The Ballad of a Slow Poisoner
by Andrew Goldfarb
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Book Summary Information
Author: Andrew GoldfarbEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-05-08
ISBN: 193392960X
Number of pages: 140
Publisher: Eraserhead Press
Book Reviews of The Ballad of a Slow Poisoner
Book Review: Beautifully Simply Little Eye-Twitch Inducer
Summary: 5 Stars
There's something very strange about Andrew Goldfarb, and we are all very lucky that he's talented enough to share that with the rest of us. From the catchy, bizarre tunes pumped and beat out of his one-man surrealist rock-band The Slow Poisoner, to his creepily absurd comics, to his bizarre, beautiful little books- Goldfarb shares a bit of his Voodoo-tinged madness with all of us.
`Ballad of a Slow Poisoner', an early short novel from Goldfarb, is a simple little thing of perfectly brilliant BIZARRE. Unlike some other authors in the Bizarro Fiction scene, Goldfarb doesn't have to resort to tentacle-porn and anthropomorphic-whatever ultraviolence to unsettle and delight us- the creepy is in the simplicity. `Slow Poisoner' is comprised of eighty exceedingly short chapters containing wistful and whimsical little stark B&W illustrations and odd little songs (highlighting his brilliance as a songwriter too), telling the tale of one Milford Mutterwurst, who awakens one morning to discover that his elbows are becoming flatter.
Seems a simply problem, right? Well, it is. And it's upsetting after a little while in its simplicity. Who else has ever come across a book with a problem like that plaguing its morbidly listless little protagonist?
Milford debarks on a trip in a balloon along with a blue blob named Slub-Glub, and a translucent green monkey in a half-baked effort to find the cause of his ailment. In hot-pursuit is his adamant love-interest, with a pot of tea and a sentient ventriloquist's dummy. And his tea-shuttling pirate mother makes an appearance too... Andrew goldfarb is a strange man.
The tale ranges from the sky to the sun to the sea (which is actually Milford's wife, go figure), in a brief gasp of the strange.
I read the book in one dizzying sitting, my face ranging from expressions of incredulity at the awesomely random content, to delight at the simple humor always present in the work. It serves as as decent as any an introduction to either Goldfarb's work (something that deserves enormous attention and is all tied together with the same creepy New Orleans happy-nightmare style) and Bizarro Fiction in general.
Highly recommended.
Summary of The Ballad of a Slow Poisoner
Herein are the singular adventures of one Millford Mutterwurst, who one day makes the unpleasant discovery that his elbows are becoming flatter - an unpleasant effect of the nefarious act of slow poisoning. He is soon joined by a blue and globular companion named Slub Glub and one translucent monkey in a frenetic balloon voyage to dangerous isles and disturbing planets in a desperate attempt to escape this deadly withering. A tale told in eighty dizzying chapters, all of them exceedingly short, and filled with strange songs and oblique illustrations.Humorous Books
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