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A review by whitneymj
Scorch Atlas by Blake Butler
5.0
Reading Scorch Atlas was a strange experience. I've rarely encountered a book that seemed to turn so defiantly away from traditional genres. I can't say that it was a novel, nor a book of short stories. But it somehow seems to show qualities of both of these.
Blake Butler has created a world of strange apocalypses, crumbling skies, ruined children, and stark hopelessness. Certain passages made me shudder so much with their gross depiction of human life that I had to put the book down. Others were written quite beautifully: "For one long hour that red morning: gristle, cartilage, tissue, tendon, vein, and bone. Some would try to gnaw the gray meat. Some would choke with fistfuls in their cheeks. Others knew better from the stinking. The bubble of the sky. I'd already burned what I remembered. I didn't search long for their names: the heads and necks and cheeks of all these raining someones someone once had likely loved" (128).
The stories in Scorch Atlas are at once terrifying and beautiful, introducing us to characters who are left holding on to whatever small tokens they have left: water-logged photos, static-filled televisions, and empty houses. Scorch Atlas is a sad, strange world that I would recommend to anyone who can get their hands on a copy.
Blake Butler has created a world of strange apocalypses, crumbling skies, ruined children, and stark hopelessness. Certain passages made me shudder so much with their gross depiction of human life that I had to put the book down. Others were written quite beautifully: "For one long hour that red morning: gristle, cartilage, tissue, tendon, vein, and bone. Some would try to gnaw the gray meat. Some would choke with fistfuls in their cheeks. Others knew better from the stinking. The bubble of the sky. I'd already burned what I remembered. I didn't search long for their names: the heads and necks and cheeks of all these raining someones someone once had likely loved" (128).
The stories in Scorch Atlas are at once terrifying and beautiful, introducing us to characters who are left holding on to whatever small tokens they have left: water-logged photos, static-filled televisions, and empty houses. Scorch Atlas is a sad, strange world that I would recommend to anyone who can get their hands on a copy.