Life During Peacetime by Matt Forney

Let me tell you about good writing.

Good writing is about a lot of things: honesty, first and foremost.  It needs to be so brutally, scathingly honest that it induces symptoms of narcissism in the author.  This is why authors drink: it’s the only thing that kills the shame of exposing your inner core.  Next, it needs to be perceptive: not just of the self, but of those other characters who share in the story.  You need to truly understand and empathize with humanity if you’re going to be a good writer.  And finally it needs to be funny: exposing the weirdness and idiocy of the human soul engenders so much awkwardness in the reader that you either need to laugh or cry – and the only way people will pay attention is if they’re laughing.

Matt Forney is a good writer.

Life During Peacetime is a short story which very-much reminds me of Bukowski; it’s not only frank and honest about the nature of woman, but the nature of man, as well.  An autobiographical piece, Matt doesn’t shy away from analyzing his own motives – always complex, and frequently deplorable, he’s stuck halfway between Angel and Chimpanzee.  As for the girl, he opens her up like it’s a live vivisection.

Thank God that it’s so damned funny.

The takeway you’re left with is just how lost and in need of guidance we are; two generations abandoned by our parents, we have no script to follow, no moral direction.  Matt vascillates between Dark Triad PUA and White Knight; the girl is caught between her desires for a traditional lifestyle, and her womb’s screaming need to get fertilized by a real man.  The idiocy and the tears aren’t her and Matt – it’s all of us, struggling in a culture where wisdom has been watered down to platitudes.

A short 75 pages, it’s well worth the $2 price of admission.  Buy it on Amazon today.

Boris the Shitting Buffalo by Aaron Clarey

Boris the Shitting Buffalo by Aaron Clarey was originally a story book he wrote as a birthday present for a lonely, Russian ballerina he was seeing on-and-off years ago; upon finishing it she decided to flake on him and his group of friends.  All the better for us.

As a pseudo-childrens’ book it doesn’t have a plot that demands deep analysis, but I can tell you this much – the prose is hilarious, and Jorge Gonzalez’s art is fantastic.

I would like to make a suggestion for you young men out there: keep this book on your coffee table, and when a date comes over she’s certain to inquire about it.  That’s when you ask if she likes bedtime stories (which of course she’ll say yes to), so you have her lay her head on your lap, and you read Boris to her.  By the time you’re done she’ll be giggling and doe-eyed.

Alternatively you can buy it as a Christmas present to upset any siblings with children; I may do this since I already bought my sister Maddox’s I Am Better Than Your Kids.

Boris is an incredibly fun book, and more than reasonably priced: order it now on Amazon.

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