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New Bizarro Author Series
Bucket of Face
Thirteen years after a police officer searching a suspected child molester's home spilled a vial of silver pollen, America is still struggling with how to recognize its sentient fruit population. Charles is just a normal guy working at a doughnut shop until an apple and a banana shoot each other in a mafia dispute, leaving a briefcase full of foreign currency and a specimen bucket at the corner booth. When Charles turns the wiseguys into doughnuts and steals their luggage, hoping for a better life for himself and his kiwi fruit girlfriend, he finds himself in the middle of a mafia war. As his girlfriend travels the DC metro area, selling off the contents of the bucket, Charles finds he is the target of a seasoned hit-tomato, who happens to be the biggest Michael Jackson fan who ever lived.
92 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2010
376 people want to read
About the author
Eric Hendrixson
4 books34 followersIn 2002, Eric Hendrixson was cut off by a brand new Mercedes-Benz SLK while driving a late 80s Toyota Camry. That roadster is the most beautiful thing he's ever destroyed, and it makes him smile to this day. In 2005, he quit teaching English. In 2007, he was disqualified from the Isshinryu World Karate Championships for excessive violence against a dwarf. In 2010, his first book, Bucket of Face, was published by Eraserhead Press. The Ninja's Wife was in the 2014 Wishful Thinking anthology. Giving the Finger appeared in the 2015 Bizarro Starter Kit Red, and a collection of the same name is forthcoming. Drunk Driving Champion came out in 2016. In 2013, he moved from Washington, D.C., to the South Side of Chicago, where he lives with his beautiful, long-suffering wife and above-average-looking, seldom-suffering step-cat. He has never eaten this or any other cat. He lives three blocks from Barack Obama's house and still hasn't been invited over, not even once. Not for dinner, not for a barbecue, no lousy potluck, not for a cocktail, no beer summit, not even a cup of coffee. Dude, it's been three years. It's getting awkward.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 40 reviews
October 4, 2011
In a world where much of the fruit has become sentient due to a horticultural genius's experiments going out of control, fruit and humans struggle to live in harmony. When Charles witnesses a banana and apple killing each other in the doughnut shop where he works, he seizes the briefcase and the bucket of human faces they left behind and attempts to start a new life with his kiwi girlfriend Sarah. Things look as if they might be going Charles's way until a Michael Jackson-obsessed hit-tomato shoes up looking to recover the goods...
I don't really know how to start writing a review for this. Do I mention the crazy world Hendrixson has fashioned where humans and fruit attempt to live side by side? Or the hilarious pop culture references? Or the fact that Hendrixson has managed to turn a walking talking tomato into a fairly chilling antagonist? Eh, I'll wing it...
Bucket of Face is an entry in the New Bizarro Author Series and sure as hell doesn't read like a first book. Hendrixson's writing style reminds me of Christopher Moore doing noir. Like I said before, he makes talking fruit seem like believable characters. The relationship between Charles and Sarah was actually pretty believable once you disregarded the talking fruit aspect. The pop culture references were plentiful but not overdone. I caught references to the Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vacation, and a couple others.
Uniqueness always scores points with me and Bucket of Face has uniqueness coming out of every orifice. Come on! It's got a doughnut shop worker named Anakin, a Stallone-esque Strawberry everyone calls Bear, cops that talk in high class British accents when nobody's around, and a Michael Jackson worshiping tomato! Where else are you going to find anything like this?
To sum it up, if Eric Hendrixson is this creative right out of the gate, I'm ready for his next book right now. Give him a chance if you're a fan of Christopher Moore or similar authors.
Note:Here's my Eric Hendrixson interview.
I don't really know how to start writing a review for this. Do I mention the crazy world Hendrixson has fashioned where humans and fruit attempt to live side by side? Or the hilarious pop culture references? Or the fact that Hendrixson has managed to turn a walking talking tomato into a fairly chilling antagonist? Eh, I'll wing it...
Bucket of Face is an entry in the New Bizarro Author Series and sure as hell doesn't read like a first book. Hendrixson's writing style reminds me of Christopher Moore doing noir. Like I said before, he makes talking fruit seem like believable characters. The relationship between Charles and Sarah was actually pretty believable once you disregarded the talking fruit aspect. The pop culture references were plentiful but not overdone. I caught references to the Karate Kid, National Lampoon's Vacation, and a couple others.
Uniqueness always scores points with me and Bucket of Face has uniqueness coming out of every orifice. Come on! It's got a doughnut shop worker named Anakin, a Stallone-esque Strawberry everyone calls Bear, cops that talk in high class British accents when nobody's around, and a Michael Jackson worshiping tomato! Where else are you going to find anything like this?
To sum it up, if Eric Hendrixson is this creative right out of the gate, I'm ready for his next book right now. Give him a chance if you're a fan of Christopher Moore or similar authors.
Note:Here's my Eric Hendrixson interview.
January 10, 2011
My kids discovered those 'Charlie the Unicorn' YouTube videos recently and have been playing them constantly, which is to say, I've watched a lot of Charlie lately. (See the video below in case you're not familiar with Charlie) I got the same feeling reading Bucket of Face as I get watching Charlie - puzzled intrigue about where the story was going, delight at the bizarrely funny moments scattered throughout, and mild shock (in a good way) over the smattering of violence. In a good way.
The story is that of aptly-named doughnut shop worker Charles Baker and his girlfriend, who is an anthropomorphic kiwi fruit. In this story, a mysterious pollen released years before suddenly gave life to inanimate fruit. These fruit talk and have spindly arms and legs that, in my mind, looked just like the dancing letters in the video below. One day, a banana and an apple enter the doughnut shop and commence with blowing each other away in a disputed Mafia exchange, leaving behind a case full of (worthless Zimbabwean) cash and a specimen bucket full of, well, faces.
Like any good bizarro book does, Bucket takes this familiar crime novel setup and runs with it, in ways that only bizarro can. Enter a hit tomato named Roma, who happens to be a huge Michael Jackson fan for good reason, and his Strawberry sidekick. They want what Charles took, and no one gets away completely unscathed. Eric Hendrixson combines several odd plot lines that seem unconnected and manages to combine them for an inventive, funny, and in the end, rational conclusion. Bucket of Face is perfect bizarro fun - action, emotion, violence, and outlandish weirdness, all wrapped together in an exceedingly entertaining story. And my new favorite character name of all time may now be Edith Aridcunny. Bravo, Mr. Hendrixson.
Charlie the Unicorn.
The story is that of aptly-named doughnut shop worker Charles Baker and his girlfriend, who is an anthropomorphic kiwi fruit. In this story, a mysterious pollen released years before suddenly gave life to inanimate fruit. These fruit talk and have spindly arms and legs that, in my mind, looked just like the dancing letters in the video below. One day, a banana and an apple enter the doughnut shop and commence with blowing each other away in a disputed Mafia exchange, leaving behind a case full of (worthless Zimbabwean) cash and a specimen bucket full of, well, faces.
Like any good bizarro book does, Bucket takes this familiar crime novel setup and runs with it, in ways that only bizarro can. Enter a hit tomato named Roma, who happens to be a huge Michael Jackson fan for good reason, and his Strawberry sidekick. They want what Charles took, and no one gets away completely unscathed. Eric Hendrixson combines several odd plot lines that seem unconnected and manages to combine them for an inventive, funny, and in the end, rational conclusion. Bucket of Face is perfect bizarro fun - action, emotion, violence, and outlandish weirdness, all wrapped together in an exceedingly entertaining story. And my new favorite character name of all time may now be Edith Aridcunny. Bravo, Mr. Hendrixson.
Charlie the Unicorn.
August 18, 2011
I have doled out my fair share of five-star reviews this year since joining the Goodreads community. And I'll be honest, it has taken me a long time to really acquire an understanding of what constitutes a five-star rating. I'll read a book and think "five stars." But, I'm also one of those people who doesn't pick up a damned book unless I think it is going to be five stars to me. Sometimes I'm disappointed, true, and then I harshly give it three stars. That's as low as I'll go. I don't think I've been able to go any lower. And one star, those are reserved for the books I put down because I can't bear to finish them. I don't feel at liberty giving those books one-star ratings because I haven't finished them.
Finally, I asked myself "well, Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors and I'd five-star him. Does every book I read that I give five stars to deserve the same ranking?"
The answer is, "no."
Does this book deserve the same ranking?
The answer is, "yes." I've been holding off on writing a review because I wanted to write something worthy of my true sentiments about the book. But the longer I hold out the more I get bogged down with other responsibilities. It is time.
Being a part of NBAS this year, I can't help but read this book in the context of my NBAS experience. I've heard and felt a lot about this year's NBAS selections. One struck many as a book that should have been longer and got condensed. That was my book. Some felt like they were short stories that got expanded into novellas.
Bucket of Face was perfect for its form. Hendrixson took the word count parameter established and created something solid, so that when you got done reading it you knew, "this was a novella. This is what they're supposed to read like."
I've read some good novellas during my time. One of my favorites is Bartleby the Scrivener. But honestly, it's longer than it needs to be. It drags at times for the sake of making a point. I'd five-star that book because I love it despite the flaws. This book I'm five starring because it's one of the best novellas I've read.
It was dense enough to keep me interested and engaged. It fed new oddities to my mind intravenously, and as someone with a healthy appetite for the bizarre, I can say that I felt full at the end of this book. Not overstuffed like you feel after eating at a cheap American steakhouse buffet, but full like you feel after eating somewhere nice and you take in a full course meal. Who would have thought that fruit could be so filling?
So enough about the form. I liked the style as well. This is a book that gets into the head of every character. Some third person writing seems feigned, in that it focuses primarily on one character and the rest of the folks end up feeling a little foil. This happens often in novellas, because there isn't time to explore everybody all the time. With books like that you have to wonder why the hell they didn't just write it in first person. For me, something written in third person should make the most out of it. In that respect, this isn't just a good novella. This is a novella that reads like a novel.
But man, as someone who quit smoking last December, this book made me want a cigarette so damned bad it wasn't funny. And why aren't people asking Hendrixson what the sexiest piece of fruit in his house is during every interview he has, damn it!
I had the pleasure of working with Hendrixson at a writing workshop last winter. During that time he introduced a killer concept and fleshed it out before my eyes. My prediction is that Hendrixson's next book will be another testament to his abilities. I can't wait to read it.
Finally, I asked myself "well, Philip K. Dick is one of my favorite authors and I'd five-star him. Does every book I read that I give five stars to deserve the same ranking?"
The answer is, "no."
Does this book deserve the same ranking?
The answer is, "yes." I've been holding off on writing a review because I wanted to write something worthy of my true sentiments about the book. But the longer I hold out the more I get bogged down with other responsibilities. It is time.
Being a part of NBAS this year, I can't help but read this book in the context of my NBAS experience. I've heard and felt a lot about this year's NBAS selections. One struck many as a book that should have been longer and got condensed. That was my book. Some felt like they were short stories that got expanded into novellas.
Bucket of Face was perfect for its form. Hendrixson took the word count parameter established and created something solid, so that when you got done reading it you knew, "this was a novella. This is what they're supposed to read like."
I've read some good novellas during my time. One of my favorites is Bartleby the Scrivener. But honestly, it's longer than it needs to be. It drags at times for the sake of making a point. I'd five-star that book because I love it despite the flaws. This book I'm five starring because it's one of the best novellas I've read.
It was dense enough to keep me interested and engaged. It fed new oddities to my mind intravenously, and as someone with a healthy appetite for the bizarre, I can say that I felt full at the end of this book. Not overstuffed like you feel after eating at a cheap American steakhouse buffet, but full like you feel after eating somewhere nice and you take in a full course meal. Who would have thought that fruit could be so filling?
So enough about the form. I liked the style as well. This is a book that gets into the head of every character. Some third person writing seems feigned, in that it focuses primarily on one character and the rest of the folks end up feeling a little foil. This happens often in novellas, because there isn't time to explore everybody all the time. With books like that you have to wonder why the hell they didn't just write it in first person. For me, something written in third person should make the most out of it. In that respect, this isn't just a good novella. This is a novella that reads like a novel.
But man, as someone who quit smoking last December, this book made me want a cigarette so damned bad it wasn't funny. And why aren't people asking Hendrixson what the sexiest piece of fruit in his house is during every interview he has, damn it!
I had the pleasure of working with Hendrixson at a writing workshop last winter. During that time he introduced a killer concept and fleshed it out before my eyes. My prediction is that Hendrixson's next book will be another testament to his abilities. I can't wait to read it.
October 11, 2011
Great quirky little read. Yes I'm blown away and a little confused, but it's good confused, the kind that left me laughing.
You've got a world where fruit has came to life and roams free thanks to a crazy horticultural pop star genius. A world where acorns fall from trees screaming, "BANZAI!!!" as they try to land safely and run for cover for fear that squirrels will pluck them up. Fruit and humans are exual and even cohabitate and make babies, much to the chagrin of racist old folk. There is also quite a bunch of violence in the book, but it's comic violence, or violence amongst comedy I should say.
Hendrixson's characters are all so well done and funny, so bizarre in so many ways. The pages just flew by. This is a book that gets into the head of every character, and I love those. Not like some books or novellas that try to touch on a few point of views with a heavy handed take on one main particular character, this one changed points of view well.
I just love the world that was created here, I feel like it could have other books in the same world. I like the idea of the fruit having almost less then a life, how once bruised, knicked or cut, they begin to die or rot as true fruit does. I like the idea that its almost blasphemy for fruit to eat fruit, how disposing of a fruits body by turning it into donut filling is totally a viable option.
All of this AND MORE on "Bucket of Face" by Eric Hendrixson!
You've got a world where fruit has came to life and roams free thanks to a crazy horticultural pop star genius. A world where acorns fall from trees screaming, "BANZAI!!!" as they try to land safely and run for cover for fear that squirrels will pluck them up. Fruit and humans are exual and even cohabitate and make babies, much to the chagrin of racist old folk. There is also quite a bunch of violence in the book, but it's comic violence, or violence amongst comedy I should say.
Hendrixson's characters are all so well done and funny, so bizarre in so many ways. The pages just flew by. This is a book that gets into the head of every character, and I love those. Not like some books or novellas that try to touch on a few point of views with a heavy handed take on one main particular character, this one changed points of view well.
I just love the world that was created here, I feel like it could have other books in the same world. I like the idea of the fruit having almost less then a life, how once bruised, knicked or cut, they begin to die or rot as true fruit does. I like the idea that its almost blasphemy for fruit to eat fruit, how disposing of a fruits body by turning it into donut filling is totally a viable option.
All of this AND MORE on "Bucket of Face" by Eric Hendrixson!
December 6, 2010
This book is about the "Time to make the doughnuts!" guy in a world of fruit-people.
Hendrixson is good at writing characters; so much so that I don't even know if the story matters here, I was just interested in seeing how everyone made it through. This is good, considering I became unconcerned with the story itself pretty quickly.
Fruit-people, that's good. Not insultingly heavy handed, weird enough it seems probable, rememberable, for sure. The imagery of the story will have you mentioning the story to anyone you see eating fruit that you want to drop the "I'm literate" line on.
Hendrixson is good at writing characters; so much so that I don't even know if the story matters here, I was just interested in seeing how everyone made it through. This is good, considering I became unconcerned with the story itself pretty quickly.
Fruit-people, that's good. Not insultingly heavy handed, weird enough it seems probable, rememberable, for sure. The imagery of the story will have you mentioning the story to anyone you see eating fruit that you want to drop the "I'm literate" line on.
June 27, 2011
The more I read bizarro, the more I realize that in many respects, these books are retelling stories we already know, using the normal as a framework upon which they build their intensely strange stories. I think that is why I don’t understand it when people look me in the eyes and say, “Bizarro is just too weird for me.” Seriously, many bizarro books are a mild inversion of the same plots we read, watch and inhale on a daily basis, except with more interesting characterization, a better use of pop culture details and a willingness to engage in subversive surrealism. These books are the logical evolution of storytelling wherein the core, the heart, if you will, of the story remains the same but the details evolve. Bucket of Face is a fine example of that evolution.
Bucket of Face‘s framework is the story of a bystander who gets wrapped up in a Mafia-like criminal world and finds himself in over his head. Add in an insecure but scheming girlfriend, an interesting cop team and an unusual hitman, and you’ve got yourself a show worth pitching to a network. Cast a faded Brat Packer in one of the roles and, hell, it’ll be on Fox next year. But of course, that’s just the core. What Hendrixson does with the details makes this a wonderfully absurd and very funny book. Read my entire review here.
Bucket of Face‘s framework is the story of a bystander who gets wrapped up in a Mafia-like criminal world and finds himself in over his head. Add in an insecure but scheming girlfriend, an interesting cop team and an unusual hitman, and you’ve got yourself a show worth pitching to a network. Cast a faded Brat Packer in one of the roles and, hell, it’ll be on Fox next year. But of course, that’s just the core. What Hendrixson does with the details makes this a wonderfully absurd and very funny book. Read my entire review here.
July 28, 2015
2015 ReRead:
A palate cleanser of sorts was what I needed. I also have been hoping to revisit this book since I had fond memories from the first read (see below review). This time through, I may not have laughed as loud or hard ... but I saw how tight the entire book was. I think this is still my favorite NBAS book, and in my list of top Bizarro books that I've read.
Original Review:
Buy this book now.
I knew, knew , that I was going to love this book when I read the premise. I don't think I could ever have imagined how hard I was going to laugh, how much fun I was going to have, just how plain awesome this book was.
Yes, it's "bizarre" in that we have sentient fruit walking around acting all Takashi Miike yakuza on folk. Well, and that sex scene. But really, this book is so thoughtfully crafted that it's easy to move away from a Micheal Jackson quoting (well, "misquoting") Tomato named Roma to a cop that dons drag and masquerades as a Meter Maid to our hero, the guy in the doughnut shop. If anything, this is a silly spoof on the film noir idea - think the Coen Brother's "Man Who Wasn't There" starring fruit with the barbershop exchanged for a doughnut shop.
And of all the NBAS that I've read so far, this is one of (not the number one, but probably number two) most appropriate books. That is to say, the censors would have a hard time finding too much to cut out of this book.
So buy it. Now. Read it and the buy it for your friends. Hell, buy it for your father, since Father's Day is coming up this Sunday. Buy it for the short plane trip you have planned for this summer. Read it three times on the plane and then convince your seatmate to buy it also. Because it really is THAT GOOD !
A palate cleanser of sorts was what I needed. I also have been hoping to revisit this book since I had fond memories from the first read (see below review). This time through, I may not have laughed as loud or hard ... but I saw how tight the entire book was. I think this is still my favorite NBAS book, and in my list of top Bizarro books that I've read.
Original Review:
Buy this book now.
I knew, knew , that I was going to love this book when I read the premise. I don't think I could ever have imagined how hard I was going to laugh, how much fun I was going to have, just how plain awesome this book was.
Yes, it's "bizarre" in that we have sentient fruit walking around acting all Takashi Miike yakuza on folk. Well, and that sex scene. But really, this book is so thoughtfully crafted that it's easy to move away from a Micheal Jackson quoting (well, "misquoting") Tomato named Roma to a cop that dons drag and masquerades as a Meter Maid to our hero, the guy in the doughnut shop. If anything, this is a silly spoof on the film noir idea - think the Coen Brother's "Man Who Wasn't There" starring fruit with the barbershop exchanged for a doughnut shop.
And of all the NBAS that I've read so far, this is one of (not the number one, but probably number two) most appropriate books. That is to say, the censors would have a hard time finding too much to cut out of this book.
So buy it. Now. Read it and the buy it for your friends. Hell, buy it for your father, since Father's Day is coming up this Sunday. Buy it for the short plane trip you have planned for this summer. Read it three times on the plane and then convince your seatmate to buy it also. Because it really is THAT GOOD !
March 5, 2011
I won this book in a giveaway and I have to admit that part of the reason I entered to win was because I was intrigued by the thought of owning a 50 trillion Zimbabwean dollar bill. Anyway when the package arrived I tore it open, took out the book, the dollar bill and the accompanying postcard and then I opened the book at the first chapter, before I knew it I was already at chapter 3. You know you're in for something completely different by the fact that right there on the first page there are acorns falling from trees, so far so normal, but these acorns get up and run and not only that they shout kamikaze style as the fall. This is the story of the hapless Charles, his kiwi fruit girlfriend, a bucket, a briefcase and two mafia wiseguys in the shape of a tough talking strawberry and a Michael Jackson channelling tomato. If that doesn't make you want to go and read it right now then I don't know what would. I really enjoyed it and it's going to make me look at my fruit bowl in a whole different light.
March 6, 2011
Charles works at a doughnut shop, like his father, lives with his Kiwi girlfriend Sara of two years, smokes generic cigarettes and complains about almost anything.
As with any typical day in the shop, fruits and vegetables of gangster types come into to make deals and secret undertakings. On this particular day a banana and an apple are at a table. They fight, ending up shooting each other, fruit guts everywhere. Charlie quickly cleans up to find a briefcase full of what he later discovers worthless money and a bucket full of what looks like slime. His girlfriend figures differently and Charles gets caught up in a black market world that the fruits and vegetables control.
Bucket of Face is a page by page fun feast. You will be laughing so hard at times your stomach will hurt. The characters are so colorful and these are not just the fruits, that you will be wanting to read more.
If you have never read Bizarro fiction before, Bucket of Face is where you should start. Not only does this book bring justice to this wonderful type of fiction, it should be listed as one of the best out there. It is a pure delight and one in which no other can take its place.
As with any typical day in the shop, fruits and vegetables of gangster types come into to make deals and secret undertakings. On this particular day a banana and an apple are at a table. They fight, ending up shooting each other, fruit guts everywhere. Charlie quickly cleans up to find a briefcase full of what he later discovers worthless money and a bucket full of what looks like slime. His girlfriend figures differently and Charles gets caught up in a black market world that the fruits and vegetables control.
Bucket of Face is a page by page fun feast. You will be laughing so hard at times your stomach will hurt. The characters are so colorful and these are not just the fruits, that you will be wanting to read more.
If you have never read Bizarro fiction before, Bucket of Face is where you should start. Not only does this book bring justice to this wonderful type of fiction, it should be listed as one of the best out there. It is a pure delight and one in which no other can take its place.
April 27, 2012
Eric Hendrixson, Bucket of Face (Eraserhead Press, 2010)
Charles is in a bind. Not just because he's a multiple murderer carrying a briefcase full of (worthless, but still) Zimbabwean currency in his trunk who despite all this is still holding down a crappy minimum wage job working nights at a doughnut shop, which means that pretty much by default, his guilty conscience is going to flaunt itself in front of the cops. No, Charles has bigger problems indeed. Welcome to the world of bizarro fiction.
(I'm starting the review off like this because while I have little doubt many of you reading this are already well aware of the bizarro movement, Bucket of Face is another of those little gems that would be fantastic as an intro to the movement, so basically I'm trolling for new fish. If you haven't had the chance to experience bizarro, here's an excellent jumping-off point, pick it up.)
In Charles' world, a biological experiment gone wrong was leaked into the atmosphere, causing fruit to become sentient. Aside from leading to such annoyances as squirrels chasing around acorns who have just fallen from trees, this has also led to the human populace being shocked, as they usually are, about mixed-race relationships (Charles himself is living with a kiwi), and prejudice against the fruit population, who are of course oppressed, leading them to do things like organize their own crime rings. Which, aside from the “what if?” possibilities of sentient fruit, doesn't actually do much to distract from the fact that Hendrixson has written a short, but well-plotted, noir that gleefully pays homage to everything from Raymond Chandler to Michael Jackson's Bad album to (if I'm not reading too much into the cops here) Anthony Burgess.
I find myself beating the same dead horses when it comes to summarizing the weak points of a given bizarro novel, and I've got the same complaints here. As I said above, it's a short book, and it easily could have gone three times its length just in fleshing out some of its subplots (there's a conspiracy against meter maids, NASA has discovered a clear wall in space and have sent satellites to determine its properties, etc.) and doing as good a job drawing some of its minor characters as it does Charles, Anakin (the day-shift doughnut-shop worker), Roma (the crime boss), and Sarah (Charles' girlfriend). In specific, our two policemen. We get just enough about each of them to know that we desperately want to know more. Hell, Mayflower could star in his own book, he's that compelling a character. And they're not the only ones who could do with more backstory; almost all of the characters here, at least those who don't get offed within a few pages, are interesting and funny, and more info on them would have been welcome indeed.
This is not to say that what IS here is not well worth your time. I probably shouldn't be complaining about character development here; after all, it's the rare noir that devoted as much time to its characters as it should have (this is one of the reasons Hammett is such a great read—he actually did without sacrificing pace). I would contend that it's those “what if”s of sentient fruit that demand such, and really, calling out Hendrixson for making his characters too interesting seems to be a case of praising with faint damn. Which is all a very roundabout way of saying that as far as straight-up plot-based noir goes, this is a very good example of the genre. As far as bizarro fiction goes, it's a sterling example of the genre. This is a book that demands your time and attention; it is the early work of an author with incredible promise. Remember his name. You will be hearing it again. ****
Charles is in a bind. Not just because he's a multiple murderer carrying a briefcase full of (worthless, but still) Zimbabwean currency in his trunk who despite all this is still holding down a crappy minimum wage job working nights at a doughnut shop, which means that pretty much by default, his guilty conscience is going to flaunt itself in front of the cops. No, Charles has bigger problems indeed. Welcome to the world of bizarro fiction.
(I'm starting the review off like this because while I have little doubt many of you reading this are already well aware of the bizarro movement, Bucket of Face is another of those little gems that would be fantastic as an intro to the movement, so basically I'm trolling for new fish. If you haven't had the chance to experience bizarro, here's an excellent jumping-off point, pick it up.)
In Charles' world, a biological experiment gone wrong was leaked into the atmosphere, causing fruit to become sentient. Aside from leading to such annoyances as squirrels chasing around acorns who have just fallen from trees, this has also led to the human populace being shocked, as they usually are, about mixed-race relationships (Charles himself is living with a kiwi), and prejudice against the fruit population, who are of course oppressed, leading them to do things like organize their own crime rings. Which, aside from the “what if?” possibilities of sentient fruit, doesn't actually do much to distract from the fact that Hendrixson has written a short, but well-plotted, noir that gleefully pays homage to everything from Raymond Chandler to Michael Jackson's Bad album to (if I'm not reading too much into the cops here) Anthony Burgess.
I find myself beating the same dead horses when it comes to summarizing the weak points of a given bizarro novel, and I've got the same complaints here. As I said above, it's a short book, and it easily could have gone three times its length just in fleshing out some of its subplots (there's a conspiracy against meter maids, NASA has discovered a clear wall in space and have sent satellites to determine its properties, etc.) and doing as good a job drawing some of its minor characters as it does Charles, Anakin (the day-shift doughnut-shop worker), Roma (the crime boss), and Sarah (Charles' girlfriend). In specific, our two policemen. We get just enough about each of them to know that we desperately want to know more. Hell, Mayflower could star in his own book, he's that compelling a character. And they're not the only ones who could do with more backstory; almost all of the characters here, at least those who don't get offed within a few pages, are interesting and funny, and more info on them would have been welcome indeed.
This is not to say that what IS here is not well worth your time. I probably shouldn't be complaining about character development here; after all, it's the rare noir that devoted as much time to its characters as it should have (this is one of the reasons Hammett is such a great read—he actually did without sacrificing pace). I would contend that it's those “what if”s of sentient fruit that demand such, and really, calling out Hendrixson for making his characters too interesting seems to be a case of praising with faint damn. Which is all a very roundabout way of saying that as far as straight-up plot-based noir goes, this is a very good example of the genre. As far as bizarro fiction goes, it's a sterling example of the genre. This is a book that demands your time and attention; it is the early work of an author with incredible promise. Remember his name. You will be hearing it again. ****
March 17, 2011
(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)
Eric Hendrixson's Bucket of Face is the latest title I've received from Eraserhead Press's "New Bizarro Author Series," which as regular readers know is where that publisher will give beginner New Weird authors a chance with a cheaply-done novella, then put the author in charge of hawking that book and getting its sales high enough for Eraserhead to have a lasting impression made on them. And indeed, Hendrixson's book does what a lot of bizarro titles do to propel the plot, which is to combine the well-known tropes of another genre like crime or noir with the logic-defying details of a dream state, in this case a gritty murder tale set among a "Naked City" style downtown district, only one where certain vegetables have turned radioactive-superhero-style into fully sentient human-sized creatures, among whom it's become fashionable to wear and deal in actual black-market human faces, a literal bucket of which is found Pulp-Fiction-style among the victims of a random crime at the beginning of the tale, and which fuels most of the Tarantinoesque plot that comes after. It's…um, okay, you know; not terrible, not great, a bit corny, more and more loved the closer you are to a violence-obsessed sixteen-year-old boy, like so much bizarro fiction is, which makes it hard to criticize it simply for being what it aims to be, even if that's not exactly my own cup of tea. While it's certainly not bad at all, I suspect it's only going to be truly loved by all those twentysomething CCLaP readers at Facebook who are always mentioning those anime projects and first-person-shooter games I've never heard of, and it's to them that I especially recommend today's title.
Out of 10: 8.0, or 9.0 for fans of bizarro fiction
Eric Hendrixson's Bucket of Face is the latest title I've received from Eraserhead Press's "New Bizarro Author Series," which as regular readers know is where that publisher will give beginner New Weird authors a chance with a cheaply-done novella, then put the author in charge of hawking that book and getting its sales high enough for Eraserhead to have a lasting impression made on them. And indeed, Hendrixson's book does what a lot of bizarro titles do to propel the plot, which is to combine the well-known tropes of another genre like crime or noir with the logic-defying details of a dream state, in this case a gritty murder tale set among a "Naked City" style downtown district, only one where certain vegetables have turned radioactive-superhero-style into fully sentient human-sized creatures, among whom it's become fashionable to wear and deal in actual black-market human faces, a literal bucket of which is found Pulp-Fiction-style among the victims of a random crime at the beginning of the tale, and which fuels most of the Tarantinoesque plot that comes after. It's…um, okay, you know; not terrible, not great, a bit corny, more and more loved the closer you are to a violence-obsessed sixteen-year-old boy, like so much bizarro fiction is, which makes it hard to criticize it simply for being what it aims to be, even if that's not exactly my own cup of tea. While it's certainly not bad at all, I suspect it's only going to be truly loved by all those twentysomething CCLaP readers at Facebook who are always mentioning those anime projects and first-person-shooter games I've never heard of, and it's to them that I especially recommend today's title.
Out of 10: 8.0, or 9.0 for fans of bizarro fiction
Read
July 14, 2011It's a crazy world when you start mixing sentient fruit with humans. You now have to worry about eating someone's friend, lover, or family. So is it murder to have a nice fruit smoothie??
That all depends on where you purchase your produce. A silver dust has turned some fruit around the planet into giant, talking, and in some cases, intelligent beings. Charles is a doughnut man who is love with an especially brilliant kiwi, Sarah. One day, after watching the acorns making their mad dashes for life as they fell from the trees, he went to work smoking his cheap, generic cigarettes. A banana and an apple, both criminals, come in for a bit of 'business'. This particular transaction will chance Charles' life forever.
Roma is a tomato working up the ranks in the fruit criminal circuit. He and his friend, and thug, Bear, are going to keep moving up the ranks by finishing up some business that just happens to involve Charles, as well. Doesn't that just work out nice?
This book has some twists and turns in it that I was never expecting. Eric made sure to keep everyone guessing what was going to happen next. You are never sure exactly what is going to happen in this novella. I will say this was a more violent book than I was expecting, but not all of it was bad, because it was FRUIT. I know some of you will form an attachment to the fruit, but I enjoy my fruit salad too much to get too upset over a couple of slain fruit...Does that mean I'm horrible? :)
That all depends on where you purchase your produce. A silver dust has turned some fruit around the planet into giant, talking, and in some cases, intelligent beings. Charles is a doughnut man who is love with an especially brilliant kiwi, Sarah. One day, after watching the acorns making their mad dashes for life as they fell from the trees, he went to work smoking his cheap, generic cigarettes. A banana and an apple, both criminals, come in for a bit of 'business'. This particular transaction will chance Charles' life forever.
Roma is a tomato working up the ranks in the fruit criminal circuit. He and his friend, and thug, Bear, are going to keep moving up the ranks by finishing up some business that just happens to involve Charles, as well. Doesn't that just work out nice?
This book has some twists and turns in it that I was never expecting. Eric made sure to keep everyone guessing what was going to happen next. You are never sure exactly what is going to happen in this novella. I will say this was a more violent book than I was expecting, but not all of it was bad, because it was FRUIT. I know some of you will form an attachment to the fruit, but I enjoy my fruit salad too much to get too upset over a couple of slain fruit...Does that mean I'm horrible? :)
June 29, 2011
4.5 stars
If you’ve just read the book synopsis you might've paused, shook your head, and decided to re-read it again because undoubtedly this is not a book about mafia fruit wars and a donut dealer killer who is dating a kiwi? Since this is bizarro, it kind of is, but in the metaphorical sense, right? Charles is the reality that holds this surreal eco-fruitation together and he is accompanied by an entourage of characters that easily might be discovered in the lost and found bin of Quentin Tarantino’s mind. Possessing all the good qualities of pulp-fiction, this spoof on pop culture captures the best and worst of sensationalism, hero envy and the normalcy of the not so normal we’ve come to love and expect. So much is going on in this petite package of chaos that it demands the expertise of a psychologist to figure it out, or at least a judge to determine if Hendrixson is insane. Readers may question whether this ex-English teacher has gone completely postal and contemplate if it is wise to let the man roam around our country’s capital. Given the other influences in society, your children are probably safe, but you might want to censor their music selection because clearly Michael Jackson inspires unhealthy life choices.
If you’ve just read the book synopsis you might've paused, shook your head, and decided to re-read it again because undoubtedly this is not a book about mafia fruit wars and a donut dealer killer who is dating a kiwi? Since this is bizarro, it kind of is, but in the metaphorical sense, right? Charles is the reality that holds this surreal eco-fruitation together and he is accompanied by an entourage of characters that easily might be discovered in the lost and found bin of Quentin Tarantino’s mind. Possessing all the good qualities of pulp-fiction, this spoof on pop culture captures the best and worst of sensationalism, hero envy and the normalcy of the not so normal we’ve come to love and expect. So much is going on in this petite package of chaos that it demands the expertise of a psychologist to figure it out, or at least a judge to determine if Hendrixson is insane. Readers may question whether this ex-English teacher has gone completely postal and contemplate if it is wise to let the man roam around our country’s capital. Given the other influences in society, your children are probably safe, but you might want to censor their music selection because clearly Michael Jackson inspires unhealthy life choices.
June 12, 2012
When a book starts with a charging acorn yelling “Leroy Jenkins!,” you know that you're in for the weird.
Charles is a doughnut shop worker with a kiwi fruit girlfriend. Huh? Well, many years back, a mysterious silver pollen appeared and began spreading, which turned fruit sentient. Since then, society has generally integrated these fruit. But when the fruit mafia has a shootout in the doughnut shop. Charles covers it up, making the dead fruits into pastries and taking a briefcase full of Zimbabwe dollars and a specimen bucket full of human faces, hence the title. A hit-tomato who is searching for respect because many don't consider him a real fruit, sets out to recover the stolen goods. Think of it as No Country for Old Men, just with talking fruit. That gives you Bucket of Face in a nutshell.
This is one of those books that's genuinely difficult to talk about, even in generalities, for fear of giving too much away, because there is a surprising amount to discover. This book obviously has a bizarre humor which is sometimes dark and...well, I don't know if fruit murder is considered dark or not. A common complaint that I have with a lot of bizarro books is that they are too short and I want more. But with Bucket of Face, the length is actually quite perfect. And, interestingly, Hendrixson seems to have put in a lot of thought into the nature and biology of sentient fruit. An almost creepy amount of thought. Anyone check his greenhouse lately?
One breakout bit for me that is not mentioned in any of the promotions or on the cover are the two cops, Mortimer and Mayflower. These cops are actually quite aristocratic, but they put on the face of the low-brow sarcastic beat cop because, simply, that's what people expected. Those two had me laughing out loud. I would really love to see more of those two show up later.
A complaint that I do have is that there are some editing problems. I know this seems like it shouldn't be a significant issue, but for me it is and it breaks the flow of some otherwise sublime prose. It may be the teacher in me talking.
I'm looking forward to more of Hendrixson's work, especially if it involves Mortimer and Mayflower in some way. I'd really like to see where this author goes and what else he's got up his sleeve, since Bucket of Face, while having a relatively typical crime story, has such an interesting motif that it gives this typical story a fresh twist.
Bucket of Face by Eric Hendrixson earns 4 apple fritters out of 5.
Charles is a doughnut shop worker with a kiwi fruit girlfriend. Huh? Well, many years back, a mysterious silver pollen appeared and began spreading, which turned fruit sentient. Since then, society has generally integrated these fruit. But when the fruit mafia has a shootout in the doughnut shop. Charles covers it up, making the dead fruits into pastries and taking a briefcase full of Zimbabwe dollars and a specimen bucket full of human faces, hence the title. A hit-tomato who is searching for respect because many don't consider him a real fruit, sets out to recover the stolen goods. Think of it as No Country for Old Men, just with talking fruit. That gives you Bucket of Face in a nutshell.
This is one of those books that's genuinely difficult to talk about, even in generalities, for fear of giving too much away, because there is a surprising amount to discover. This book obviously has a bizarre humor which is sometimes dark and...well, I don't know if fruit murder is considered dark or not. A common complaint that I have with a lot of bizarro books is that they are too short and I want more. But with Bucket of Face, the length is actually quite perfect. And, interestingly, Hendrixson seems to have put in a lot of thought into the nature and biology of sentient fruit. An almost creepy amount of thought. Anyone check his greenhouse lately?
One breakout bit for me that is not mentioned in any of the promotions or on the cover are the two cops, Mortimer and Mayflower. These cops are actually quite aristocratic, but they put on the face of the low-brow sarcastic beat cop because, simply, that's what people expected. Those two had me laughing out loud. I would really love to see more of those two show up later.
A complaint that I do have is that there are some editing problems. I know this seems like it shouldn't be a significant issue, but for me it is and it breaks the flow of some otherwise sublime prose. It may be the teacher in me talking.
I'm looking forward to more of Hendrixson's work, especially if it involves Mortimer and Mayflower in some way. I'd really like to see where this author goes and what else he's got up his sleeve, since Bucket of Face, while having a relatively typical crime story, has such an interesting motif that it gives this typical story a fresh twist.
Bucket of Face by Eric Hendrixson earns 4 apple fritters out of 5.
September 19, 2011
So, you ever read a book, finish it, and immediately think "I want everyone to read this!" This is one of those. I'm pretty sure my (first) copy is gone forever, and that's ok. I believe it will live a long and exciting life without my supervision. (I'm not even sure who has it anymore... Meg? How about you?)
Really I'm only just getting into the bizzaro genre. The more I read, the more it strikes me that the concept and writing that go into bizzaro cover just about any topic/other genre the author wants them to. "Bucket of Face" was a fantastic example of this.
It's a solid 'weary working guy gets a chance to make a better life for his dame and kill a few mobsters' noir type story.
You feel for Charles, he's had it rough, his girl's got security issues, people and fruit keep wrecking up his doughnut shop (in which he has to work long hours with stupid co-workers). Suddenly he is smacked with a huge opportunity to up the quality of his and Sarah's, the insecure girlfruit's, life together.
The fact that a good deal of the characters are fruits just adds another layer of interest to this well-told tale. Things that we take for granted in a seedy crime novel are still here, just new and more interesting. Fighting? Different. Physical violence and wounds? Different. Sex? Really... really different. In my opinion, the weird lens that bizzaro authors put over our cherished literary archetypes and classic plots make those things that much stronger and more interesting. They're classic and history spanning because they are that good, and I feel that bizzaro is just one of the next branches in literary evolution.
Whoa. Ok, sorry guys that sort of turned into a love poem to the genre. Back to the book at hand. It's fast paced, entertaining and has a sweet heartbreaking ending. AND the love interest is a kiwifruit. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will.
Previously in my mini-review I said: recommended to everyone that enjoys Bogart and the absurd.
Also good for people that like to have Ricky Jay narrate in their heads.
This is all still true :D
Really I'm only just getting into the bizzaro genre. The more I read, the more it strikes me that the concept and writing that go into bizzaro cover just about any topic/other genre the author wants them to. "Bucket of Face" was a fantastic example of this.
It's a solid 'weary working guy gets a chance to make a better life for his dame and kill a few mobsters' noir type story.
You feel for Charles, he's had it rough, his girl's got security issues, people and fruit keep wrecking up his doughnut shop (in which he has to work long hours with stupid co-workers). Suddenly he is smacked with a huge opportunity to up the quality of his and Sarah's, the insecure girlfruit's, life together.
The fact that a good deal of the characters are fruits just adds another layer of interest to this well-told tale. Things that we take for granted in a seedy crime novel are still here, just new and more interesting. Fighting? Different. Physical violence and wounds? Different. Sex? Really... really different. In my opinion, the weird lens that bizzaro authors put over our cherished literary archetypes and classic plots make those things that much stronger and more interesting. They're classic and history spanning because they are that good, and I feel that bizzaro is just one of the next branches in literary evolution.
Whoa. Ok, sorry guys that sort of turned into a love poem to the genre. Back to the book at hand. It's fast paced, entertaining and has a sweet heartbreaking ending. AND the love interest is a kiwifruit. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will.
Previously in my mini-review I said: recommended to everyone that enjoys Bogart and the absurd.
Also good for people that like to have Ricky Jay narrate in their heads.
This is all still true :D
June 22, 2011
Bucket of Face follows the story of an innocent bystander to a Mafia deal gone wrong, and the turn of events change his life forever. That aspect of the story seems pretty reasonable, right?
Well, I should probably mention the mobsters are a banana and an apple, and the merchandise they're dealing with are faces.
Ok, I'm just going to let that sink in.
Got it?
Right, well the protagonist, the 'everyman' donut shop employee has these two dead fruits, a briefcase of cash and a bucket of faces in his posession. He takes this as an opportunity to start a new life with his kiwi fruit girlfriend, go somewhere exotic where he never has to work in a donut shop again.
It's all set up for a cracking bizarro mafioso story. I'm sure you're still wondering about the apple and banana mobsters. And the kiwi fruit girlfriend? I will get to it soon. You see, Bucket of Face is not your average bizarro mafioso story. It's brilliant and clever, it's such a well thought out story. The hitman sent after the protagonist is a tomato obsessed with Michael Jackson.
It works like all good bizarro should. It sounds random and incoherent, weird elements tossed in to make things entertaining. It's not until you get sucked into the story, the seemingly weird-for-the-sake-of-weird story, when you get these plot points that take the story to the next level. Something so strange as fruit-people, you'll find actually makes perfect sense. The bucket of faces? Well, yeah, of course. It's got a charming central plot line that blows out of proportion, that is quirky and humorous, and then you know it was thought out in much greater detail than you first guessed. And it's not spelled out for you. It's clever. It's funny. It's entertaining and it's well written.
Get it, read it, love it.
Well, I should probably mention the mobsters are a banana and an apple, and the merchandise they're dealing with are faces.
Ok, I'm just going to let that sink in.
Got it?
Right, well the protagonist, the 'everyman' donut shop employee has these two dead fruits, a briefcase of cash and a bucket of faces in his posession. He takes this as an opportunity to start a new life with his kiwi fruit girlfriend, go somewhere exotic where he never has to work in a donut shop again.
It's all set up for a cracking bizarro mafioso story. I'm sure you're still wondering about the apple and banana mobsters. And the kiwi fruit girlfriend? I will get to it soon. You see, Bucket of Face is not your average bizarro mafioso story. It's brilliant and clever, it's such a well thought out story. The hitman sent after the protagonist is a tomato obsessed with Michael Jackson.
It works like all good bizarro should. It sounds random and incoherent, weird elements tossed in to make things entertaining. It's not until you get sucked into the story, the seemingly weird-for-the-sake-of-weird story, when you get these plot points that take the story to the next level. Something so strange as fruit-people, you'll find actually makes perfect sense. The bucket of faces? Well, yeah, of course. It's got a charming central plot line that blows out of proportion, that is quirky and humorous, and then you know it was thought out in much greater detail than you first guessed. And it's not spelled out for you. It's clever. It's funny. It's entertaining and it's well written.
Get it, read it, love it.
September 2, 2011
So, this week, I was hopped up on cold medicine. The kind that come in tabs and disolve in four ounces of water. I was under the weather and sleeping a lot, so I needed to read something, errr...shorter, so I chose this book and I'm really glad I did because it was a fun journey to take while not being in a 'normal' state of mind.
I must admit here and now that bizarro noir and mafia tough guys have become my most favorite off shoots of the bizarro genre, mix that with some absurdity, and it's most certainly a winner in my book. I mean I've always enjoyed the classic hard boiled detectives like Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and I can even get down with gangster movies like The Godfather, in which Al Pacino was awesome in. However, they just lack a certain twist, such as a certain gangster fruit or is it vegetable? who's obsessed with Michael Jackson, and when he gets shot needs to 'repair' with V8 juice, which this story certainly delivered and then some.
So, it's an easy transition to make (if you've read this one) that my favorite character in this novella was Roma the tomato gangster. I throughly enjoyed his Michael Jackson references and at the end I think I too saw his vision.
I liked how this story came full circle. It never left me hanging or wanting more. It was a complete story in less than 100 pages, which isn't an easy feat by any means and Eric Hendrixson did it fantastically well.
I must admit here and now that bizarro noir and mafia tough guys have become my most favorite off shoots of the bizarro genre, mix that with some absurdity, and it's most certainly a winner in my book. I mean I've always enjoyed the classic hard boiled detectives like Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade and Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, and I can even get down with gangster movies like The Godfather, in which Al Pacino was awesome in. However, they just lack a certain twist, such as a certain gangster fruit or is it vegetable? who's obsessed with Michael Jackson, and when he gets shot needs to 'repair' with V8 juice, which this story certainly delivered and then some.
So, it's an easy transition to make (if you've read this one) that my favorite character in this novella was Roma the tomato gangster. I throughly enjoyed his Michael Jackson references and at the end I think I too saw his vision.
I liked how this story came full circle. It never left me hanging or wanting more. It was a complete story in less than 100 pages, which isn't an easy feat by any means and Eric Hendrixson did it fantastically well.
May 4, 2011
Talk about quirky! I just finished it and I'm more than a little confused. There's nothing bad about it, it just defies conventionality in all ways.
Ok, so there are fruits that walk aound like people, who lead regular lives and who even mate with humans. That's something that you have to ccept even before you begin reading, otherwise your head will fall off your neck and roll to the floor. There is quite a bunch of violence in the book, but it's so funny that it is barely gruesome.
The characters are all so quirky, so bizarre in so many ways, from a mafia of fruit, to a scone-eating fruit cop who likes to dress up as a meter-maid, that you'll find yourself blinking the pages away, waiting to see the maniacal goodies on the following chapters.
This book is not for everyone. You need to have a good sense of humor and a mind that tends to lean to the bizarre side. If that sounds like you, then jump into this crazy, fruit-filled world.
One thing I can assure you, you'll never look at doughnuts the same way again.
Ok, so there are fruits that walk aound like people, who lead regular lives and who even mate with humans. That's something that you have to ccept even before you begin reading, otherwise your head will fall off your neck and roll to the floor. There is quite a bunch of violence in the book, but it's so funny that it is barely gruesome.
The characters are all so quirky, so bizarre in so many ways, from a mafia of fruit, to a scone-eating fruit cop who likes to dress up as a meter-maid, that you'll find yourself blinking the pages away, waiting to see the maniacal goodies on the following chapters.
This book is not for everyone. You need to have a good sense of humor and a mind that tends to lean to the bizarre side. If that sounds like you, then jump into this crazy, fruit-filled world.
One thing I can assure you, you'll never look at doughnuts the same way again.
June 12, 2011
I don't know what I hate about this, but I think a burning is in order. There's something unsavory about talking fruit.
July 29, 2011
It is a world where fruits live side by side with humans. But is this a story of racial politics? Class warfare? The breaking down of social barriers? No. The bearded one known as Eric Hendrixson is too much of a gentleman for such ham-handed storytelling. Instead he takes this world populated with sentient fruits and decides to tell a very weird crime story. And by God, it works. It begins when two gangsters--a banana and an apple--walk into a doughnut shop for an exchange of illegal tender. They wind up shooting one another into juicy pulp. All that's left is a briefcase and the aforementioned bucket of face.
Left to clean up the mess is Charles, your Average Joe thrust into a world of crime, money, violence, and double-crosses. Charles has to think fast when the fruits off themselves in his doughnut shop. He and his kiwi girlfriend have always talked about fleeing the city to live out their days in some tropical paradise. So naturally he grabs this opportunity. He cleans up the mess, takes the briefcase and bucket, and then turns both the fruits' bodies into doughnut filling. All hell breaks loose from there. The fruit mafia sends a tomato hitman after Charles to retrieve the loot. The tomato, Roma, literally worships Michael Jackson, and that little detail turns into one of the coolest twists in the book. There are also two extremely odd policemen who may or may not catch Charles in the act.
This is a really great example of bizarro crime, and told in quick novella form. The chapters breeze right by, and Hendrixson has managed to pack action, suspense, heart, and even humor into this brave little novella. Plus, he completely nails the tone of a crime story. There is an awesome prologue that hints at the mania within these pages, but you'll never guess how it all fits together. Bucket of Face truly feels like a classic crime novel from decades past, but with a bizarro twist that makes it so much more fun.
June 30, 2011
Bucket of Face is the debut novella of Bizarro newcomer Eric Hendrixson.
Fruits and humans live side by side in Hendrixson’s novella. One day a banana and an apple walk into a donut shop and shoot each other to death. Charles, the human protagonist, finds them and takes their briefcase and bucket.
I don’t want to ruin the story, but Roma, a tomato hitman with a deep love for Michael Jackson, is sent to take Charles out.
The prose is smooth and simple, the dialogue slick and witty. Plus, being a little bit over a hundred pages, this can easily be digested in one sitting.
Bucket of Face is an interesting take on the money falls into the wrong hands trope. Hendrixson adds some humor, mixes in some noir, and injects the whole thing with some bizarro goodness to make this all work.
I feel like I need to say more, but that’s all that really needs to be said. Hendrixson is good author with some damned good ideas.
The future of this author largely depends on you. Yes all of you out there. The more books he sells, the greater chance he has at becoming part of the Eraserhead Press stable.
Fruits and humans live side by side in Hendrixson’s novella. One day a banana and an apple walk into a donut shop and shoot each other to death. Charles, the human protagonist, finds them and takes their briefcase and bucket.
I don’t want to ruin the story, but Roma, a tomato hitman with a deep love for Michael Jackson, is sent to take Charles out.
The prose is smooth and simple, the dialogue slick and witty. Plus, being a little bit over a hundred pages, this can easily be digested in one sitting.
Bucket of Face is an interesting take on the money falls into the wrong hands trope. Hendrixson adds some humor, mixes in some noir, and injects the whole thing with some bizarro goodness to make this all work.
I feel like I need to say more, but that’s all that really needs to be said. Hendrixson is good author with some damned good ideas.
The future of this author largely depends on you. Yes all of you out there. The more books he sells, the greater chance he has at becoming part of the Eraserhead Press stable.
March 2, 2011
I loved this book, it was a nice satisfying read without overdoing it. Somehow it now seems strange not to have fruit answer me back, and I never thought I would think vegetarians were really quite awful! As for acorns, I now feel quite sorry for them, they have so far to fall from the trees! I still wonder how a relationship between human and fruit can develop, but it is wonderful to think it could! And, without giving too much away, Michael Jackson has a lot to answer for.
Without giving too much away, this is really a story of everyday folk but with a very slight difference that makes all the difference.
I struggle to write book reviews without giving away the plot, but I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a merry trip through a different way of life.
Without giving too much away, this is really a story of everyday folk but with a very slight difference that makes all the difference.
I struggle to write book reviews without giving away the plot, but I can say I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and would highly recommend it to anyone who wants a merry trip through a different way of life.
August 15, 2011
Can't recommend it highly enough. My favorite living author.
Here's my December Amazon review:
What I did not expect was tenderness between a man and a kiwi.
I bought Bucket of Face and sat down on a Winter's Eve to read. There are moments of poetry: Sharpies, fruit salad, Quality Lights. And there are faces in blenders, bodies cooked up in vats of strawberry jam, stewed into Dutch apple butter.
Romance and dead meter maids. Scones and scorched cups of coffee. Call it and Hendrixson can juxtapose it: a bucket of face and a love affair; dead bodies and a sapling newly sprung and licking the sun.
Is it bizarre to feel for a Roma tomato after he's slaughtered the doughnut guy and slashed off the face of a post-menopausal woman?
Is it weird to enjoy make-up sex between a fruit and a fry-cook?
Buy this book. Watch this author. He won't disappoint.
Here's my December Amazon review:
What I did not expect was tenderness between a man and a kiwi.
I bought Bucket of Face and sat down on a Winter's Eve to read. There are moments of poetry: Sharpies, fruit salad, Quality Lights. And there are faces in blenders, bodies cooked up in vats of strawberry jam, stewed into Dutch apple butter.
Romance and dead meter maids. Scones and scorched cups of coffee. Call it and Hendrixson can juxtapose it: a bucket of face and a love affair; dead bodies and a sapling newly sprung and licking the sun.
Is it bizarre to feel for a Roma tomato after he's slaughtered the doughnut guy and slashed off the face of a post-menopausal woman?
Is it weird to enjoy make-up sex between a fruit and a fry-cook?
Buy this book. Watch this author. He won't disappoint.
November 7, 2011
This is hands down one of the funniest books I've read. His humor is subtle at times, slapstick sometimes, and downright between the lines occasionally. The emotions and motives of the characters were surprisingly moving. The suspension of disbelief that, well yes, some of the characters are fruit, doesn't detract from any of the literary devices employed which make for a solid story. 5 stars for this budding author. I look forward to his next publication.
October 5, 2011
I am pretty new to Bizarro Fiction, and I have not always enjoyed the experience, but "Bucket of Face" has made me a fan. This is a funny, short, intelligent story that reads like a hard-boiled, noirish gangster pulp novel with...differences. It gives new meaning to "a good looking tomato with a pair of .45's". You will also learn a bit of horticulture as a bonus!
August 18, 2011
Eric Hendrixxson's first effort is a wonderful, wild, and heartfelt romp through an alternate US where fruit can walk and talk! I laughed out loud and the first time a bizarro book has done that to me. It has a wicked plot twist and a great ending that leaves room for thought and rumination. STOP READING THIS REVIEW AND GET THIS BOOK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 13, 2016
When i can read a book without little things annoying me (typos etc), when it's imaginative and i cannot think of anything that i would change about it... It gets 5 stars.
It's different, quirky and a fun easy read. Just what i love.
It's different, quirky and a fun easy read. Just what i love.
April 22, 2011
I have to say I am now a fan of Bizzaro Fiction...... I really enjoyed the strange twists and odd events found in "Bucket of Face"! A must read for anyone with an odd sense of humor!!!
September 17, 2011
Unequivocally the best sentient fruit noir I've ever read!
June 24, 2021
I don't think there was enough representation for the Avacado community, and more could have been done and said about Defunding Parking Police, and I am pretty sure the Man in the Mirror was never going to change his ways, but what else did I expect? I mean, I'd have to be a running and screaming nut to have thought that Eric Hendrixson would give a damn about my concerns. All he cares about is telling his mad tales however the hell he wants to tell them. A-tothefucking-men to that.
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