Review by New York Times Review
IN THE FIRST story of "See You in Paradise," J. Robert Lennon's funny and poignant new collection, a family discovers a "magic portal" in their backyard. The "oval, sort of man-sized, shimmering thing" not only transports them to other worlds; it also serves as the reader's entree to the rest of the book, with its array of futuristic and surreal psychic landscapes. The breezy blend of realism and fantasy is characteristic: The narrator, a world-weary dad, describes the first giddy era of exploration, which soon declines into domestic dysfunction as his children hit puberty and his wife grows distant. The portal, mirroring this entropy, becomes "lopsided, with a sort of hernia in the lower left corner," and the narrator is left bereft and aching, trying to find his way back to some semblance of enchantment. The story is one of several to evoke speculative hokum with gusto, coaxing the jaded reader through familiar genre portals into narratives that defy expectations by mixing farce with gothic mystery, cartoonish absurdities with an earthy emotional depth. In "Zombie Dan," a group of buddies reunite to help a once-dead friend adjust to his experience as a "restored-life individual." Dan's ghoulish antics prompt dark laughter, but when he reveals a knack for telepathy and an understanding of cosmic mysteries, the horror device takes a touching turn. The zombie's omniscience transports the narrator out of his depressed detachment, and by the story's end, he is poised to address the deeper enigmas of his personal life. The title story is less speculative, a satire highlighting the absurdities of global capitalism. A smug nice-guy protagonist who works for a business school's alumni magazine starts dating an heiress and lands a job with her father. He spends a few weeks stranded on the volcano-plagued island headquarters of Peck Incorporated, a shabby tax dodge in the Bahamas where his Beckettian monotony is interrupted only by dalliances with pornography and one drinking spree with his girlfriend. When he misses an important call and is fired, he takes refuge in a hut with a local family who make tourist knickknacks. The story ends with his complacent return to the university-industrial complex; he has stepped back through his own version of the magic portal none the wiser. Lennon's most moving narratives depict comically strange scenarios and then ambush the reader with raw throbs of emotion. In the final story, "Farewell, Bounder," a middle-aged man who has remarried receives an invitation to join his ex-wife and their son to celebrate the life of the deceased family dog. As the story shifts among different perspectives, it becomes clear that Ray's ex is mentally ill, and her antics spur uneasy laughter - particularly at the party where a crew of local misfits has gathered. The story ends with a chilling foray into the deranged ex's mind, pushing the reader out of the farcical and into the realm of tragedy. Many of Lennon's main characters, befuddled men in various states of midlife funk, have been scarred by crazy, cruel or dissatisfied women - abusive mothers; apathetic ex-girlfriends; ambitious, bitter or loony wives. Though these men stumble through the uncanny bleakness of 21st-century life weighted by depression, the stories percolate with wry observations, compact poetic lines and deft shifts from existential exhaustion to sentiment. Step through a portal into one of Lennon's tales, and you will find a suburban dystopia peppered with lyricism and wonder, touched with moments of transformation and grace. JULIA ELLIOTT'S story collection, "The Wilds," was published in October.
Copyright (c) The New York Times Company [January 18, 2015]
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Menace runs through many of the 14 stories in novelist Lennon's (Familiar) first collection, tales of quotidian suburban existence into which he often introduces a surreal element. In "Hibachi," the gift of the eponymous grill leads to an odd act of liberation for a frustrated wife. "Total Humiliation in 1987" features an unhappy family on vacation that finds another family's time capsule and thereby casts a pall on their own activities. In the entertaining title story, a young man of "good qualities" successfully romances a CEO's daughter only to find that he has made a deal with the devil. While "The Accursed Items" is a failed attempt at experimental fiction, "Weber's Head" generates dread and humor in equal measure as a man who rents out a room in his apartment gets more than he bargains for when he takes on the proverbial roommate from hell. Three of the best stories, "Zombie Dan," "The Wraith," and "Portal" are postmodern riffs on classic science fiction and horror themes. Although several individual stories score, the collection as a whole strikes the same note of suburban disaffection over and over again to the ultimate point of diminishing returns. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Haunting, surreal, and often tinged with sf elements, Lennon's work is driven by a fertile, experimental imagination and an interest in examining suburban malaise. As evidenced in works such as Mailman and Familiar, he creates strange, unsettling, dystopian fictional worlds that may be real or may be manifestations of his protagonist's obsessions, pathologies, or damaged psychological states. Drawing on 15 years of work, this excellent collection includes a rich variety of short stories that explore these distinctive themes. Some of the stories are idea-driven, and they often highlight Lennon's interest in sf and flair for the macabre. "The Wraith," for example, is a potent and disturbing story about an unhappy suburban couple who suddenly find themselves living with a zombielike supernatural creature. Other entries are more character driven, and these are among the best in the collection. "Total Humiliation in 1987," for example, is an accomplished, emotionally moving psychological study of a marriage falling publicly and ignominiously apart in front of a couple's teenage children during a summer vacation. Lennon examines the suddenly unfathomable gulf that has grown between these parents with intelligence and pathos. VERDICT An eerie, disquieting, and powerful collection; recommended for fans of literary fiction. [See Prepub Alert, 6/2/14.]-Patrick Sullivan, Manchester Community Coll., CT (c) Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Fourteen short stories about the quiet desperation and weary pessimism of a disparate collection of travelers. One sometimes wonders if Lennon (Familiar, 2012, etc.) published his recent Salon essay, "How to Write a Bad Review," in hopes of catching a break. Fortunately, the gifted novelist doesn't need the help, especially if he continues to produce short fiction such as the unconventional yet emotionally resonant stories on display here. Culled from the past 15 years, the stories tend to drift toward two categories. The more exotic and eye-catching are those that insert some magical or paranormal element into a drab suburban landscape. In "Portal," an otherworldly doorway to alternate universes becomes as boring as an old gaming console with time. In "Zombie Dan," a couple finds that their recently resurrected pal is even more irritating when he comes back with an omniscient knowledge of their sins. In "The Wraith," a wife's depression cleaves from her to become a golemlike ghoul that haunts her husband. Then there's "Weber's Head," an old-fashioned horror story whose narrator wouldn't be amiss in the other category of stories of disaffected people on the edge of despair. "I was thoroughly debased, and at thirty-two felt like I'd been an old man for a long time," says Weber's roommate. "I saw no way of escaping the life I'd made for myself, save for the mountain falling down and crushing me." This theme of characters with their songs stuck in their throats runs throughout the book in stories like "No Life," in which a couple struggles with adoption; "Total Humiliation in 1987," about a marriage on the rocks; and "Hibachi," a Carver-esque tale of the liberating power of home appliances. Perhaps best to end with "The Accursed Items," an interesting diversion originally broadcast on This American Life.Much like his contemporaries Kevin Wilson or Wells Tower, Lennon is one of those writers who defies categorization and is as likely to fit comfortably into Weird Tales as he is into Granta. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
