Official Review: Tall Tales and Perpendicular Poems

[npandit]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Tall Tales and Perpendicular Poems" by Clive Gresswell.]

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Tall Tales and Perpendicular Poems are a collection of eight short stories and 26 poems by Clive Gresswell. Each story and poem, though distinct, is written with the same clever, humorous, and quirky style—which is sometimes purposefully abstract, and other times vividly poignant. The best way I can think to describe it is to say it's sort of a book version of an abstract painting—distortedly and humorously reflecting back a vision of earthly and spiritual reality through the lens of a Judeo-Christian world view. The eight stories are:

• •The Man with the Three Penises: An otherwise unremarkable man born with an unusual condition uses his unique birth-defect to gain fame and wealth until something causes him to change direction.
  
  •Burger Bar: Written in a disjointed manner filled with ampersands and no capital letters, characters with alliterative names engage in all manners of debauchery in a strange café sometimes visited by Jesus, but mostly ruled by Satan.
  
  •Fragments of Frank: Told from the perspective of an insane man living in an asylum, nothing can be taken at face value from this unreliable narrator, including whether or not he exists.
  
  •Actions Speak Louder Than…: A meta-fictional story about a hero named "Action", put within the collection as a red-herring, but also strangely about red-herrings.
  
  •Hogg: Either about a homeless man, walking in an inebriated state through the streets of a big city where he tries to get a job while noticing endless signs of “Jesus Lives” or "Saved" on license plates and in dreams...or about a man who is already dead, walking through some version of the after-life. (I haven’t decided on which yet.)
  
  •Journey Through the Garden of Earthly Delights: In a world where people can jump into paintings and usually fear the all-powerful Art Police, a private detective searches for the rich husband of a client who is hiding in a painting.
  
  •Norse Hampton: Charles the poet lives in the mystical town of Valhalla, that happens to be filled with Gods and Goddesses, one of which—Odin, father of Thor— opposes a building project funded by his wealthy second cousin. The town might just be in Charles’ head...but we may never be sure.
  
  •Signs: The street signs of the city Dinktown mysteriously vanished one day, wreaking havoc everywhere, and the solution to this problem was quick and obvious, but not to the people living in the city.

The 26 short poems were about a variety of things, but were written in the distinct underlying voice present throughout the whole collection. I used the following criteria to assess the collection's stories and poems.

• 1. Was it interesting and did it hold my attention? (Stories: 4/4, Poems: 2/4)
  
  The fact that the author is a poet is evident from the very beginning. Vastly different narrative styles were used in each story, and the author plays with the double meaning of nearly everything, not just words--so that often, you think you are reading one thing, but you're actually reading another. The metaphorical nature of each story added to its depth, and I found the Tall Tales portion of the book very enjoyable.
  
  The pacing of each story changed with the narrative style. While the 'action' stories were fast-paced and moved quickly, Burger Bar was very difficult to get through due to the odd style in which it’s written. Hogg moved a little slowly because the stream-of-conscience narration, and though it was written very well, it was a bit challenging to read.
  
  The basic plot of The Man with Three Penises was explored again in two other stories. Each was narrated with a fast paced, self-deprecating sort of humor against the backdrop of a different, larger problem. The penultimate story, Norse Hampton, explored a different angle to this story line in a new setting, and the final story, Signs brought the meta-fictional and spiritual elements of the all the stories together. I thought it was a very engaging and intriguing collection of Tall Tales, and I wouldn’t mind reading them again.
  
  However, when I got to the poetry section, I felt my interest start to wane. The poems were written well, and with attention to rhythm and meter—but the problem was that there did not appear to be a thread that joined them all together, or tied them to the Tall Tales segment of the narrative. I also felt that many of them seemed incomplete and abrupt—and the message was a little too obscure.
  
  My favorite poem actually occurred within Norse Hampton, and the reason I liked it was because I felt it really summarized the message that was prevalent in each story--about the sometimes demonic nature of life on earth, and the need for salvation--very well (pg 77):
  
  • This land of heroes
    fit for kings
    hallowed fair earth and air
    save us now in our despair
    from the wicked and the wretched
    whose wieldy tongues are wagging.
    
    Bring us safely home
    to live as we deserve
    among the mother of wars
    to save this land our world
    where sacred life unfurls.
  2. Message and Theme (Stories: 4/4, Poems: 3/4)
  
  Each of the eight stories, though they seemed completely different at first, tied together the various themes of the story very well. The elusive nature of salvation, the lure of debauchery and its consequences, double meanings, meta-fictions, and the possibility that we are all creations interacting with our creator without realizing it—were all cleverly woven ideas throughout the background of each story, finally rising to the foreground in the last story's resolution.
  
  There were many biblical references throughout the stories, as well as references to famous artwork. The stories explored, in my opinion, a possible explanation for the human condition--and did it in a very light-hearted, humorous way that was interesting to read.
  
  When it came to the poems, I came across several recurring themes: The feeling of nostalgia in Memo, Teenage Years, 1960’s Isolation Song, and Lost Virginity; as well as embitterment with a former lover, or the death of love in Bitch, (which I rather enjoyed), The Prisoner, Beauty Blade, and Sombre Wedding. In some of the poems, a few of the themes explored in the stories resurfaced, like in: By the Roots, Drinking Parts One and Two, and Budget; the best example of which was: Poem to Dylan.
  
  Though the poems each conveyed a slightly different message, in several of them, I was left feeling confused because the message seemed incomplete (like in Memo and Teenage Years) or I was left wondering what the particular poem was trying to say, (like in Breathe, Shadow Mask).
  
  I also felt that some of the messages did not seem very relevant to the overarching themes of the whole collection, (like in: The Jews), or if they were consistent, they were a little too abstract or abrupt for me to understand their deeper, hidden meaning.
  
  3. Story Elements: Plot, Characterization, Setting (Stories: 4/4)
  
  In every short story, the author was able to quickly put together an interesting problem faced by funny, exaggerated characters, and have them work towards the resolution in a way that was surprisingly well done, considering the fact that the stories did not rely on too much description, were only about 10-15 pages long, and were sometimes set in a strange fantasy world, (including, on perhaps more than two occasions, the inside of someone's head). Though the stories were abstract in nature, there were still several direct and indirect references made to real-world events, which gave the stories added depth and meaning.

Though at times, reading Tall Tales and Perpendicular Poems was challenging due to the confusing presentation; for me, it was a generally enjoyable experience. Whimsical, quirky and odd, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading dark comedies or satires, and unique, clever short stories and poems. Based on the above criteria, I think the book deserves a 3 out of 4.

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Buy "Tall Tales and Perpendicular Poems" on Amazon

[ALRyder]

Wow, great in-depth review. I always like to have a few short stories on my kindle, though I am a big fan of anthologies with multiple authors, this may work for me because of the different styles you mentioned of each story. And of course, the title of the first story made me laugh.

[npandit]

Haha, thank you! And thanks for commenting! It's always nice to see your comments on my reviews. I think we might have similar preferences in books.

I do hope you enjoy reading it if it ends up on your reading list. The style of writing is a little abstract, and may not be to everyone's taste, but despite the disjointed narrative styles, I got the sense that I was in the hands of a writer that knew what he was doing.

(And yes, admittedly, one of the things that drew me in was the hilarious premise of the first story.)

Can you recommend some good anthologies for me?

[ALRyder]

Admittedly my tastes run more toward horror when it comes to short stories, though I do enjoy an occasional O'Henry. I love my Stephen King anthologies. I also really enjoyed "From The Borderlands: Stories of Terror and Madness", though it seems to have gotten a lot of mixed reviews, and can be hard to find. I also really enjoyed "Here Be Monsters-An Anthology of Monster Tales", and you can actually find that one for free on Amazon. It has a mix of good and not so good stories.

I'm kind of getting the feeling you and I have the same taste in books as well. I didn't notice until you commented back that you were the one to post this lol. I'm actually thinking more and more that I'll have to snatch this one up.

[npandit]

Cool, thanks for the recommendations! I will check them out.

Haha--yes! I think so too. If you do get a chance to read it, let me know what you think!