Palahniuk’s Ongoing Affair with the Bahktinian Grotesque
 (Not sure why I can’t get this to embed, but never mind)
This is one of the pieces of work for Uni that has consumed my time and energy like a sentient tumour.  It was either a little animated video or sock puppets for this presentatin, both of which I’ve […]

In 1981, a seemingly innocuous book called The White Hotel emerged into the literary market.  It created a bit of a stir, and quite rightly.  Within a restrained and beautifully constructed narrative, a young woman recounts a tale of eroticism and violence to her psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud.  It is the most original book trying to […]

“Six hundred dudes. One porn queen. A world record for the ages. A must-have movie for every discerning collector of things erotic.” “Didn’t one of us on purpose set out to make a snuff movie.” Cassie Wright, porn priestess, intends to cap her legendary career by breaking the world record for serial fornication. On camera. […]

Because of my younger brother I’ve got an interest in Autism, particularly Aspergers Syndrome, and have a tendency to read a lot about people with the condition.  It’s quite something to read a well written book by an ‘Aspergian’ themselves, so this was a delightful surprise.  It is coherent, beautiful explaining why Robinson wouldn’t look […]

Philip K Dick, somehow, was something of a genius.  I say ’somehow’ because the man slept about once a month and lived on a big ol’ bucket of drugs.  He wrote like a demon and aside from how original his ideas were, you really couldn’t tell that it nearly all came out under the influence.
His […]

Augusten Burroughs made me understand what it was to have a ‘favourite’ author.  I hadn’t had one before - lots I liked but none whom I’d single out above all others and pick their books for a desert island over a hair brush.  ’Dry’ is what got me hooked.
Autobiographical, it follows his being forced into […]

Reviewing this particular graphic novel is tough.  It’s so famous and acclaimed that a lot of reviews, essays and poorly spelled praises have already been written about it.  There are also the rules that surround it.
1. When reading Watchmen, restrict to one chapter a night.
2. When telling someone who hasn’t read Watchmen about it, you […]

It’s Sunday the 29th of June and I’m only a quarter of the way through this book, but I’ve got to start this review now. Palahniuk is a writer who’s just too good to be legal. He’s very much a scrapbook writer, taking bits of stories from annecdotes and events across his […]

I got hooked onto Wilkinson through his first book of short stories, Memoirs of the Messed Up Minds, so when I found that his next book was to deviate from his dark sense of humour and somewhat taboo subject matter, I was a touch worried. This was, however, to be […]

This is from the author of Atomised, which is apparently slap yourself stupid fantastic.  Where I can, I try to read the book after the one that made an author famous as I am interested in new writers but I have an allergy to hype.  I refused Firefly and Battlestar Galactica for months/years because of […]