a girlfriend to take his mind off stuff.
Prepare to enter the normally hidden world of delusions, paranoia, and ... ahem ... 'unusual interests': Voyeurism; Feederism; Shoes - that kind of thing.
Excerpt
Leon Blank awoke to find himself hanging upside-down, seatbelt cutting into his shoulder like a knife. He coughed and a shudder of pain shot through his chest and lit up his neck. One ear encountered a high-frequency hum. His eyes, dazzled by light, could take nothing in.
Until a few minutes ago, ‘Betty’, a vintage Volkswagen Beetle, had been Lester and Veronica’s pride and joy; now, she was a creaking, overturned, twisted metal shell – a write-off beset by fumes and threads of pallid smoke.
As his vision adjusted, Leon caught sight of a section of face in the rear-view mirror. A familiar blue eye, now smoke-smudged and puffy, blinked back. Wiping the eye, he aligned the reflection, squinted, and recoiled sharply.
This is what he saw:
His parents; in the back, also suspended in seatbelts.
Despite their situation, the tethered sexagenarians appeared as great bats, experiencing nothing more traumatic than a pre-flight nap. A single thought poked its silly head out of the dusty cellar that was Leon’s fuddled mind: Sixty-year-olds look much older upside-down. He immediately berated himself for thinking so. Then, as if synchronised, their eyes blinked open. They looked akin to startled Victorian chimney-sweeps.
Professional Reviews
Watch out for this author ! He is going to be big
This book was recommended to me by a friend and he was so right.
If you like dark humour with wonderful characters you have to read this book.
It will stay with you long after you have finished reading it.
I cant recommend it highly enough,
It made me laugh out loud. Can you ask for more than that.
When is the next one please!
Delighed to read a book from a comedy writer with such comic ability
This is very funny indeed and I will admit to sniggering and laughing out loud on a number of occasions.
Chapter 1 - the crash scene......the introduction of the long history of imaginary friends and images. Loved the idea of the dummy and the attempted rescue. The Swiss Army knife was inspired and the list of devices, until plumping for the cheese fork; hilarious. Berating the dummy Archie about the lack of opposable thumbs and skills; genius. I also liked the backdrop of his mother re-applying make-up and his parents hanging from the seat belts like bats.
Chapter 2 - the tram scene - enter POGO & Poppy..... great scene. Very vivid and familiar and the rising panic as Leon realises he is trapped by the clown's shoe, culminating in either being beaten hilariously and embarrassingly to death, but actually in the adding to the notepad, very funny....the group whizz with smurfs........hee hee hee.
Poppy's internal monologue and fantasy life was brilliant. The doughnut scene, was something else! Finally the line "wanna come back to my house? We could go halves on a taxi", just topped it all off.
This is one of the best things I have read on Authonomy for a while. Highly starred and shelved.
A page turner from cover to cover
I enjoyed this novel immensely. Intriguing , hilarious and at times heart wrenching, this was a book I simply couldn't put down. Amazing writing and a great story idea. Will be looking forward to more from this author.
A humorous look at the world and life through my eyes.
Follow the author and his wife, as they travel the world …. several times over.
Laugh at their funny stories, self-inflicted crazy events, strange observations, wacky zoo facts and snippets
