Background Noise by Peter DeMarco

Henry is a background kind of guy. He keeps his life simple, eschewing any kind of a career, observing the working-class lives around him. These stories, written in the first or third person, show Henry dealing with his problems, often by trying out roles. His parents both died young; he has them on his mind a great deal. He keeps meeting nasty priests; one comes on to him, and another is observed wearing Henry's late father's shirt, stolen from the donation box. He closely observes some gay men, but does not feel any temptation. Henry's acute sense of color irritates some folks; the grown-up former bully in his neighborhood is incensed by Henry's painting his house in an unusual color scheme, and exacts revenge over and over. The reader begins to feel claustrophobic, but cannot stop reading, having become all too enmeshed in the protagonist's passive-aggressive inner world, where thought equals deed. Finally, Henry lashes out violently at an easy target. Or does he? He seems to understand that he cannot replay his childhood in ways other than how it has transpired. He still plays roles, though; the reader is left hoping for more of these acutely-written stories to see if this shadowy "virgin man" will ever break through the fourth wall.

Review Roundup by Libby Cone

by Libby Cone

I have been on another Smashwords adventure, catching book samples on my hard drive as they drop from the conveyor belt of the literary fiction genre. Using this method, I hope to save readers time, energy, and money by reporting on books worth reading, worth sampling, and worth letting fall into oblivion.

The latest offering is Brakenstroom by Jacob Singer, a book of short stories about Jewish emigrants to South Africa. When I noted that only the first ten percent of the book was offered as a free sample, I was concerned that I might not appreciate its essence by reading such a small excerpt. I need not have worried, though. I invite experts on the complicated and tragic history of South Africa to comment on the accuracy of the author's account in the introduction. No expert is needed, however, to find “it's” being used as a possessive pronoun, or an implement for blade sharpening being described as a “wet-stone.” I began to have serious doubts when I read this sentence: “He worked hard, the hours spent pouring over accounting books giving him the stooped scolitic back and chronic myopia that on his tall thin frame, offered a portrait of the Scrooge circumstances had made him.” Then I read this sentence and gave up: “As a boy he was always a head and shoulders taller than others his own age, as thin as a stick, with two large ears on either side of a very Jewish nose.”

---

Next is “To Come Back So Far From Nowhere in Particular” by Jon Thorpe. This is a free short story. Unlike the previous work, which dealt with a skinny, four-eared Jewish kid, this story describes the challenges facing suburban Christian youth devoid of bizarre physical deformities. I stopped reading after Page 6, which contains this sentence: “One young woman, Virginia Talbot, someone who would proclaim that Lubeck had seduced and corrupted her and led her astray from her good Christian values, had come forward and admitted Lubeck had arranged meetings with her in seedy hotel room where the two would smoke crack and Lubeck would masturbate as she pleasured herself with a crystal dildo.”

The next book in line is “The Sister City Initiative,” also penned by Mr. Thorpe. Forgive me, readers, for skipping his other ouevre, and the next book in line, which is written in Japanese.

---

The next book is “The Album” by Sandra White. It is actually published by “The Fiction Works.” POD purists may skip the rest of this paragraph. Ms. White gets brownie points from me for correct usage and spelling of the words “pored” and “its.” However, after wading through onslaughts of telling-and-not-showing, I was finally defeated by this bit of dialogue: “'It's beautiful out here, Jack. Blakefield's city fathers have done a superb job expanding and building without totally demolishing the wonder of Mother Nature.'”

---

Everyone knows the conflicting urges to look, and not to look, at something ghastly. I decided to give in to the desire to look at another short story of Mr. Thorpe, the next story in line, called “Never, Ever, Bring This Up Again.” I am happy that I did, because this cold-war-era story of a failing oil platform (sound familiar?) while somewhat difficult to follow, is actually an attempt at satire. It led me to return to the previous story by Mr. Thorpe, about the crystal dildo, and indeed, satirical narrative followed. My bad. While I did not think either satire was very clever, far be it from me, hoodwinked as I was, to reject Mr. Thorpe's pieces out-of-hand. You may wish to sample them yourself.

As that wasn't much of a ringing endorsement, I proceeded to the next book, “Chips & Gravey,” only to find that it does not seem to be self-published, having already garnered advance comments from the likes of E. Annie Proulx and Atom Egoyan.

---

Next in line is Wes Patterson's Wherever You May be Searching. A weird book. A motormouth know-it-all boy has a creepy, borderline-incestuous relationship with his sister, who is just a couple of years younger than he. I think he's supposed to be a "bend-the-rules", "different drummer" sort, but he comes off as controlling and manipulative. Sample it if you wish.

---

“107 Degrees Fahrenheit” is another short story by Barry Rachin, whose “Just Like Dostoyevsky” I have reviewed previously. Barry, Barry, Barry, what's with the weird commas? What's with the snappy dialogue like: “'Marauding insects and harsh weather often destroy the eggs. Raising them in captivity helps even the odds they’ll survive to adulthood and reproduce.'”?

---

Beyond Redemption – The Forbidden by Jax Alexander. Adjective-noun, adjective-noun, adjective noun, ad nauseam: “Gagging down bile mashed up by the crushing grip, Mike was assaulted by the stench of decaying carrion as he oozed through the clashing colors into the center of the stinking swirl. Toxic thoughts filled with ancient anger forced their way into his head and fouled his mind with an oily presence.” Need I say more?

---

Finally (my eyes are crossing), Embrace the Rain by Michael Holloway Perronne. I only read the first thirty pages or so, but it looks good. Technically, it's published by Chances Press, which seems to specialize in gay erotica, but I don't see any encomiums by Edmund White or Sarah Waters, so I'll include it in the self-pub category. A bunch of couples and families, gay and straight, are affected by the devastation of Hurricane Katrina, some in a completely negative way, some in an opportunistic way. The writing is good. Take a look at it.

IM by Rick R. Reed (B)

A serial killer targeting gay men is on the loose in Rick R. Reed's thriller titled IM. The killer, as the title suggests, picks his victims through instant messages in gay online chat rooms. I think that this setup would have been interesting a decade ago, when the chat room scene was a novelty, but today it seems a bit quaint. Nevertheless, the writing is very strong, and the plot is handled well enough to be interesting, providing genuine twists and turns, managing to rescue the limping concept.

The first twist comes shortly after Ed Comparetto, the detective pursuing the case, gets himself fired because of a witness who apparently does not exist. Ed heads to a gay bar to take some time off to relax. A beer arrives, courtesy of a secret admirer, who turns out to be the non-existent witness. This is good plotting, and it’s a bit of a surprise to find it in a POD novel. As a result, things spin out of control, and a genuine question results—who is this witness, and why the game of hide and seek?

The heart of great plotting is the ability on the writer’s part to create suspense and tension. Reversals of expectation and surprises are at the center of this approach. IM has some interesting reversals, as when Ed calls the number of the witness, expecting to finally talk to this mysterious figure, only to get someone he does not expect, this reversal further increasing the suspense of the story. These reversals are, for the most part, interesting and genuinely add to the story suspense. At some point, however, Ed and the killer seem at a standstill, neither doing much to complicate the plans and goals of the other.

Besides the relatively good plot, the book gives us a glimpse into the gay culture: the online games, the obsessions, the loneliness, and the desperate search for love that never seems to work out. There is some gay sexual content here, so the book may not appeal all readers.