Gorge: Pure Slush Vol. 4

by Matt Potter (Editor), Gessy Alvarez (Contributor), Jennifer Donnell (Contributor)

a novel in stories, 33 writers weave stories about a beachside restaurant, its customers and the people who work there, all in one action-packed, hunger-filled, testosterone-fuelled, hormonally crazy afternoon and evening

304 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2012

About the author

Matt Potter is a journalist, editor and broadcaster. He has reported for BBC Radio from Eastern Europe, Afghanistan and Southeast Asia, and co-presented Radio 1's award-winning global travel shows. As a journalist, his nose for the unusual has seen his writing appear in places as diverse as the Daily Telegraph, Golf Monthly, Esquire, Sunday Telegraph, Jack, Maxim, the Irish Examiner and Q, and his stories on cocaine trafficking in Latin America have been published in Russian, Spanish and English. As a journalist in Belgrade, he broke the story of the NATO 'spy' giving away secrets to Serb forces on the web. He speaks a handful of languages but attempts to speak at least twenty more. Matt is 39 and lives in London.

Reviews

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the concept, even if the execution is a bit rough in spots. There's a good mix of introducing new characters and developing familiar characters from chapter to chapter. Some of the stories work well as stand-alone pieces, others merely function to move the larger story along. Sexy in places, humorous in others, and sad as well.

I think it would have worked better with half the stories / authors and double the length of each story. As it is, it seemed too many times the author was going for shock value - like he /she had to make an impact in only a few pages. I also think some of the characters are superfluous and I would have preferred reading more about certain characters instead.


A few of my favorite pieces:

"Key Meeting" - Matt Potter
"The Arrival" - Jennifer Donnell
"Prestidigitation" - Sally Reno
"Death In the Afternoon" - Michael Webb
"Vanishing Act" - Matthew Brennan


Cookie baking is for people with grandchildren and time on their hands. - Sally Reno

"Oh," said Katrin. "Is Boston known for its good food?"
"No," said Bruce. "But it thinks it is." - Maude Larke

"I don't like fish that tastes like fish." - Vanessa Weibler Paris

"Mutts are the strongest dogs. To call a dog a mutt is to call it a survivor, to say it's not an inbred showpiece." - Jen Knox


Note: I take issue with Potter's description (in the Afterword) of Dana as "slutty", but this review is long enough.

[Guilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's plenty of "novels in stories" around these days--Junot Diaz's This Is How You Lose Her comes to mind--but this one has a unique edge: the voices of the multiple (33!) writers, which--and kudos to the editor for this--have been left intact. How do 33 voices tell a single story? The short answer is they don't--*gorge* is as rich in story lines as it is in characters. But here's the thing: instead of the cacophony of a Sunday afternoon in a Mexican town zócalo, the result here is eloquent. A slice of life in all its glorious variety, but with a red thread--the restaurant, Cafe Gano--to give it not just unity but meaning. And, like adding just the right amount of flour to a sauce, to thicken the plot.

*gorge* has everything: complex character development, wit as sharp as sushi knives, the melancholy inherent to every small town, the brightness of new possibilities--imagined or otherwise--that sets newcomers apart from the locals, romance (star-crossed and not), sibling rivalry, a homophobe that gets exquisitely tricked into satisfying an old (male) schoolmate's fantasy, drugs and their peddlers, artists, the busty bartender everyone fantasizes about, the mousy waitress no one does, a bullet in an oyster--no, I'm not kidding. And, somehow, knitted together in the unlikeliest of tapestries, all these ingredients come together and become so very much more than the sum of the parts.

Bravo, Pure Slush.