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The Fly & I: Volume Four of the Memoirs of Arnold Schnabel
Our hero Arnold Schnabel awakens back in his version of reality, and with him is his new friend, a wisecracking fly. What new adventures await Arnold in the quaint seaside resort of Cape May on this rainy Sunday in August of 1963? Will he meet a brawling seafaring adventurer named Big Ben Blagwell, straight out of the pages of a pulp adventure novel? Will he be given custody of a ring with mystical powers by the seedy shopkeeper Mr. Arbuthnot? Will he avoid the passionate embraces of Miss Evans, the lusty lady novelist? Will he travel to the next world in order to bring back the recently deceased ancient degenerate Mr. Brown? In a word, yes, to all of the above, and a hell of a lot more…
439 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 18, 2020
About the author
Dan Leo
8 books33 followersBelieve me, the most interesting thing about me is the books I write, which might not be saying much, ha ha...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
January 28, 2021
So it’s taken me longer than usual to read the latest installment of Arnold Schnabel’s memoir “The Fly and I” as transcribed by the legendary content creator Dan Leo. Truth be told I have been concentrating and working hard lately on keeping up with my New Years resolution to drink more wine.
Enough about me....reading ‘The Fly and I’ has convinced me that Arnold Schnabel is not mentally ill nor has he ever been mentally ill at all. It is quite within the realm of possibility that he really is friends with an talking fly, Ferdinand. Also, there is little doubt in my mind that Big Ben Blagwell, the rough and tumble salty chain smoking sailor from the cheap discarded paper back novel Arnold casually thumbed at Mrs. Bidwell’s, is real as well. If these seemingly strange imagined friends of his are not real it would be impossible to explain how his other so called ‘real friends’ are able to interact with the fly and Ben as well, or there is something in the Cape May water supply and the entire town is crazy.
The going’s on in Arnold’s world are no more unbelievable than say walking on water or feeding thousands with a single fish, turning water into wine, all that kind of stuff which many fine people believe without any doubt whatsoever.
Mr. Leo claims that he is working on the next book in the series of Arnold’s memoir and has been placing teasers on Facebook, so if you like sneak peaks you can follow him there. I for one am not peaking at the teasers, but I still follow him cause he seems like a nice enough harmless lunatic with a great gift he’s sharing with the world.
Enough about me....reading ‘The Fly and I’ has convinced me that Arnold Schnabel is not mentally ill nor has he ever been mentally ill at all. It is quite within the realm of possibility that he really is friends with an talking fly, Ferdinand. Also, there is little doubt in my mind that Big Ben Blagwell, the rough and tumble salty chain smoking sailor from the cheap discarded paper back novel Arnold casually thumbed at Mrs. Bidwell’s, is real as well. If these seemingly strange imagined friends of his are not real it would be impossible to explain how his other so called ‘real friends’ are able to interact with the fly and Ben as well, or there is something in the Cape May water supply and the entire town is crazy.
The going’s on in Arnold’s world are no more unbelievable than say walking on water or feeding thousands with a single fish, turning water into wine, all that kind of stuff which many fine people believe without any doubt whatsoever.
Mr. Leo claims that he is working on the next book in the series of Arnold’s memoir and has been placing teasers on Facebook, so if you like sneak peaks you can follow him there. I for one am not peaking at the teasers, but I still follow him cause he seems like a nice enough harmless lunatic with a great gift he’s sharing with the world.
December 20, 2020
Author Dan Leo has created his own unique, highly enjoyable literary universe in his novels featuring the former railroad worker, bohemian poet and mental patient Arnold Schnabel. Actually, the adventures of Arnold span multiverses, including trips (in all senses of the word) through the inner recesses of his mind, heaven, purgatory, and various dimensions. It’s almost impossible to sum up what this fourth novel in Leo’s series featuring Arnold is about. Of course, that’s also true of the previous three. What’s easier to sum up is the fact that I have thoroughly enjoyed every one, chuckled frequently while reading them, and been amazed by some of the many literary, religious references and surprisingly deep thoughts they include. I also like that Leo’s character Big Ben Blagwell makes another appearance in Volume Four. Ben is a mountain of a man, a sailor, a veteran, and a part-time smuggler. He’s like a character out of a vintage men’s adventure magazine — a genre that happens to be Ben’s favorite reading material and one of mine. With Ben and several other highly unusual friends, like the talking fly mentioned in the title, THE FLY AND I sends Arnold on a whole new set of totally unpredictable escapades and escapes, illuminated with the amazingly witty dialogue Leo excels at. There’s really nothing quite like Dan Leo’s Arnold Schnabel novels. I highly recommend this one, and the three previous novels in the series.
August 11, 2022
If you love Arnold Schnabel's memoirs by Dan Leo, you will relish "The Fly & I"!
If you have not yet read the previous volumes ("Railroad Train to Heaven"; "This World or Any Other World", and "The Brawny Embraces"), you can easily enjoy this one first, after which you will most likely will want to seek out the preceding ones, all of which, including "The Fly & I" are far faster and immensely more fun than the word "volume" suggests. In this fourth one, Arnold remains his steadfast and sober demeanor, even as he tries not to succumb to more alcohol and occasional other intoxicants. The man, Arnold, is recovering from a mental breakdown but may well be the sanest man in Cape May, NJ, 1963, aided now by his amusing consort--who was not always a fly! The creature speaks like a wise guy, but is, in fact, wisdom itself despite relentless human bodily appetites, which who knows? Might bel be temprant for an insect.
If you have not yet read the previous volumes ("Railroad Train to Heaven"; "This World or Any Other World", and "The Brawny Embraces"), you can easily enjoy this one first, after which you will most likely will want to seek out the preceding ones, all of which, including "The Fly & I" are far faster and immensely more fun than the word "volume" suggests. In this fourth one, Arnold remains his steadfast and sober demeanor, even as he tries not to succumb to more alcohol and occasional other intoxicants. The man, Arnold, is recovering from a mental breakdown but may well be the sanest man in Cape May, NJ, 1963, aided now by his amusing consort--who was not always a fly! The creature speaks like a wise guy, but is, in fact, wisdom itself despite relentless human bodily appetites, which who knows? Might bel be temprant for an insect.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews