Blaster: The Blaster Al Ackerman Omnibus

by Blaster Al Ackerman

Genres: Fiction, Literature

288 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Stewart Home · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine Lenny Bruce as an OULIPO writer and you'll get some idea of what Ackerman's work is like, only it is better and funnier. Plot summary doesn't do Blaster justice but who else would write a story about a guy who makes a suit of sausages to attract the attention of a hefty blonde who lives in a room he can see from his window? Or about a guy who gets a bad reaction when he takes a stiff from the hospital morgue on a date to a restaurant? Ackerman, now based in Baltimore, is still banging out great stories and poems but this anthology contains his very best work, often reprinted from the marginal arts publication "Lost & Found Times". If you are only interested in Ackerman then this is the book to get, but if you want to know something of the milieu Blaster belonged to then check out "Loose Watch: The Best of Lost and Found Times" published by the UK based Invisible Books. "Loose Watch" contains most of the best pieces by Ackerman to be found in this anthology (not quite all of the best pieces, which is why you might want this book) as well as lots by his friends from outside the Neoist Network; if you want to know about Ackerman's role as a founder Neoism, then there's no one book for that....

[Kami · Rating 5 out of 5]

words fail me. A trip to the brain that made the most sense when i was simultaneously listening to The Sun City Boys loudly. Then it all became clear! A collection of stories, art, letters, humour and mad frivolity that left me laughing, scratching my head and humming the theme from an imaginary spaghetti film noir western all at the same time.

[Tentatively, Convenience · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned from this bk that if you walk backwards in a crab-like fashion you will eventually get run over by something if you're not careful.

[clinamen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Blaster Al Ackerman is quite simply one of the most imaginatively depraved miscreants ever to haunt the graveyard of capital-L Literature. His writing belongs to alleys and gutters on the margins of respectability and coherence, never missing a chance to ham it up via unabashedly sophomoric, shlocky juxtapositions. But Al was acutely aware that nonsense is quite a serious matter, and accordingly he treats his huckster pablum with the urgency it demands. More than any other writer I can think of, Blaster best embodies Lucretius’ notion of the clinamen; that unpredictable swerve of atoms which Al is so adept at surfing.

If you’re looking for an entry point to Al’s writing, I recommend starting with a semi-recent publication by John M. Bennett’s Luna Bisonte Prods. which compiles all the texts Al did for Bennett’s similarly bizarre and enthralling journal Lost & Found Times — or you can download all the issues of LAFT on LB’s website and read Al’s columns in their original context. While that collection is a cheap and readily-available place to start, this Blaster Omnibus (1993, Feh! Press) is far and above the best collection of his writing I’ve encountered, as it includes lots of introductory notes by Al discussing his writing and plenty of his ubiquitous ink scribblings. Only problem is it’s been out of print for decades and I can’t imagine there are many folks looking to part with their copies, so I considered myself lucky to snag a copy of this for $65 (all other copies I could find were $100+). Normally I wouldn’t subject myself to such egregious grift, but the call of the Blaster is such that I can only follow his bestial wail, drool & other effluvia oozing down my chin, gobbling up as many of his “leavings” as I can get my filthy paws on. For true reprobates only!!