[book review]
\n\u201cWATCH OUT!\u201d A novel by Joseph Suglia; Elf Press, OUT OCT. \u201806<\/p>\n
Review by Kent Manthie<\/p>\n
Jonathan Barrows is an individual; not an \u201ceveryman\u201d or the \u201caverage Joe\u201d, no, Barrows is a unique singularity. He is also in love with himself. Literally. He keeps snapshots of his naked self around, at the ready for a joy-fest; he has a blow-up doll that has been custom made; built to his own measurements, proportions, specifications, an inflatable Gotterdammerung. Jonathan Barrows\u2019s narcissism is so complete that everyone else in the world \u2013 in his world \u2013 is boring and boorish; he takes much delight in colorfully and quite humorously, though unintentionally on his part, rejecting them who dare approach his space and try to penetrate his world. Both men and women alike feel his specialness and want to be with him, want to be his friend, his lover, his buddy, his pal, his own, smothered pairing. Ugh.
\n So goes \u201cWatch Out!\u201d, the latest novel from Joseph Suglia, whose previous two novels: \u201cHolderlin and Blanchot on Self-Sacrifice\u201d and \u201cYears of Rage\u201d, are on my list of books to read soon. \u201cWatch Out!\u201d is a brand new book; in fact it\u2019s not even out yet! Look for it in about a month or so, in October. Hopefully you\u2019ll take my advice and FIND THIS BOOK! It is a page-turner; an eye-opening, fantastic trip. I simply couldn\u2019t put it down, I just had to keep on reading; I had to see what would happen next. That\u2019s the thing that makes you keep on and on \u2013 you just HAVE to find out what\u2019s next.
\n This is a funny book! It was alternately a hilarious, screaming riot and a grotesque, ultra-violent catharsis, but all very stylishly done. Like I said \u2013 it is a FUNNY, FUNNY book. I laughed out loud so much \u2013 more so than anything I can think of, except Bukowski.
\n Joseph Suglia is an academic-cum-novelist, having received a PhD in comparative literature studies which, indeed, brings much to the table when writing a novel; he looks like David Bowie, if Bowie were short & stocky and Italian-American. He currently lives in Chicago and is hopefully hard at work on the next book that will blow our minds; the proverbial \u201cGreat American Novel\u201d. You can find him at MySpace too, although I don\u2019t know the exact route to get to him. I\u2019m sure you can Google him or go to the publisher\u2019s website, linked at the bottom. He has no cult following at the moment but I\u2019m sure that one will follow after the release of \u201cWatch Out!\u201d this fall.
\n If you are a fan of the late, great William S. Burroughs or the aforementioned Bukowski, you will be right at home in Joseph Suglia\u2019s world; a world of hallucinatory reveries, strange synchronicities and the most graphic sadistic, masochistic and sadomasochistic lunacies this side of \u201cThe Western Lands\u201d. But there is also the most hilarious, self-centered, self-loving (literally) portrayal of a character in the persona of Jonathan Barrows. I instantly connected with Barrows\u2019s misanthropy, nihilism., caustic wit, his use of cool, original-sounding metaphors and most of all the intense solipsism. It is a wonderfully and bleakly humorous or humorously bleak tale of one man who is swallowed up by a world he never made; a cold, cruel, stupid orbit of retards that is a microcosm of America. I won\u2019t give the ending away, but if you are as nauseated by pop culture as Suglia seems to be and as I am, you\u2019ll not be unhappy with it (\u2018X\u2019=Britney Spears, OK?). You\u2019ll be thinking that there is justice possible in this world, even if it is only a fantasy! Publisher\u2019s (Elf Press) website: http:\/\/www.flf.org \u2013KM.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[book review] \u201cWATCH OUT!\u201d A novel by Joseph Suglia; Elf Press, OUT OCT. \u201806 Review by Kent Manthie Jonathan Barrows is an individual; not an \u201ceveryman\u201d or the \u201caverage Joe\u201d, no, Barrows is a unique singularity. He is also in love with himself. Literally. He keeps snapshots of his naked self around, at the ready for a joy-fest; he has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[541],"class_list":["post-133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive","tag-watch-out-book-review"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132,"url":"https:\/\/reviewermag.com\/press\/2006\/08\/28\/the-lisa-diaries-book-review\/","url_meta":{"origin":133,"position":0},"title":"The Lisa Diaries book review","author":"admin","date":"August 28, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"[book review] \u201cThe Lisa Diaries\u201d, by Lisa Carver Review by Kent Manthie Watching CNN or reading the NY TIMES can really exacerbate depression and after a while, just to stay sane you have to turn the damn television off and crawl in bed and stare at the ceiling. 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