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dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
In a world where much of the fruit has become sentient due to a horticultural genius's experiments going out of control, fruit and humans struggle to live in harmony. When Charles witnesses a banana and apple killing each other in the doughnut shop where he works, he seizes the briefcase and the bucket of human faces they left behind and attempts to start a new life with his kiwi girlfriend Sarah. Things look as if they might be going Charles's way until a Michael Jackson-obsessed hit-tomato shoes up looking to recover the goods...
I don't really know how to start writing a review for this. Do I mention the crazy world Hendrixson has fashioned where humans and fruit attempt to live side by side? Or the hilarious pop culture references? Or the fact that Hendrixson has managed to turn a walking talking tomato into a fairly chilling antagonist? Eh, I'll wing it...
Bucket of Face is an entry in the New Bizarro Author Series and sure as hell doesn't read like a first book. Hendrixson's writing style reminds me of Christopher Moore doing noir. Like I said before, he makes talking fruit seem like believable characters. The relationship between Charles and Sarah was actually pretty believable once you disregarded the talking fruit aspect. The pop culture references were plentiful but not overdone. I caught references to the Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vacation, and a couple others.
Uniqueness always scores points with me and Bucket of Face has uniqueness coming out of every orifice. Come on! It's got a doughnut shop worker named Anakin, a Stallone-esque Strawberry everyone calls Bear, cops that talk in high class British accents when nobody's around, and a Michael Jackson worshiping tomato! Where else are you going to find anything like this?
To sum it up, if Eric Hendrixson is this creative right out of the gate, I'm ready for his next book right now. Give him a chance if you're a fan of Christopher Moore or similar authors.
Note:Here's my Eric Hendrixson interview.
I don't really know how to start writing a review for this. Do I mention the crazy world Hendrixson has fashioned where humans and fruit attempt to live side by side? Or the hilarious pop culture references? Or the fact that Hendrixson has managed to turn a walking talking tomato into a fairly chilling antagonist? Eh, I'll wing it...
Bucket of Face is an entry in the New Bizarro Author Series and sure as hell doesn't read like a first book. Hendrixson's writing style reminds me of Christopher Moore doing noir. Like I said before, he makes talking fruit seem like believable characters. The relationship between Charles and Sarah was actually pretty believable once you disregarded the talking fruit aspect. The pop culture references were plentiful but not overdone. I caught references to the Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vacation, and a couple others.
Uniqueness always scores points with me and Bucket of Face has uniqueness coming out of every orifice. Come on! It's got a doughnut shop worker named Anakin, a Stallone-esque Strawberry everyone calls Bear, cops that talk in high class British accents when nobody's around, and a Michael Jackson worshiping tomato! Where else are you going to find anything like this?
To sum it up, if Eric Hendrixson is this creative right out of the gate, I'm ready for his next book right now. Give him a chance if you're a fan of Christopher Moore or similar authors.
Note:Here's my Eric Hendrixson interview.
sheldonnylander's review against another edition
4.0
When a book starts with a charging acorn yelling “Leroy Jenkins!,” you know that you're in for the weird.
Charles is a doughnut shop worker with a kiwi fruit girlfriend. Huh? Well, many years back, a mysterious silver pollen appeared and began spreading, which turned fruit sentient. Since then, society has generally integrated these fruit. But when the fruit mafia has a shootout in the doughnut shop. Charles covers it up, making the dead fruits into pastries and taking a briefcase full of Zimbabwe dollars and a specimen bucket full of human faces, hence the title. A hit-tomato who is searching for respect because many don't consider him a real fruit, sets out to recover the stolen goods. Think of it as No Country for Old Men, just with talking fruit. That gives you Bucket of Face in a nutshell.
This is one of those books that's genuinely difficult to talk about, even in generalities, for fear of giving too much away, because there is a surprising amount to discover. This book obviously has a bizarre humor which is sometimes dark and...well, I don't know if fruit murder is considered dark or not. A common complaint that I have with a lot of bizarro books is that they are too short and I want more. But with Bucket of Face, the length is actually quite perfect. And, interestingly, Hendrixson seems to have put in a lot of thought into the nature and biology of sentient fruit. An almost creepy amount of thought. Anyone check his greenhouse lately?
One breakout bit for me that is not mentioned in any of the promotions or on the cover are the two cops, Mortimer and Mayflower. These cops are actually quite aristocratic, but they put on the face of the low-brow sarcastic beat cop because, simply, that's what people expected. Those two had me laughing out loud. I would really love to see more of those two show up later.
A complaint that I do have is that there are some editing problems. I know this seems like it shouldn't be a significant issue, but for me it is and it breaks the flow of some otherwise sublime prose. It may be the teacher in me talking.
I'm looking forward to more of Hendrixson's work, especially if it involves Mortimer and Mayflower in some way. I'd really like to see where this author goes and what else he's got up his sleeve, since Bucket of Face, while having a relatively typical crime story, has such an interesting motif that it gives this typical story a fresh twist.
Bucket of Face by Eric Hendrixson earns 4 apple fritters out of 5.
Charles is a doughnut shop worker with a kiwi fruit girlfriend. Huh? Well, many years back, a mysterious silver pollen appeared and began spreading, which turned fruit sentient. Since then, society has generally integrated these fruit. But when the fruit mafia has a shootout in the doughnut shop. Charles covers it up, making the dead fruits into pastries and taking a briefcase full of Zimbabwe dollars and a specimen bucket full of human faces, hence the title. A hit-tomato who is searching for respect because many don't consider him a real fruit, sets out to recover the stolen goods. Think of it as No Country for Old Men, just with talking fruit. That gives you Bucket of Face in a nutshell.
This is one of those books that's genuinely difficult to talk about, even in generalities, for fear of giving too much away, because there is a surprising amount to discover. This book obviously has a bizarre humor which is sometimes dark and...well, I don't know if fruit murder is considered dark or not. A common complaint that I have with a lot of bizarro books is that they are too short and I want more. But with Bucket of Face, the length is actually quite perfect. And, interestingly, Hendrixson seems to have put in a lot of thought into the nature and biology of sentient fruit. An almost creepy amount of thought. Anyone check his greenhouse lately?
One breakout bit for me that is not mentioned in any of the promotions or on the cover are the two cops, Mortimer and Mayflower. These cops are actually quite aristocratic, but they put on the face of the low-brow sarcastic beat cop because, simply, that's what people expected. Those two had me laughing out loud. I would really love to see more of those two show up later.
A complaint that I do have is that there are some editing problems. I know this seems like it shouldn't be a significant issue, but for me it is and it breaks the flow of some otherwise sublime prose. It may be the teacher in me talking.
I'm looking forward to more of Hendrixson's work, especially if it involves Mortimer and Mayflower in some way. I'd really like to see where this author goes and what else he's got up his sleeve, since Bucket of Face, while having a relatively typical crime story, has such an interesting motif that it gives this typical story a fresh twist.
Bucket of Face by Eric Hendrixson earns 4 apple fritters out of 5.
made_in_dna's review against another edition
5.0
Living with his Kiwi fruit girlfriend, Charles has been working at the same bakery since his father (a former employee) abandoned him there as a boy. Now he struggles to understand the changes in world as two mafia fruit murder each other in his shop. However, he only manages to make things worse after he decides to dispose of the bodies the only way he knows how... by turning them into fruit-filled pastries!
Eric Hendrixson is a master of novella-length fast-paced fiction. Not a word is wasted and not a scene unneeded, Hendrixson punches out a bizarro novel with cool intent. Brutal, funny, fast-paced, smart and entertaining. Readers with a love of humor will 'gobble' this novella up!
Eric Hendrixson is a master of novella-length fast-paced fiction. Not a word is wasted and not a scene unneeded, Hendrixson punches out a bizarro novel with cool intent. Brutal, funny, fast-paced, smart and entertaining. Readers with a love of humor will 'gobble' this novella up!
yorkslass70's review against another edition
4.0
I won this book in a giveaway and I have to admit that part of the reason I entered to win was because I was intrigued by the thought of owning a 50 trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill. Anyway when the package arrived I tore it open, took out the book, the dollar bill and the accompanying postcard and then I opened the book at the first chapter, before I knew it I was already at chapter 3. You know you're in for something completely different by the fact that right there on the first page there are acorns falling from trees, so far so normal, but these acorns get up and run and not only that they shout kamikaze style as the fall. This is the story of the hapless Charles, his kiwi fruit girlfriend, a bucket, a briefcase and two mafia wiseguys in the shape of a tough talking strawberry and a Michael Jackson channelling tomato. If that doesn't make you want to go and read it right now then I don't know what would. I really enjoyed it and it's going to make me look at my fruit bowl in a whole different light.
greggmpls's review against another edition
4.0
I am pretty new to Bizarro Fiction, and I have not always enjoyed the experience, but "Bucket of Face" has made me a fan. This is a funny, short, intelligent story that reads like a hard-boiled, noirish gangster pulp novel with...differences. It gives new meaning to "a good looking tomato with a pair of .45's". You will also learn a bit of horticulture as a bonus!
sarahconnor89757's review against another edition
4.0
This book is about the "Time to make the doughnuts!" guy in a world of fruit-people.
Hendrixson is good at writing characters; so much so that I don't even know if the story matters here, I was just interested in seeing how everyone made it through. This is good, considering I became unconcerned with the story itself pretty quickly.
Fruit-people, that's good. Not insultingly heavy handed, weird enough it seems probable, rememberable, for sure. The imagery of the story will have you mentioning the story to anyone you see eating fruit that you want to drop the "I'm literate" line on.
Hendrixson is good at writing characters; so much so that I don't even know if the story matters here, I was just interested in seeing how everyone made it through. This is good, considering I became unconcerned with the story itself pretty quickly.
Fruit-people, that's good. Not insultingly heavy handed, weird enough it seems probable, rememberable, for sure. The imagery of the story will have you mentioning the story to anyone you see eating fruit that you want to drop the "I'm literate" line on.
corvus_corone's review against another edition
4.0
I had such a fantastic time with Bucket of Face that I ended up reading it three times before writing this review. A thoroughly well written story of an ordinary life changed through a series of of events begun by Charles' desire for a better life with Sarah.
Bucket of Face does not rely on the surprise of sentient fruit but instead branches out to look at several interesting subjects. For example the stereotypes of police forces and how they can be used to solve crimes. Hey, it's set in a doughnut shop, the reference had to be made somewhere. Celebrity and its consequences, disposal methods and human feeling (revulsion or admiration) for meter maids, and the perils of getting involved with radio contests are also touched upon.
A subject I found quite interesting was the insecurity both Charles and Sarah felt in their relationship. Charles is convinced Sarah will leave him for someone who can give her the lifestyle he believes she deserves while Sarah ties herself into knots thinking Charles will walk out for a woman with a beautiful face. This is a driving force throughout the book, causing Charles to become involved with warring factions of the fruit mafia and Sarah to begin selling illegally harvested faces. A certain circularity is suggested with Charles' repetition of his father's actions upon leaving the doughnut store.
Hendrixson skillfully mixes surrealism, noir, and pop culture for a relevant and accessible story that I wish would never end. Quite possibly my favorite line in the book was, "You eat mammals. Why can't I eat fruit?... We've been over this before. It's only cannibalism if I eat kiwi fruit." (p9)
Bucket of Face does not rely on the surprise of sentient fruit but instead branches out to look at several interesting subjects. For example the stereotypes of police forces and how they can be used to solve crimes. Hey, it's set in a doughnut shop, the reference had to be made somewhere. Celebrity and its consequences, disposal methods and human feeling (revulsion or admiration) for meter maids, and the perils of getting involved with radio contests are also touched upon.
A subject I found quite interesting was the insecurity both Charles and Sarah felt in their relationship. Charles is convinced Sarah will leave him for someone who can give her the lifestyle he believes she deserves while Sarah ties herself into knots thinking Charles will walk out for a woman with a beautiful face. This is a driving force throughout the book, causing Charles to become involved with warring factions of the fruit mafia and Sarah to begin selling illegally harvested faces. A certain circularity is suggested with Charles' repetition of his father's actions upon leaving the doughnut store.
Hendrixson skillfully mixes surrealism, noir, and pop culture for a relevant and accessible story that I wish would never end. Quite possibly my favorite line in the book was, "You eat mammals. Why can't I eat fruit?... We've been over this before. It's only cannibalism if I eat kiwi fruit." (p9)
tin_squid's review against another edition
4.0
So, you ever read a book, finish it, and immediately think "I want everyone to read this!" This is one of those. I'm pretty sure my (first) copy is gone forever, and that's ok. I believe it will live a long and exciting life without my supervision. (I'm not even sure who has it anymore... Meg? How about you?)
Really I'm only just getting into the bizzaro genre. The more I read, the more it strikes me that the concept and writing that go into bizzaro cover just about any topic/other genre the author wants them to. "Bucket of Face" was a fantastic example of this.
It's a solid 'weary working guy gets a chance to make a better life for his dame and kill a few mobsters' noir type story.
You feel for Charles, he's had it rough, his girl's got security issues, people and fruit keep wrecking up his doughnut shop (in which he has to work long hours with stupid co-workers). Suddenly he is smacked with a huge opportunity to up the quality of his and Sarah's, the insecure girlfruit's, life together.
The fact that a good deal of the characters are fruits just adds another layer of interest to this well-told tale. Things that we take for granted in a seedy crime novel are still here, just new and more interesting. Fighting? Different. Physical violence and wounds? Different. Sex? Really... really different. In my opinion, the weird lens that bizzaro authors put over our cherished literary archetypes and classic plots make those things that much stronger and more interesting. They're classic and history spanning because they are that good, and I feel that bizzaro is just one of the next branches in literary evolution.
Whoa. Ok, sorry guys that sort of turned into a love poem to the genre. Back to the book at hand. It's fast paced, entertaining and has a sweet heartbreaking ending. AND the love interest is a kiwifruit. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will.
Previously in my mini-review I said: recommended to everyone that enjoys Bogart and the absurd.
Also good for people that like to have Ricky Jay narrate in their heads.
This is all still true :D
Really I'm only just getting into the bizzaro genre. The more I read, the more it strikes me that the concept and writing that go into bizzaro cover just about any topic/other genre the author wants them to. "Bucket of Face" was a fantastic example of this.
It's a solid 'weary working guy gets a chance to make a better life for his dame and kill a few mobsters' noir type story.
You feel for Charles, he's had it rough, his girl's got security issues, people and fruit keep wrecking up his doughnut shop (in which he has to work long hours with stupid co-workers). Suddenly he is smacked with a huge opportunity to up the quality of his and Sarah's, the insecure girlfruit's, life together.
The fact that a good deal of the characters are fruits just adds another layer of interest to this well-told tale. Things that we take for granted in a seedy crime novel are still here, just new and more interesting. Fighting? Different. Physical violence and wounds? Different. Sex? Really... really different. In my opinion, the weird lens that bizzaro authors put over our cherished literary archetypes and classic plots make those things that much stronger and more interesting. They're classic and history spanning because they are that good, and I feel that bizzaro is just one of the next branches in literary evolution.
Whoa. Ok, sorry guys that sort of turned into a love poem to the genre. Back to the book at hand. It's fast paced, entertaining and has a sweet heartbreaking ending. AND the love interest is a kiwifruit. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will.
Previously in my mini-review I said: recommended to everyone that enjoys Bogart and the absurd.
Also good for people that like to have Ricky Jay narrate in their heads.
This is all still true :D
xterminal's review
4.0
Eric Hendrixson, Bucket of Face (Eraserhead Press, 2010)
Charles is in a bind. Not just because he's a multiple murderer carrying a briefcase full of (worthless, but still) Zimbabwean currency in his trunk who despite all this is still holding down a crappy minimum wage job working nights at a doughnut shop, which means that pretty much by default, his guilty conscience is going to flaunt itself in front of the cops. No, Charles has bigger problems indeed. Welcome to the world of bizarro fiction.
(I'm starting the review off like this because while I have little doubt many of you reading this are already well aware of the bizarro movement, Bucket of Face is another of those little gems that would be fantastic as an intro to the movement, so basically I'm trolling for new fish. If you haven't had the chance to experience bizarro, here's an excellent jumping-off point, pick it up.)
In Charles' world, a biological experiment gone wrong was leaked into the atmosphere, causing fruit to become sentient. Aside from leading to such annoyances as squirrels chasing around acorns who have just fallen from trees, this has also led to the human populace being shocked, as they usually are, about mixed-race relationships (Charles himself is living with a kiwi), and prejudice against the fruit population, who are of course oppressed, leading them to do things like organize their own crime rings. Which, aside from the “what if?” possibilities of sentient fruit, doesn't actually do much to distract from the fact that Hendrixson has written a short, but well-plotted, noir that gleefully pays homage to everything from Raymond Chandler to Michael Jackson's Bad album to (if I'm not reading too much into the cops here) Anthony Burgess.
I find myself beating the same dead horses when it comes to summarizing the weak points of a given bizarro novel, and I've got the same complaints here. As I said above, it's a short book, and it easily could have gone three times its length just in fleshing out some of its subplots (there's a conspiracy against meter maids, NASA has discovered a clear wall in space and have sent satellites to determine its properties, etc.) and doing as good a job drawing some of its minor characters as it does Charles, Anakin (the day-shift doughnut-shop worker), Roma (the crime boss), and Sarah (Charles' girlfriend). In specific, our two policemen. We get just enough about each of them to know that we desperately want to know more. Hell, Mayflower could star in his own book, he's that compelling a character. And they're not the only ones who could do with more backstory; almost all of the characters here, at least those who don't get offed within a few pages, are interesting and funny, and more info on them would have been welcome indeed.
This is not to say that what IS here is not well worth your time. I probably shouldn't be complaining about character development here; after all, it's the rare noir that devoted as much time to its characters as it should have (this is one of the reasons Hammett is such a great read—he actually did without sacrificing pace). I would contend that it's those “what if”s of sentient fruit that demand such, and really, calling out Hendrixson for making his characters too interesting seems to be a case of praising with faint damn. Which is all a very roundabout way of saying that as far as straight-up plot-based noir goes, this is a very good example of the genre. As far as bizarro fiction goes, it's a sterling example of the genre. This is a book that demands your time and attention; it is the early work of an author with incredible promise. Remember his name. You will be hearing it again. ****
Charles is in a bind. Not just because he's a multiple murderer carrying a briefcase full of (worthless, but still) Zimbabwean currency in his trunk who despite all this is still holding down a crappy minimum wage job working nights at a doughnut shop, which means that pretty much by default, his guilty conscience is going to flaunt itself in front of the cops. No, Charles has bigger problems indeed. Welcome to the world of bizarro fiction.
(I'm starting the review off like this because while I have little doubt many of you reading this are already well aware of the bizarro movement, Bucket of Face is another of those little gems that would be fantastic as an intro to the movement, so basically I'm trolling for new fish. If you haven't had the chance to experience bizarro, here's an excellent jumping-off point, pick it up.)
In Charles' world, a biological experiment gone wrong was leaked into the atmosphere, causing fruit to become sentient. Aside from leading to such annoyances as squirrels chasing around acorns who have just fallen from trees, this has also led to the human populace being shocked, as they usually are, about mixed-race relationships (Charles himself is living with a kiwi), and prejudice against the fruit population, who are of course oppressed, leading them to do things like organize their own crime rings. Which, aside from the “what if?” possibilities of sentient fruit, doesn't actually do much to distract from the fact that Hendrixson has written a short, but well-plotted, noir that gleefully pays homage to everything from Raymond Chandler to Michael Jackson's Bad album to (if I'm not reading too much into the cops here) Anthony Burgess.
I find myself beating the same dead horses when it comes to summarizing the weak points of a given bizarro novel, and I've got the same complaints here. As I said above, it's a short book, and it easily could have gone three times its length just in fleshing out some of its subplots (there's a conspiracy against meter maids, NASA has discovered a clear wall in space and have sent satellites to determine its properties, etc.) and doing as good a job drawing some of its minor characters as it does Charles, Anakin (the day-shift doughnut-shop worker), Roma (the crime boss), and Sarah (Charles' girlfriend). In specific, our two policemen. We get just enough about each of them to know that we desperately want to know more. Hell, Mayflower could star in his own book, he's that compelling a character. And they're not the only ones who could do with more backstory; almost all of the characters here, at least those who don't get offed within a few pages, are interesting and funny, and more info on them would have been welcome indeed.
This is not to say that what IS here is not well worth your time. I probably shouldn't be complaining about character development here; after all, it's the rare noir that devoted as much time to its characters as it should have (this is one of the reasons Hammett is such a great read—he actually did without sacrificing pace). I would contend that it's those “what if”s of sentient fruit that demand such, and really, calling out Hendrixson for making his characters too interesting seems to be a case of praising with faint damn. Which is all a very roundabout way of saying that as far as straight-up plot-based noir goes, this is a very good example of the genre. As far as bizarro fiction goes, it's a sterling example of the genre. This is a book that demands your time and attention; it is the early work of an author with incredible promise. Remember his name. You will be hearing it again. ****
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