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mrninjaviking's review against another edition
4.0
I bought a copy of "Pseudo-City" by D. Harlan Wilson about four years ago. I can't seem to find the description that caught my eye, but I thought it was time to tackle it.
Wilson is part of the irrealism and bizarro movement of literature that I have noticed in recent years. Part of the reason he caught my eye was being from Grand Rapids, Michigan and having taught at Michigan State.
From the cover of the book, and Wikipedia, here is a description:
This is actually a collection of short stories all based in Pseudo City and with a few reoccurring characters. That was another reason this book caught my eye. I liked this idea and wish more authors and/or publishers would do this. I have read another book with a similar idea ("Draco Tavern" by Larry Niven) and another one that was thrown together in another fashion ("The Nick Adams Stories" by Ernest Hemingway). Some of the stories that appeared in this book had been published elsewhere before, mostly in magazines. Here is a rundown of the stories within:
"Pseudofolliculitis City"
"Hairware, Inc."
"Synchronicity III"
"The Rorschach-Interpreter"
"Portrait of the Founder"
"The Meeting"
"The Thumb"
"Extermination"
"Dandies & Flâneurs"
"Classroom Dynamics"
"In the Bathroom"
"The Widow’s Peaks"
"Duel"
"Deli"
"Intermezzo"
"Bourgeois Man"
"Cereal Killers"
"Fascists"
"The Autopsy"
"Protractor Men"
"Haberdashery"
"The Personalities"
"The Other Pedestrian"
"PCP"
"The Snore"
"The Kitchen"
"When The Law Has Spoken"
"The Stick Figure"
"Horoscope"
Some of the stories weren't even two pages long. Some spanned nearly twenty. But most importantly, it is a strange array of stories. The funny thing is that some of the best hardly mentioned much of it's ties to the city and turned out to be the best. A great example of this is "The Stick Figure", which I don't think ever mentioned Pseudo City. However, after reading the other stories it would be obvious where the story was set.
The word surreal has been used in describing this book and I disagree. I certainly prefer irreal and bizarre. The reason I don't think this is surreal is because of the boundaries or laws within the city itself. To me, surreal is the fine line between a dreamlike world and reality, possibly even the shift. It's almost "anything goes", though more subdued. Surreal fictions also seems to come with authors who use very poetic prose. But these stories are lacking both the dreamlike nature and the prose. (Though it's obvious that Wilson's not a hack writer, so don't get me wrong on the "no prose" comment.) There are reasons and laws for what happens to the characters and acts committed by the characters. It is rather cut and dry. Now, that's not to say that it's boring. On the contrary. Even though the things that are happening are bizarre or absurd, they are with a purpose and reason.
There is a frame of mind you need to be in to read these stories. I thought I was there, and was for the most part, before starting. Sure, at times some of the stories seemed to go too far in trying to be absurd, but many of them were real gems. I enjoyed it enough that I want to attempt an novel of Wilson's, and soon.
Wilson is part of the irrealism and bizarro movement of literature that I have noticed in recent years. Part of the reason he caught my eye was being from Grand Rapids, Michigan and having taught at Michigan State.
From the cover of the book, and Wikipedia, here is a description:
In Pseudofoliculitis City nothing is as it seems and everything is as it should be. Today's forecast calls for extreme confrontation, with sandwich flurries and the threat of handlebar moustaches to the west. By turns absurd and surreal, dark and challenging, Pseudo-City exposes what waits in the bathroom stall, under the manhole cover and in the corporate boardroom, all in a way that can only be described as mind-bogglingly irreal. Set in an imaginary, "post-real" metropolis, this book delivers a hauntingly satirical version of our own mediatized reality.
This is actually a collection of short stories all based in Pseudo City and with a few reoccurring characters. That was another reason this book caught my eye. I liked this idea and wish more authors and/or publishers would do this. I have read another book with a similar idea ("Draco Tavern" by Larry Niven) and another one that was thrown together in another fashion ("The Nick Adams Stories" by Ernest Hemingway). Some of the stories that appeared in this book had been published elsewhere before, mostly in magazines. Here is a rundown of the stories within:
"Pseudofolliculitis City"
"Hairware, Inc."
"Synchronicity III"
"The Rorschach-Interpreter"
"Portrait of the Founder"
"The Meeting"
"The Thumb"
"Extermination"
"Dandies & Flâneurs"
"Classroom Dynamics"
"In the Bathroom"
"The Widow’s Peaks"
"Duel"
"Deli"
"Intermezzo"
"Bourgeois Man"
"Cereal Killers"
"Fascists"
"The Autopsy"
"Protractor Men"
"Haberdashery"
"The Personalities"
"The Other Pedestrian"
"PCP"
"The Snore"
"The Kitchen"
"When The Law Has Spoken"
"The Stick Figure"
"Horoscope"
Some of the stories weren't even two pages long. Some spanned nearly twenty. But most importantly, it is a strange array of stories. The funny thing is that some of the best hardly mentioned much of it's ties to the city and turned out to be the best. A great example of this is "The Stick Figure", which I don't think ever mentioned Pseudo City. However, after reading the other stories it would be obvious where the story was set.
The word surreal has been used in describing this book and I disagree. I certainly prefer irreal and bizarre. The reason I don't think this is surreal is because of the boundaries or laws within the city itself. To me, surreal is the fine line between a dreamlike world and reality, possibly even the shift. It's almost "anything goes", though more subdued. Surreal fictions also seems to come with authors who use very poetic prose. But these stories are lacking both the dreamlike nature and the prose. (Though it's obvious that Wilson's not a hack writer, so don't get me wrong on the "no prose" comment.) There are reasons and laws for what happens to the characters and acts committed by the characters. It is rather cut and dry. Now, that's not to say that it's boring. On the contrary. Even though the things that are happening are bizarre or absurd, they are with a purpose and reason.
There is a frame of mind you need to be in to read these stories. I thought I was there, and was for the most part, before starting. Sure, at times some of the stories seemed to go too far in trying to be absurd, but many of them were real gems. I enjoyed it enough that I want to attempt an novel of Wilson's, and soon.
lauradoesnothing's review against another edition
5.0
A book with frequent appearances by sentient facial hair has no business dishing out such beautiful insights as "To truly know a man, after all, is to know the degree to which he was fucked with as a child." No business whatsoever.
Best read in little bursts, like poetry, this is a classic example of bizarro fiction and is as ridiculous as you'd expect, but has the capacity to catch you off-guard with some moments of true emotional resonance. It's weird and gross and psychosexual as well, but the deep bits were what surprised me.
Top story: Deli (a masterpiece of microstories, humans intimately interconnected by tragedy but blissfully ignorant of that fact)
Best read in little bursts, like poetry, this is a classic example of bizarro fiction and is as ridiculous as you'd expect, but has the capacity to catch you off-guard with some moments of true emotional resonance. It's weird and gross and psychosexual as well, but the deep bits were what surprised me.
Top story: Deli (a masterpiece of microstories, humans intimately interconnected by tragedy but blissfully ignorant of that fact)
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