A savagely satirical look at Christmas traditions in a science fiction setting where giving of yourself is taken to a literal extreme. This is not your typical Christmas story- this is Bizarro Fiction, so be prepared for weirdness!
Lee Widener's latest excursion into Bizarro, following "David Bowie is Trying to Kill Me!" and "Rock N Roll Head Case," is another example of his unique style of Bizarro Fiction. Follow the Flortwire family as they celebrate Christmas in a far future world even stranger than our own!
NOTE: This is a Kindle SINGLE, not a full novel, and in the great tradition of Christmas through the ages, it's overpriced for the holidays!
So, this is Christmas, is it? Well, then, what better time to unwrap a few nasty, rotten gift of blasphemous holiday joy! Yeah, it's gonna be dark, and weird, and quite possibly grossly offensive, but WTF . . . right?Lee Widener's latest excursion into Bizarro, following "David Bowie is Trying to Kill Me!" and "Rock N Roll Head Case," is another example of his unique style of Bizarro Fiction. Follow the Flortwire family as they celebrate Christmas in a far future world even stranger than our own!
NOTE: This is a Kindle SINGLE, not a full novel, and in the great tradition of Christmas through the ages, it's overpriced for the holidays!
Damn, but this was Christma Mass-ively messed up and Seasonally surreal! Give of Yourself: A Bizarro Christmas Tale opens with a paragraph that is just chock-full of weirdness. The mentions of the Holiday Gift Surgical Center and popcorn recycling center are decidedly odd, but even they you're prepared to accept the "symbolism of giving his right hand" at face value . . . but then Lee Widener drops informs us that two of Angelo's fingers and his thumb are not originals, and we start to wonder WTF is going on.
This is a creepy bizarro tale that latches onto the symbolism of the holiday and twists it by taking it all literally. Here we have a world where people literally give of themselves for Christmas. Toes are good gifts for people you work with, and best friends might swap noses, but family gets full hands or feet, and spouses . . . well, you might as well give them your heart.
This year, Angelo is determined to outdo all his coworkers and make himself the company's shining star by gifting his right hand to the boss for Christmas. His wife thinks it's a great idea, and is already planning how to get caught in the closet with the boss' wife at the company Christmas party, so she can make it truly memorable. I honestly wondered how far the story could go with such a concept, especially when the big twist is revealed in the opening paragraph, but this is a story that has a lot to say about the commercialism of the holidays and consumer culture in general.
The story is weirdly amusing, full of fantastic little background details that have us piling up question as to what kind of world we're living in. It's oddly uncomfortable, and often disgustingly awkward, but it's all carried along by the mix of dread and anticipation that Angelo feels, leading up to the big event. It should come as no surprise that things don't go as planned - in fact, the way the Christmas party play out is brilliantly cruel - but there is still a nugget of happy holiday wisdom buried in the final pages.
Kindle: 24 pages
Published: October 31, 2016
Published by: NeverEndingWonder Books
