Delightfully quirky vignettes that offer lighthearted approaches to everyday problems.
A set of brief dispatches lampooning some of life’s foibles.
The 21 short sketches in Davis’ idiosyncratic assemblage present a comedy of errors, often arising from simple, everyday occurrences. The scenarios portray the confusion and misdirection that occur when bickering spouses pack the car for a family camping trip or 21 steps to teeth whitening that involve bleach and airplane glue, among other situations. Readers who field endless emails and messages at a home office will appreciate the devilish candor of “Working From Home”—a piece in which juggling work and family obligations tends to resemble a frenzied circus. The hilarious title story is also the book’s lengthiest; it showcases a whimsical, playful conversation between a rather oblivious, if omnipresent, tea-slurping God and an obedient angel named Bates who, in pages of banter, works hard to make his boss look good. The book’s ability to laugh at life’s woes is its best quality; a section on “The Ten Most Common Medical Complaints of the Middle-Aged Woman,” for instance, offers a chuckle about the aging process. Davis effortlessly sends up the serious business of demonic possession in “Exorcisms ‘R’ Us” and a convoluted itinerary for a “Six-Day Guided Tour of Rome” with a wink and a smirk. One of the pieces here wouldn’t be surprising as a startup idea: a timeshare program that rents out house cats of varying personalities and temperaments by the week or the month. Overall, the material is of consistently high quality, ranging from silly and fanciful to laugh-out-loud hilarious, and may appeal to readers young and old. Ireland’s cute, black-and-white line drawings sprinkled throughout depict scenes from the stories and embellish this breezy work.
Delightfully quirky vignettes that offer lighthearted approaches to everyday problems.Pub Date: June 29, 2022
ISBN: 978-1-03-914603-7
Page Count: 102
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: Sept. 21, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2022
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An insightful and playful journey with some uneventful detours.
Merullo delivers a spirituality-themed road novel set in modern-day America.
Retired Otto Ringling has just sold his home in Bronxville, New York. He’s flush with cash and has plans to move back to his home state of North Dakota. The property Otto grew up on has been turned into a meditation center through his sister’s efforts. Otto looks forward to living there in its supportive environment, even if he hopes to spend his winters elsewhere. But what should he do with the proceeds from the sale of his home? Otto’s wife is long deceased, his kids are able to support themselves, and, as his sister points out, Otto doesn’t exactly need the funds. He’s persuaded to give the money to others, no strings attached, in an endeavor he calls his Giving Project. In pursuit of this goal, he travels with his brother-in-law, Volya Rinpoche. Rinpoche is a “sort-of Buddhist monk” who originally hails from Siberia. Rinpoche has attracted a following through his books and meditation centers, and his demeanor is always friendly and humble. The duo drive along the Eastern Seaboard as Rinpoche gives scheduled talks and Otto gives away money, overtipping a waitress, donating to a charity, and leaving substantial gratuities for hotel cleaning staff. The good economic vibes are his to spread, but the journey isn’t all sunshine and open roads; Rinpoche’s views on reincarnation and careful driving habits rankle, and then there are Otto’s doubts—is he really doing the right thing? What will his future hold?
It is difficult to dislike Rinpoche. Whether conversing in charmingly flawed English (“Want we to bring you back the breakfast?” he asks one character) or speaking patiently to a hostile crowd at a conservative university, he proves a thoroughly pleasant companion for both Otto and the reader. Otto, while not quite as fun, is nevertheless engaging as he shares his relatable feelings of guilt and concern: Did he raise his son right? What of those who would mock his Giving Project? Not even the enlightened Rinpoche has answers for all such concerns. As the highway stretches out before Otto and Rinpoche, they never know what might lie ahead. Often, what comes their way is not all that challenging: At one point the two go to an Ethiopian restaurant only to find that it is too crowded before deciding to eat elsewhere. Even for a work that is contemplative and not plot-driven, the choice between two restaurants makes for very low stakes. At another junction they eat a bad meal in North Carolina. While the experience does provoke an unexpected curse word from Rinpoche, the entire scene does not add much of consequence. Nor does the description of how the brisket in question “tasted like it had been sitting on the counter since lunch the week before and had been hastily heated up” make for engrossing prose. Still, the two travelers are real enough to make their trip captivating.
An insightful and playful journey with some uneventful detours.Pub Date: May 15, 2023
ISBN: 9798986626642
Page Count: 282
Publisher: PFP Publishing
Review Posted Online: March 29, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A newcomer to watch: fresh, funny, and tough.
Seven stories, including a couple of prizewinners, from an exuberantly talented young Thai-American writer.
In the poignant title story, a young man accompanies his mother to Kok Lukmak, the last in the chain of Andaman Islands—where the two can behave like “farangs,” or foreigners, for once. It’s his last summer before college, her last before losing her eyesight. As he adjusts to his unsentimental mother’s acceptance of her fate, they make tentative steps toward the future. “Farangs,” included in Best New American Voices 2005 (p. 711), is about a flirtation between a Thai teenager who keeps a pet pig named Clint Eastwood and an American girl who wanders around in a bikini. His mother, who runs a motel after having been deserted by the boy’s American father, warns him about “bonking” one of the guests. “Draft Day” concerns a relieved but guilty young man whose father has bribed him out of the draft, and in “Don’t Let Me Die in This Place,” a bitter grandfather has moved from the States to Bangkok to live with his son, his Thai daughter-in-law, and two grandchildren. The grandfather’s grudging adjustment to the move and to his loss of autonomy (from a stroke) is accelerated by a visit to a carnival, where he urges the whole family into a game of bumper cars. The longest story, “Cockfighter,” is an astonishing coming-of-ager about feisty Ladda, 15, who watches as her father, once the best cockfighter in town, loses his status, money, and dignity to Little Jui, 16, a meth addict whose father is the local crime boss. Even Ladda is in danger, as Little Jui’s bodyguards try to abduct her. Her mother tells Ladda a family secret about her father’s failure of courage in fighting Big Jui to save his own sister’s honor. By the time Little Jui has had her father beaten and his ear cut off, Ladda has begun to realize how she must fend for herself.
A newcomer to watch: fresh, funny, and tough.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-8021-1788-0
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Grove
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 15, 2004
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