Friday 28 February 2014

Help! A Bear is Eating Me!

Reviewer: Kelly Jarosz, co-founder of Zurich Writers Workshop (www.zurichwritersworkshop.com)

What We Thought: Marv Pushkin is the kind of guy who nearly runs you off the expressway with his Range Rover and then screams at you for being in his way. Now he’s trapped under said Range Rover in the Alaskan wilderness, slowly being eaten by a black bear. Maintaining consciousness with prescription painkillers, beer and campground snacks, he rants about how his predicament is everyone’s fault but his own.

I felt bad laughing out loud at Marv’s arrogant, misanthropic commentary on the world, but I did. A lot. At the same time, author Mykle Hansen expertly plays Marv’s lack of self-awareness. Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more of Marv’s ranting, he lets slip a clue into his sad origins, and I almost pitied him. Then in the next sentence he gloats about knocking down a man with prosthetic legs, and I rooted for the bear to finish him off already.

You'll enjoy this if you like: The Black Knight scene in Monty Python and The Holy Grail.

Avoid if you dislike: Irredeemably arrogant, bigoted protagonists; politically incorrect humor; absurdism

Ideal accompaniments: Beef jerky and a can of Budweiser.

Genre: Humour, Bizarro fiction

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