The Talkative Corpse

by Ann Sterzinger

Another comedy of the damned, from the author of GIRL DETECTIVES and NVSQVAM (NOWHERE). John Jaggo is a 40-year-old former veteran of the dying newspaper industry, currently stuck slinging pizza part-time for minimum wage with snotty kids half his age. As he chokes on hopelessness, rage, and half-rotten pepperoni, the only things he can find that give his existence a scrap of meaning are moping over his traitorous ex-girlfriend and wondering how and if the future will remember what used to be called the American Dream. Thousands of years later, archaeologists are puzzled by the diary he decides to spend his free time writing, laminating, and burying in the dirt courtyard of his apartment building—especially when they get to the part where he summons a minor demon in a black-out drunk on Halloween. And then he meets a girl.

Genres: Fiction

192 pages, Paperback

First published December 5, 2013

About the author

Violently funny, shyly tender, a lover of beauty and a hater of propaganda , especially when it dares to masquerade as art. Get real or get f***ed. (If you do the latter hard enough, it might make you real, so that's a win-win.) If you like your sci-fi loaded with dark humor, get a taste of my latest book: ELEKTRA'S REVENGE: THE FULL EPIC.

I have written in almost every genre that exists, from action thriller (THE SEINE VENDETTA) to litfic (NVSQVAM), because I don't love books for their genre; I love them for their genius. (Although most of the smartest writers in history were humorous in some way, however dry or oblique, so you could say I aim to be a comic novelist.) Most political trends kick us all when we're down, but the solutions aren't as straightforward or apparent as people want them to be... assuming there are good solutions to be found. But art and humor? We can all count on those. Stop bellowing and start singing.

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard not to be biased when the author is one of your cousins, but I'll try to be impartial(ish). Did I love this book as a near 40 year old that is happily married with kids and has been more or less financially stable and enjoyed most of his jobs since graduating college? No, but I did like it knowing that an angst-ridden younger version of myself would have loved it and thought the book was brutally honest and didn't pull any punches. The rants of the protagonist got a little repetitive for me, but he obviously had a more frustrating life and is A LOT more pessimistic than I am. Worth a read, although not easy to swallow for most people.

[Ben Arzate · Rating 5 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW

Anyone who's had the displeasure of looking for a fucking job within the last few years will probably know where Jaggo is coming from.... In The Talkative Corpse, Ann Sterzinger tears into the bullshit of contemporary American life with a mixture of venom, humor, and even a little empathy.