My first impulse upon starting the book was to throw it in the trash. Figuratively, as it is on my Kindle. For people who can’t get enough of the type of humor displayed in the movie Airplane, this book is manna from heaven. For the rest of us - well, my first impression was that it is just plain stupid. But I did say I’d review it, so I trudged on. A little over halfway through, I started to enjoy the storyline and overlook the stupid jokes. By the end - I’m not going to say I loved it, but I’d made friends with a book in a genre I’d never select. I grew to like the people in the book, to respect the main characters Duncan and Maya, and to understand them as a community of people living an honest life, led by a man named Burt who made their lives a misery at every turn.

My copy was provided by LibraryThing and the publisher. The opinions in this review are my own.

Disclaimer: I received a free version of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was a lot of fun. I'm a huge fan of taking the mickey out of bureaucracy and where better to do it than a small town with a weird population? While it always felt pretty clear where it was going, the path was incredibly varied and there was a lot of texture added that made it a very enjoyable trip. There are plenty of non sequiturs and absurdities to keep everything relatively light and airy.

However, while it was a lot of fun, there were a lot of aspects that didn't work for me. There are a few weird quirks (particularly the footnotes and one character's way of speaking) that sapped some of the fun out of it, and messed with the flow. I also think that the ending felt like it belonged to another book – like the main part of the story was written and then the ending was tacked on some time later. It would have benefited from a strong edit, given that all of the story elements were there, there were just a few too many.

With that said, this was a lot of fun, with a lot of separate elements coming together in a generally satisfying way. I think most people would read this and find something amusing in it.

I would definitely read O'Keefe's next book. ( )

Zany book with an absurd ending. I did enjoy it, although I might not have picked it up on my own or finished it if I didn't pledge to review it. Once I relaxed and took it for the satire on small town life it was, I wanted to continue to find out what happened next! There was one passage that was repeated in my version and I couldn't decide whether it was on purpose or not. ( )

All the big questions of political economy packed into easily digestible, amusing vignettes and answered in an imaginary small town that has plenty of surprises in store. A brutal dictator, completely crazy anarchists, a naive outsider who rebels - and "The Scales" bending the rules: What a great stay in this small town! And a text with lots of allusions, a game with the absurd. Five stars! ( )

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this as an Early Reviewer. No compensation was received other than a Smashwords coupon valued at 2.99 USD which brought the price to free.

This short novel is a take on the absurd things that can happen in small towns, where everyone is close enough to know each other's business but also leads to asking why anyone bothers to try and keep secrets? The tone it takes is similar to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (and the author is honest by admitting this). It was a little hard for me to get into in the beginning, but once I figured out the writer's style more I enjoyed this work.

Recommneded for: Those who enjoy short novels, those who enjoy more absurdist works, and those who enjoy Monty Python. ( )