Stand Up, Ernie Baxter: You're Dead

by Adam Voith

Fiction. The body of Ernie Baxter was just buried in the frozen earth of an Indiana winter, but Ernie's story is far from over. From beyond the pale, this newcomer to the heavenly scene observes the folks left down below--notably, his mother and onetime girlfriend Kyra--grieving his unexpected death. Kyra's husband Dain, a phony redneck with a trust-fund and a snowplow, wonders what the fuss is about. This unique novel mixes crisply written prose with the deft comic illustrations of underground artist Mike Lowery (4 full chapters done as comics!), delivering a witty and transcendental story of the legacy one man hoped to leave behind, and the twisted myth that actually remains.

Genres: Fiction, Novels

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Dr. Bower · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Genius. I was not expecting that to go any of those places. Loved loved loved it.

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great Adam Voith book. Why aren't more people reading this guy? This book is a super-quick read and is filled with the usual Voith-isms of changing narrators, bittersweet humor, and playing with form (in this case, computer documents detailing stand-up comedy routines show up in the book as messy crude talking-head cartoons). I'm on board for whatever else Voith does, and I'd recommend this book to anyone.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Adam do a reading from this book once, he graced the bar stage with a beard that said "I write in a dark room...listen it's going to blow your mind", well his beard said that or "I get food caught in this". No mind were blown but I did laugh my ass off, I read this book twice in one week back in I think 2000, I really should read it again. Death is such a funny topic.

[Cheryl · Rating 2 out of 5]

I met Adam Voith when he was touring with Damien Jurado. He had such a great stage pressence when he read his short stories. He tricked me into thinking that this book would be good.