Smoke and Gravity

by Win Neagle

This first novella by Win Neagle is a rollicking good read about a treehouse architect, his stripper girlfriend, a house-burgling germaphobe, a washed-up dentist and his shopaholic wife. It's a rollercoaster of laughs in a zany, whimsical exploration of life. Fred Chappell calls the book ... original, whimsical and utterly untrammeled humor that will have you comparing Neagle to Voltair and Vonnegut.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published November 1, 2004

Reviews

[Jennifer Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a strange book, but it's also kind of wonderful. Zany, entertaining, and filled with the absurd as well as with love, it's just kind of... well, adorable. Bringing together a whole cast of strange characters, and written in a jumping, fast style that makes it feel almost like a collection of vignettes more than a novel in some spots, this book feels as if it was written in short bursts by Christopher Moore and Douglas Adams and Kurt Vonnegut all together--maybe over a big pitcher of Red Bull and Vodka--and then sent back in time to be touched up, flavored, and edited first by F. Scott Fitzgerald and then by Flannery O'Connor.

I don't know how this book came into my collection. I don't know how else to describe beyond saying what I just have. It's short, strange, oddly sweet, and well worth reading. I truly wish I could just go buy the author a beer.

Absolutely recommended.