Modern fairy tales and archaic breakthroughs for grown-up children.
Modern fairy tales and archaic breakthroughs for grown-up children.
Fiction (general), Humorous (general), Short stories (single author)
In this collection of rare, hard-to-find, and often too-short short "stories", Guy J. Jackson wields his not particularly helpful but still relatively charming (at least compared to being chased) worldview in order to pretty much study and correct all of humanity's foibles, or at least the ones that need correcting by the end of this year. Also, if you read these "stories" at the rate of one per day, you'll feel Zen for however many days that there are "stories", or so claimed Roundfire Books' late editorial assistant, Nils Samuels Chastain, even though it wasn't his place to decide that.
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I've waited years for this book. Guy J. Jackson is a prolific writer of stories that combine dark comedy and tender beauty, populated by extraordinary characters rooted in the ordinary threats of the universe. Imagine if a Kurt Vonnegut/Richard Brautigan hybrid had written The Phantom Tollbooth and you are somewhat close to the uniqueness of this book: an old man contemplates existence through the holes in a washing machine; Elton suffers the consequences of living in a house with no clocks; a bank teller whose sideline as a stripper always results in the wrong kind of boyfriends. Drink The Rest of That is a dazzling, heartbreaking, laugh-a-loud collection that will leave you wanting more. I'm just hoping there will be another 25 volumes. ~ Nathan Penlington
Reading the stories of Guy J. Jackson is like embracing your long-lost best friend while they play Rachmaninoff 3 with one hand - at once joyous and familiar and extraordinary. Read them in your head on the morning tube and baffle commuters with the knowingness of your smile. Take a pal and a bottle of cheap whiskey to a cove and howl them to the sea. Slip them on like a pair of delicious mind-slippers at nightfall. These are tales for everywhere, for every day, for falling into and in love with again and again. ~ Gwyneth Herbert
Guy J Jackson’s creaking mahogany voice resonates in every word of these absurd, dark, delightful, unexpected, abnormal, rich, indulgent, Beefheartean, nightmarish, suburban, Ionesco-esque stories, vignettes and things. He’d be a brilliant babysitter for children who’ll never sleep again. “Read me another, Mr Jackson,” they’d cry. ~ A.F. Harrold
A playful collection brimming with wonderful characters, sharp observations and poignant moments. ~ Sam Rawlings
A joy to read, lyrical and evocative, subtly disturbing. ~ Danny Chidgey
In a review of the 2012 album Notes On Cow Life for Wire magazine, legendary journalist Byron Coley described Guy’s words as ‘genial surrealism…probably quite enjoyable when wrecked’. I’m quoting him verbatim as I really couldn’t have put it better, and frankly, he carries far more clout than I ever could. I heard Guy’s words a long time before I ever saw them written down, that amiable croak of a voice booming tales of the uncanny from stages in cramped rooms above pubs or across the London airwaves on cult radio station Resonance FM. But reading these stories now, I hear that unique voice once again. You’ll hear it too. ~ Robin The Fog
