Your Body is Changing
July 9th, 2008by Jack Pendarvis
ISBN: 9781596921917
I bought this book because George Saunders said it was funny.
Okay, that isn’t the only reason, but it did seal the deal for me. I was in the mood to try a new to me author, and came across this book. It looked interesting — short stories, which I’ve been drawn to lately; it seemed odd, something else I like; and then when I read the blurbs, there was George Saunders saying “I would characterize him as a dangerously funny writer.” Also, when I went to flip through the pages, I came upon this:
Henry and his mother returned home from Wednesday-night prayer meeting to find an enormous owl eating sausage biscuits out of torn sack on the kitchen counter.
Dark humor and fugitive owls? I was in.
The eight stories in this book, ranging from two pages to a novella in size, are pretty funny. In that terrible, the world is messed up, these poor saps, geez that isn’t going to work out kind of way. In a laugh or cry or possibly both sort of way, which is what I’d expect if George Saunders thinks it’s funny. It’s hopeful, too, only the hope isn’t the most immediately obvious thing. He does have characters unexpectedly die of a snakebites in the first thirty page or so, after all.
If you are looking for good and twisted short stories without crossing the line into bitter darkness, Pendarvis is for you. Recommended.
