Hello. This will be the new home for over 800 book reviews that I have written between 1997 and the end of 2010. They used to be found at http://www.deadtreesreview.com/, but that site will be discontinued.

My newer reviews will be found at http://www.deadtreesreview.blogspot.com/.








Monday, September 24, 2012

At The Threshold of Liquid Geology and Other Automatic Tales

At the Threshold of Liquid Geology and Other Automatic Tales, Eric W. Bragg, Writer's Advantage (iUniverse, Inc.), 2002

To quote from the back cover of this book: "This modern collection of surrealist prose-poems was inspired by the improvisational method of automatic writing, popularized by the International Surrealist movement. From one brain to another without any literary rules or standards; the words in these automatic writings are not just words, but rays of subconscious illumination that peel away the various layers of the "civilized," western psyche, one by one."

For those who understand what that means, and are interested in such writing, read no further; buy this book. For everyone else, these are not stories in the usual sense. They are collections of strange images where bizarre things happen right next to each other. In just the first story, a thin stream of sugar is dropped into a tiger's eyeball, a frog burps a shiny platinum marble, there is a talking caterpillar, and an umbrella reveals a family sunning themselves on the shore of an island continent formed from green volcanic glass deposited hundreds of thousands of years ago.

This book is very much not for everyone. For those who want to give their brain a workout, this is an excellent choice. For those who want "normal" books with plot and characters and all those English Literature words, this book can be skipped.

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