Phoenix, by Chuck Palahniuk

Phoenix, Chuck Palahniuk.  San Francisco: Byliner Fiction, 2013.  e-book, 27 pps.

 I first became aware of Chuck Palahniuk when my buddy Walt recommended that I read Fight Club.  I read it and I liked it, finding the writing to be edgy and satisfying.  I am definitely a Chuck Palahniuk fan.

Phoenix is a delightfully evil little short story about a jilted wife named Rachel who had plotted revenge on Ted, her crappy husband and his cat Belinda Carlisle.  As a result of Ted's refusal to give up his greasy feline, Toxoplasma gondii was transmitted to their offspring April as a fetus and she was born blind.

Interspersed between the telling of the tale of revenge, Rachel-- who is away from Seattle on business in Orlando-- becomes increasingly concerned over the well-being of April.  April has been refusing to speak to her mother on the phone all week.  There is possibly a dog.

sapphoq reviews says:  I enjoyed Phoenix.  It is an excellent taste of Chuck Palahniuk's brusque and raw style.  Highly recommended to all but the most wussy and genteel readers. 

An Inconvenient Terrorist by Stephen R. Bailey

An Inconvenient Terrorist, Stephen R. Bailey.  self-published, 2009.  e-book, 423 pps.


An Inconvenient Terrorist takes place in Australia, although with trepidation I quickly realized that this story could have just as easily been told in the United States.  The thing is, Stephen R. Bailey has written a fiction.  The fiction seems believable to me precisely because of our political climate these days.  This could happen to any one of us.  And perhaps already has.

There is a guy and his wife.  They are Muslims, born and raised in Oz.  They have a restaurant.  There are some drunken kids.  One of them accuses the fellow of being a terrorist.  

There is also a Prime Minister singularly lacking in common sense.  He is running on fear and on his dad's name.  Laws are passed.  The laws don't strike me as very different from some of the laws that we now have over here.

There is an arrest.  There are disaffected Muslim youth.  There is a contingent of flaming gayfolk that get involved.  Because folks who are oppressed for being who they are wind up better off being out rather than hiding.  The politicos and the military types and the perps count on shame and silence to keep people under.

The folks in this book are anything but quiet.  At some point, each of them has had to make a life-altering decision. 

sapphoq reviews says: Some of the book was funny.  Some of it was scarey.  All of it was delightful and certainly deserves more attention than it has been getting.  An Inconvenient Terrorist is bound to appeal to folks who like Cory Doctorow, Chuck Palahniuk, and Veronica Roth.  Highly recommended.