Monday, February 21, 2011

Review: The Divine Farce

Read 2/19/11
5 Stars - Highly Recommended / The Next Best Book
Pgs:125

About a month ago, I stumbled across Leapfrog Press. They are an indie publisher who pride themselves on their eclectic quality fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. And I think I am in love.

I chose to test the waters with The Divine Farce - a short but incredibly moving story about three naked strangers who find themselves confined in an incredibly small, pitch black concrete tube. With no room to sit, they stand on a floor of metal grate while the low ceiling oozes Pear Nectar, their only form of sustenance. Unsure whether they will be there for eternity, but convinced it is some sort of Hell, they surrender themselves to their wretched predicament. Until one day, the concrete wall that holds them in begins to crumble ...

The author, Michael Graziano, weaves a warped and demented tale that also doubles as an allegory for our insatiable need to understand the world in which we live. Constantly probing and questioning, never content with the answers we get or the situations we find ourselves in...

What would you do when everything you knew was about to change? Would you face the unknown or cower from it? Would you be willing to exchange what you know and loathe, what you've grown accustomed to, if given the opportunity to escape it, even if it meant the possibility of entering into something worse?

An amazing story that highlights the best, and worst, of each of us. One that illustrates just how hard it can be to see the brighter side of things when all you really want to do is scream and thrash and give up. But if you persevere, and push forward, and don't give up, that perhaps, you will come to find that there is a light at the end of the tunnel...after all?

1 comment:

  1. This sounds just wonderful. Thanks for reviewing it. I love finding publishers and imprints with a good eye for certain literature. I will check them out.

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