What do you think?
Rate this book
Short Lean Cuts
America is sick. Maybe you wouldn't even notice at first glance—all of the shiny, happy people with their smart phones and dumb ideas—but that's just the honey glaze on a week old ham that is starting to rot in the heat of a summer that never seems to end. Take a razor, cut a slice or two, and see what lies beneath the gloss of modern life... WARNING: For mature audiences. Explicit content.
98 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2011
2 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
Alex M. Pruteanu
4 books31 followersSince emigrating to the United States from Romania in 1980, Alex M. Pruteanu has worked as a laborer, movie projectionist, record store clerk, journalist, television news director, freelance writer, and editor. He is the author of novella Short Lean Cuts, (self-released, 2011) the short story collection, Gears, (Independent Talent Group, Inc., 2013) and novel The Sun Eaters. (Cervena Barva Press, 2018). His forthcoming short story collection is called The Imagination of the State (Independent Talent Group, Inc.), and it's scheduled to be published in early summer of 2018.
His writing has appeared in NY Arts Magazine, Guernica, [PANK], Connotation Press, FRIGG, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and many others.
His writing has appeared in NY Arts Magazine, Guernica, [PANK], Connotation Press, FRIGG, The Stockholm Review of Literature, and many others.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
April 3, 2016
Review copy kindly provided by author and GR friend Alex M. Pruteanu.
2012 is definitely the year of reading dangerously. There was 1Q84, Absalom, Absalom!, and Travel To the G-Spot -- The Guide Book! At least this one wasn't a sprawling epic novel like With Fire and Sword which I had to cram down in three weeks because I had it on inter-library loan. (The things I read for friends. Just kidding!) I read it in one sitting. But it has plenty of food for thought to sit down to.
First, the title. Short Lean Cuts. The cover illustration is the head of a pig (I cast thee out, William Golding!). So this suggests a lean cut of meat. Is it a book about food, like Babette's Feast? Well, it's rather short for that, because it's a novella. So did the author take short cuts when preparing this? That's usually dangerous to do whether you're cooking–especially when it comes to pork—or whether you're writing. A cut is by definition something dangerous. It can be a wound. Or a move in boxing. So is the reader being threatened? Hmmmmmmm...
Next, there are the instructions for reading. Trying to be a smart aleck, Alex? Or are you being a literary snob by imitating Calvino's trick of addressing the reader directly? Well? I'm waiting... Hey, what's this? You just said something funny but disturbing about the writing process! Significant? Maybe.
Then there's the table of contents. The chapter titles are in parentheses, almost as if the accumulation of chapters is what's important, but the content is incidental. Is it? Then why read any further? Well, if you want to find out, let's go. But, as Bette Davis said, "Fasten your seatbelts! It's going to be a bumpy night!"
Finally the text. We meet the narrator at last. He doesn't seem to have a name. Does that make him Everyman? Well, as a tip of the hat to Proust, whose narrator was named after the author, I will call our friend Aleck, to make sure he is linked to, but distinguished from the author. And because he really is a smart aleck.
Aleck is a recluse, as well as a narcissist. And he's full of cutting remarks about everybody and everything. He has flitted from place to place and job to job. In like manner, his thoughts seem to flit from topic to topic. There are flashbacks of his various jobs, dark hints of an unhappy childhood, conversations with people he's met, sexual fantasies, and some interactions with his case-worker.
Case worker? Uh oh! What does that mean? Should his neighbors be worried? I know that if I were in the apartment next to him, I would be.
But what does Aleck really want out of life?
To live out the American dream? Maybe, but his version of it doesn't make it seem all that desirable.
To be loved? When you're a narcissist, you're already in love with yourself, so he's got that covered. And if you read about his fantasies, well... perhaps the less said about that, the better!
To be rich? Getting warmer, but one shudders to think what Aleck would do with money if he had it. Besides, if you're as well versed in the art of the five-finger discount as he is, who needs money?
To be famous? Ah, now we're getting to the marrow of it. To grind things down to the essential, what he wants is the same thing Willy Loman wanted: Attention. And Aleck knows how to get people's attention when he feels like it. He fiddles with the films he projects, just to play with the innocent(?) viewers' minds. He tells his case worker what she wants to hear, just to string her along. And he laughs up his sleeve at the world the whole time. But that's not even the worst of it.
This novella is funny, dark and disturbing. Despite appearances to the contrary, it is intelligent, philosophical and well crafted. Alex Pruteanu has served up a biting indictment of the individualism, consumerism and narcissism that plague American society in particular and wider human society in general.
2012 is definitely the year of reading dangerously. There was 1Q84, Absalom, Absalom!, and Travel To the G-Spot -- The Guide Book! At least this one wasn't a sprawling epic novel like With Fire and Sword which I had to cram down in three weeks because I had it on inter-library loan. (The things I read for friends. Just kidding!) I read it in one sitting. But it has plenty of food for thought to sit down to.
First, the title. Short Lean Cuts. The cover illustration is the head of a pig (I cast thee out, William Golding!). So this suggests a lean cut of meat. Is it a book about food, like Babette's Feast? Well, it's rather short for that, because it's a novella. So did the author take short cuts when preparing this? That's usually dangerous to do whether you're cooking–especially when it comes to pork—or whether you're writing. A cut is by definition something dangerous. It can be a wound. Or a move in boxing. So is the reader being threatened? Hmmmmmmm...
Next, there are the instructions for reading. Trying to be a smart aleck, Alex? Or are you being a literary snob by imitating Calvino's trick of addressing the reader directly? Well? I'm waiting... Hey, what's this? You just said something funny but disturbing about the writing process! Significant? Maybe.
Then there's the table of contents. The chapter titles are in parentheses, almost as if the accumulation of chapters is what's important, but the content is incidental. Is it? Then why read any further? Well, if you want to find out, let's go. But, as Bette Davis said, "Fasten your seatbelts! It's going to be a bumpy night!"
Finally the text. We meet the narrator at last. He doesn't seem to have a name. Does that make him Everyman? Well, as a tip of the hat to Proust, whose narrator was named after the author, I will call our friend Aleck, to make sure he is linked to, but distinguished from the author. And because he really is a smart aleck.
Aleck is a recluse, as well as a narcissist. And he's full of cutting remarks about everybody and everything. He has flitted from place to place and job to job. In like manner, his thoughts seem to flit from topic to topic. There are flashbacks of his various jobs, dark hints of an unhappy childhood, conversations with people he's met, sexual fantasies, and some interactions with his case-worker.
Case worker? Uh oh! What does that mean? Should his neighbors be worried? I know that if I were in the apartment next to him, I would be.
But what does Aleck really want out of life?
To live out the American dream? Maybe, but his version of it doesn't make it seem all that desirable.
To be loved? When you're a narcissist, you're already in love with yourself, so he's got that covered. And if you read about his fantasies, well... perhaps the less said about that, the better!
To be rich? Getting warmer, but one shudders to think what Aleck would do with money if he had it. Besides, if you're as well versed in the art of the five-finger discount as he is, who needs money?
To be famous? Ah, now we're getting to the marrow of it. To grind things down to the essential, what he wants is the same thing Willy Loman wanted: Attention. And Aleck knows how to get people's attention when he feels like it. He fiddles with the films he projects, just to play with the innocent(?) viewers' minds. He tells his case worker what she wants to hear, just to string her along. And he laughs up his sleeve at the world the whole time. But that's not even the worst of it.
This novella is funny, dark and disturbing. Despite appearances to the contrary, it is intelligent, philosophical and well crafted. Alex Pruteanu has served up a biting indictment of the individualism, consumerism and narcissism that plague American society in particular and wider human society in general.
March 21, 2013
Short Lean Cuts is a knife-fight of a book, and as the title suggests, the story is served up to you in a series of slices, each one exploring the rank, odious disease that we call the modern world. Darkly comic, scathing in its world view, this is nonetheless a book that engages with you on a philosophical level, and for such a short book, provokes your preconceptions about society and how we live. Alex Pruteanu's prose is taut and very musical - the sentences seem deliberately crafted, very rhythmic, moving you through his narrator's warped, narcissistic journey. A very short book, but the kind that smacks you in the face and then demands you say thank you because you should have learned something from the blow. Read it.
July 7, 2011
i've followed http://swine.wordpress.com/ for a couple years now? alex consistently bangs out bits of short flash that immediately rip and plunk the reader into another mindset, another scene. he writes the common line of the too self aware: being the banality of both hope and despair. capturing such inversion isn't an easy feat in writing. to break it down and bleed it out is an entirely brittle process and alex m. pruteanu has mastered such constructive nihilism with "short lean cuts".
"It has nothing to do with altruism, this record I'm leaving here. Nothing has anything to do with unselfish regard or devotion to others. the key to salvation is how much attention you get. You realize that if there'd been a low turnout at the crucifixion, they'd have rescheduled. You realize that if Jesus Christ had died in a hole, or some shit prison with no witnesses or no one there to mourn or torture Him, we wouldn't be saved."
see, that's the kind of mind blow i read for. exactly that.
and funny, of course. one should always lol while reading a man who's 'breaking down'.
example - one of my favorite lines (ever):
"i'm too fat for this kind of jihad"
i mean, that should be like america's collective fb status - eternally.
the thing that "short lean cuts" displays so effectively is the one truth people mostly can't stand to recognize. i won't specify, because truth is subjective and there's yer trouble. huh? whatever no one ever gets it.
i found each chapter to be a standalone layer. i was a little pissed when it ended. i wanted more, it felt abrupt but surely that was the intention. i read it twice and will surely read it again. yes - it is that entertaining, i partake in no literary circle jerks. it's hard to find something on the internets worth reading more than once. here's your chance.
"It has nothing to do with altruism, this record I'm leaving here. Nothing has anything to do with unselfish regard or devotion to others. the key to salvation is how much attention you get. You realize that if there'd been a low turnout at the crucifixion, they'd have rescheduled. You realize that if Jesus Christ had died in a hole, or some shit prison with no witnesses or no one there to mourn or torture Him, we wouldn't be saved."
see, that's the kind of mind blow i read for. exactly that.
and funny, of course. one should always lol while reading a man who's 'breaking down'.
example - one of my favorite lines (ever):
"i'm too fat for this kind of jihad"
i mean, that should be like america's collective fb status - eternally.
the thing that "short lean cuts" displays so effectively is the one truth people mostly can't stand to recognize. i won't specify, because truth is subjective and there's yer trouble. huh? whatever no one ever gets it.
i found each chapter to be a standalone layer. i was a little pissed when it ended. i wanted more, it felt abrupt but surely that was the intention. i read it twice and will surely read it again. yes - it is that entertaining, i partake in no literary circle jerks. it's hard to find something on the internets worth reading more than once. here's your chance.
June 8, 2012
Short Lean Cuts is a novella that blasts through the concrete of the brain from the first page. Alex M. Pruteanu is a master of language and the never ending subterfuge of americana that hides itself like a kid pretending to be a tree. Every chapter slices another slab of fat from the globular bullshit that keeps all truth draining into the liposuction bags as they are discarded and a leaner cut is sent out into the world wearing a girdle to obscure the flabby flesh that is held hostage behind spandex as a reminder.
“What people don’t know is that rubbing alcohol does the same job on mildew as the expensive products. Mildew requires two things to survive. Moisture and lack of air.
My caseworker scribbles down notes.
Mildew as a metaphor for disintegration of the human psyche.
Mildew as a metaphor for rotting on the surface and below.
Lack of air. Asphyxiation. Suicidal tendencies.
I say, elbow grease. There’s a tool with a triangle-shaped head that you can run for a few minutes on the grout. It vibrates off the fungus without the use of product. No need for proper ventilation.”
Each chapter detonates with Pruteanu’s explosions of thought and brilliance. This is one novella that is not to be missed. Pruteanu’s voice is inimitable, unforgettable and lean. Get a copy! It’s those fireworks you see from afar and wish you were closer to. Exceptional and they leave a lingering blinding circle of light where the spectacle once was!
“What people don’t know is that rubbing alcohol does the same job on mildew as the expensive products. Mildew requires two things to survive. Moisture and lack of air.
My caseworker scribbles down notes.
Mildew as a metaphor for disintegration of the human psyche.
Mildew as a metaphor for rotting on the surface and below.
Lack of air. Asphyxiation. Suicidal tendencies.
I say, elbow grease. There’s a tool with a triangle-shaped head that you can run for a few minutes on the grout. It vibrates off the fungus without the use of product. No need for proper ventilation.”
Each chapter detonates with Pruteanu’s explosions of thought and brilliance. This is one novella that is not to be missed. Pruteanu’s voice is inimitable, unforgettable and lean. Get a copy! It’s those fireworks you see from afar and wish you were closer to. Exceptional and they leave a lingering blinding circle of light where the spectacle once was!
November 18, 2012
There are some books that no amount of description, no matter how well worded or wise, can prepare you for, or even make you understand. You can read all the reviews you want, but it won't do any good...you just need to read it. "Short Lean Cuts" is definitely one of those books. Don't take my word on how amazingly fluid the language and ideas are, how raw and yet finely-tuned the prose is. Reading my thoughts on "Short Lean Cuts" will give you none of the experience of reading the book. Just read "Short Lean Cuts" and find out for yourself.
July 6, 2011
This is a hard review to write for two reasons: I know the author; I didn't read the book correctly.
Let's get the "knowing the author" out of the way first. I don't *know* him in the biblical sense. I've read a lot of Mr. Pruteanu's work before, some of it fiction, some of it non-fiction (I will be saving those emails for when he is rich and famous and I can use them in a "kiss-and-tell" moment...maybe there was something biblical?). All of this means that any review is automatically coloured by my friendship.
The friendship also meant that I read the book incorrectly. Let me explain: you need to sit down and read this book in one. Foolishly, because I was used to reading the author's short pieces and I was fooled by the use of the words "short" and "cut" in the title, I thought this was a book that I could read a bit of, put it down, read a bit more, put it down. This is not the correct way to read the book. The book is written like a piece of jazz music, and has its own specific rhythm. Some books you can pick up and read and you get into the rhythm, the pacing, straight away. "Short Lean Cuts" does have a rhythm, but it is hidden under the "freestyle" riffing of each chapter. If you read the book in one go, you feel the driving rhythm underneath each chapter, but you can follow each individual solo as it occurs. Unfortunately, I didn't do this for the first half of the book. This made the book very hard to read. Once I made a decision to "just do it", the book flowed much better.
The book isn't easy. It is very reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk, but at his darkest. However, the book is rewarding. There are moments when you wish that the author had run a bit further with an idea, but that, in some ways, is the point of the book - these are short, lean cuts of a bigger story. The author uses the minimum of words to tell a huge story. The reader is free to fill in the bits that are important to them.
Let's get the "knowing the author" out of the way first. I don't *know* him in the biblical sense. I've read a lot of Mr. Pruteanu's work before, some of it fiction, some of it non-fiction (I will be saving those emails for when he is rich and famous and I can use them in a "kiss-and-tell" moment...maybe there was something biblical?). All of this means that any review is automatically coloured by my friendship.
The friendship also meant that I read the book incorrectly. Let me explain: you need to sit down and read this book in one. Foolishly, because I was used to reading the author's short pieces and I was fooled by the use of the words "short" and "cut" in the title, I thought this was a book that I could read a bit of, put it down, read a bit more, put it down. This is not the correct way to read the book. The book is written like a piece of jazz music, and has its own specific rhythm. Some books you can pick up and read and you get into the rhythm, the pacing, straight away. "Short Lean Cuts" does have a rhythm, but it is hidden under the "freestyle" riffing of each chapter. If you read the book in one go, you feel the driving rhythm underneath each chapter, but you can follow each individual solo as it occurs. Unfortunately, I didn't do this for the first half of the book. This made the book very hard to read. Once I made a decision to "just do it", the book flowed much better.
The book isn't easy. It is very reminiscent of Chuck Palahniuk, but at his darkest. However, the book is rewarding. There are moments when you wish that the author had run a bit further with an idea, but that, in some ways, is the point of the book - these are short, lean cuts of a bigger story. The author uses the minimum of words to tell a huge story. The reader is free to fill in the bits that are important to them.
March 22, 2012
This author is one part poet and one part killer; plus two parts existentialist. As an aside, I flunked math in high school, but I know a great book when I read one. "Short Lean Cuts" is 96 pages of brilliant flash fiction, centered around the same intriguing, self-destructive, anti-helvetican narrator. The themes here are post-modern nihilism, anti-consumerism, and cultural narcissism; the humor is dark and incisive. But more than anything, what stays with you long after are the narrator's sharp insights, the surreal almost hallucinogenic scenes, and the staccato-like rhythm of the author's voice. Each piece here is an allegorical snapshot of modern society -- sliced razor thin.
February 20, 2015
Took me long enough to get to this, seeing as the author's autograph and personal note to me are dated 2013. So it goes.
There were some highs and lows for me with this feverish, punk-rock-lyrical indictment of consumerism and American corporate hypocrisy. The clearest theme in Pruteanu's first book is the monetization of suffering at the hands of mainstream media, pharmaceutical companies, next-door neighbors. The chapters that go after these entities head-on are the best. Good luck getting your ears to stop ringing, your heart to beat normally, after reading this twisted work of suffering-as-the-new-normal.
There were some highs and lows for me with this feverish, punk-rock-lyrical indictment of consumerism and American corporate hypocrisy. The clearest theme in Pruteanu's first book is the monetization of suffering at the hands of mainstream media, pharmaceutical companies, next-door neighbors. The chapters that go after these entities head-on are the best. Good luck getting your ears to stop ringing, your heart to beat normally, after reading this twisted work of suffering-as-the-new-normal.
Read
July 7, 2011Swift and dark ... and the minute I wrote "dark" I regretted it because that is an over-used word when describing books and maybe does this one a disservice. This book is better than that and deserves a better word than "dark." Let me try this again.
The sentences Short Lean Cuts are drunken slashing scalpels and by the time you finish reading this story you will be in shreds. And who doesn't want a story to do that?
The sentences Short Lean Cuts are drunken slashing scalpels and by the time you finish reading this story you will be in shreds. And who doesn't want a story to do that?
July 14, 2017
This tale is no three little pigs nursery rhyme, or Babe. This is closer to Piggy in Lord of the Flies.
Looking at the darker side of life and characters this book is as strong and shocking as it is well written. Dark in places it is probably not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it does come recommended.
Looking at the darker side of life and characters this book is as strong and shocking as it is well written. Dark in places it is probably not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it does come recommended.
July 4, 2011
This is a dark, funny and brilliantly written novel, at moments weirdly surreal and at other times painfully realistic. The writing was really a pleasure to read.
July 13, 2017
Razor sharp snap shots
America dissected
Into short lean cuts
America dissected
Into short lean cuts
November 7, 2025
Review forthcoming!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews