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

[Etoo · Rating 5 out of 5]

For the last four weeks, I’ve spent close to twenty minutes with the author of this book each week. We’ve bonded over film and trail mix, having the kind of meandering conversations that make you lose track of time. I found out not so long ago that he was a published author so of course I had to see what the fuck is up.

What I discovered in the pages was a masterfully braided narrative, weaving together eclectic characters that crackle with life. Romance collides with superficiality, invention with destruction, and it’s all a fundiddly blast! Win builds a world you want to inhabit, even when it is falling apart.

I had such a great time reading this, and I’m not saying this because he might see this. I’d recommend it a hundred times over because it earned every one of those recommendations. This is the kind of book that reminds you why you fell in love with reading in the first place.

[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.