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The President's Parasite
In The President's Parasite, Jim Musgrave resurrects all that has gone missing in today's originality. The title story is a Kafkaesque piece from the point-of-view of an intellectual tapeworm trapped inside a moronic president, and the satirical impact is worthy of Swift. The other stories range from a widower trapped inside the Clock Tower in Baghdad that he constructed, to a baseball pitcher who becomes a living vegetable after a batted ball strikes his head. All in all, there is something for everyone in this collection of 30 eye-popping stories from a truly gifted author.
299 pages, Paperback
First published June 6, 2006
6 people want to read
About the author
James Musgrave
67 books192 followersJames Musgrave was born in Fall River, Massachusetts. He taught as a Professor of English and worked as a Supervisor, Management Development at Caltech, Pasadena and at various San Diego colleges. He is now the author and publisher at EMRE Publishing, LLC in San Diego. He has won many writing awards, and his mysteries are "featured selections" by the American Library Association. He was also a Finalist in the Bram Stoker Awards, First Place Award for Best Historical Mystery in the Chanticleer International Book Awards, and a Finalist in the Heekin Fellowship.
Please contact the author at: jamesmusgrave2122@att.net
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Please contact the author at: jamesmusgrave2122@att.net
Sign-up for the Author's Newsletter at: bestglobalai.com
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
October 19, 2008
This book contains thirty short stories. I think I was probably not the best Goodreads member to win this book. While I was reading I thought that perhaps some men might enjoy this more as well as those whose taste runs to the avant-garde. I found myself getting depressed or repulsed at times, but was emotionally involved during certain stories.
One thing that drove me nuts (that has nothing to do with the stories themselves) was that throughout the entire book, both sides of the page had the book’s title, which is the title of the last story in the book; one side of the page I’d have liked to have seen the title of the current short story.
These stories are extremely dark and are about people living on the edge and often with despair. They’re drug addicts, alcoholics, prisoners, assassins etc. There’s a plethora of violence and kinky sex. Many are told first person and all are told from one character’s point of view. These characters are widely disparate. There are men and women and children, multi-racial and multi-cultural, etc. Somehow, the author pulls this off with a few exceptions.
I like to read dark books about people in difficult circumstances but with very few exceptions (often the children) I didn’t feel familiar with these characters, and there were a few I didn’t even slightly understand which is unusual for me.
I enjoyed the first three stories, the last four stories, and one or a couple in the middle. The other stories I either thought were just ok or thought that at least in part they were kind of a mess, but I’m the first to admit that my discomfort with some of the subject matter could have influenced my opinion. I wanted to win this book because of the title story: The President’s Parasite. As with many of the other stories I liked and disliked parts although I did think the premise of the story being told from the point of view of a parasite occupying a human was inspired, and interesting.
Readers who do not enjoy literature that contains sex and violence will not enjoy these stories. Those who like avant-garde and unusual literature will want to check out this book.
One thing that drove me nuts (that has nothing to do with the stories themselves) was that throughout the entire book, both sides of the page had the book’s title, which is the title of the last story in the book; one side of the page I’d have liked to have seen the title of the current short story.
These stories are extremely dark and are about people living on the edge and often with despair. They’re drug addicts, alcoholics, prisoners, assassins etc. There’s a plethora of violence and kinky sex. Many are told first person and all are told from one character’s point of view. These characters are widely disparate. There are men and women and children, multi-racial and multi-cultural, etc. Somehow, the author pulls this off with a few exceptions.
I like to read dark books about people in difficult circumstances but with very few exceptions (often the children) I didn’t feel familiar with these characters, and there were a few I didn’t even slightly understand which is unusual for me.
I enjoyed the first three stories, the last four stories, and one or a couple in the middle. The other stories I either thought were just ok or thought that at least in part they were kind of a mess, but I’m the first to admit that my discomfort with some of the subject matter could have influenced my opinion. I wanted to win this book because of the title story: The President’s Parasite. As with many of the other stories I liked and disliked parts although I did think the premise of the story being told from the point of view of a parasite occupying a human was inspired, and interesting.
Readers who do not enjoy literature that contains sex and violence will not enjoy these stories. Those who like avant-garde and unusual literature will want to check out this book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review