Reviewer Sandra Shwayder Sanchez: Sandra is
a retired attorney and co-founder of a small non-profit publishing
collective: The Wessex Collective with whom she has published two short fiction collections
(A Mile in These Shoes and Three Novellas) and one
novel, Stillbird.
Her most recent novel, The Secret of A Long Journey is soon to be released by Floricanto Press in April 2012 and her first novel, The Nun, originally published by Plain View Press in 1992 is being reissued in a 2nd Edition with additional material by PVP in March 2012.
Author: Clark Casey
Publisher: Some Dead Trees Press (a less idealistic division of No Dead Trees Press)
ISBN: 9781460975824
Click Here To Purchase The Jesus Fish and Slaughter Bird
Author: Clark Casey
Publisher: Some Dead Trees Press (a less idealistic division of No Dead Trees Press)
ISBN: 9781460975824
The author by his own admission states that he has a keen ear for the ridiculous and you get a hint of his humor right off the bat from the back cover:
One blurb states: “This book sucks, Do not read it.” Al Qaeda
And the author bio is simply: “Clark Casey has no notable accomplishments. He lives in Brooklyn”
Ok so you get the idea and
now you might be wondering what the @(*#^%! does that title mean
anyway? Don’t worry you will find a perfectly good
explanation at the bottom of page 7. As for whatever else the
author may have or have not accomplished in his life he can count
this 62 and a half page novella as notable.
Yes the book is laugh out
loud funny in many places but there are stories (flashbacks) that are
rather heartbreaking. Roscoe and his friend Vesper (and yes that is
also explained) help each other through some childhood trauma and we
first meet them at a bar looking to pick up a couple of girls that
appear on the scene shortly after we do. Vesper and his girl get
right down to business and go through the entire American dream,
which of course includes getting married, having kids, running a
business, buying a home and getting divorced.
Roscoe and his girl
fail to launch and go on their separate and extremely intriguing ways
but do reunite 17 years later much to our relief because by the end
we have come to care a lot about these characters. The book ends, to
my mind, a bit too soon (actually maybe a lot too soon, I was really
enjoying spending time with this crew) but on a high note (pun
intended but you won’t get it until you’ve read the book).
Another back cover blurb (with no attribution) calls The Jesus Fish and Slaughter Bird a “comedic tour de force by an up and coming satirist. Casey’s quick flowing and punchy prose captures the absurdity of a generation” and I’d have to say that does indeed capture the essence of the book very well. Clearly it is a quick read. It is also an engrossing read and I rather hope that this up and coming satirist plans to revisit the lives of the characters introduced herein. Roscoe and Gina transcend their generation.