Eric Hendrixson

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.… (plus d'informations)

It'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? :)… (plus d'informations)

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: http://ireadoddbooks.com/bucket-of-face-by-eric-hendrixson/… (plus d'informations)

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. 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.… (plus d'informations)