Review: A Hollow Cube is a Lonely Space by S.D Foster

A collection of twenty-three bizarro fables in which you'll meet Nobody, a performing primate who wants to chew your children's lips off; pontificate with the Stork, philosopher and feces-eater; rejoice as Nordin "The Noggin" Nobel, noted socialite, is reconciled to his estranged head; share the existential despair of Slothra the suicidal kaiju; celebrate the love of Violet and her rotting lover; explore the meaning of life with Dr. Ebenezer A.T. Horkenheimer, sociopath, and the geography of heaven and hell with Ted the mangled toy. And so much more...It's Aesop, as imagined by John Waters.

With this book I enter the world of bizzaro. While this book confused and disgusted me, it was really worth  reading. The stories are short, ranging from 4-8 pages a story. Finally a book of short stories that are actually short!. The stories all seem like these very odd, twisted tales somebody would tell a kid to get their attention or give them weird disgusting dreams.

 S.D Foster is a new author and he's writing is great, it has a flow and reads well. I enjoyed reading these bizzar stories. Some of them are amusing  , some disgusting, others confusing, because although I think there's something there, the meaning eludes me. Some are even very sad.

The amusing ones:
The first story is about an orange: The Course of Clementine, an orange who's purpose is to be consumed. I hate oranges! Then there's also the case of the dude who wants to look so good he quiet literally loses his head (The Marvelous Head), the monkey who wants to be famous, a girl who wants to be a "quadriplegic motivational speaker", a very sheltered kid, and a suicidal freeloader. There's also one about a crazy doctor who wants to take over the world by populating it with his own offspring and killing all others.

The Disgusting ones:
Mr Rat is married to Mrs Rat, who eats all her infants, she attempts to civilize Mr Rat. Their favorite food of choice is "aborted baby spread thick with bacon grease". Then there's this chick who gets raped by eh...Frankfurt's,chocolates and other things edible you'd find in a supermarket  and somehow gets impregnated by said food group, there's also incest involved. You have been warned.

There are stories about love even. Odd, sad, disgusting love, but love in some kind of form. There's the story about the woman who carves a tree a heart, the tree then comes to life, and the woman then marries it. But in the end terminates her marriage. A story I enjoyed, "“Please don’t carve me another heart—‘tis easier to photosynthesize than to love”  says the tree in the end before the woman removes his mouth. The story about the woman who marries the guy she ran over, who is literally rotting. Unconditional love or desperate much?. The story about the snowman , who's the ladies man, poor guy loses his "assets". 

The best story is "unbreakable" it reminds me of The Velveteen Rabbit. Other good stories worth mentioning are "Silk Flower" and "War and Peace'. I like the play on Hellen Kellers name , but the meaning of this particular story , if it even has one, escapes me. The story about The (not so quiet) Corpse and The Stork is also a great one.

This was a fun and different book to read and I'm happy I got the chance to read it. Some stories gave me the nostalgic feeling of reading The Brothers Grimm. It also makes for good conversation , that is if you're out to disgust or amuse your friends. Although this is my first book of this genre I have nothing to compare it too. But as a reader of stories. I'd say it's full of damn good stories, so I'm giving it 4stars.

Grade: 

    E