This book is a delicious, delicious treat, full of surprises. I picked up The Show That Smells
after reading the plot summary on Dennis Cooper’s blog (the book is published by Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery series). I expected a delightful, quirky and enjoyably subversive summer read. I was completely unprepared for what this little book really is: startling, funny, full of unexpected twists and morsels of horrific glee. It is almost a novel in verse, and reading it is like watching an unusually wonderful contemporary silent film in novel form. It smells like Edward Gorey, Kathy Acker, Ed Wood, Guy Maddin, and Jean Genet all at once, but somehow doesn't feel derivative at all.
after reading the plot summary on Dennis Cooper’s blog (the book is published by Cooper’s Little House on the Bowery series). I expected a delightful, quirky and enjoyably subversive summer read. I was completely unprepared for what this little book really is: startling, funny, full of unexpected twists and morsels of horrific glee. It is almost a novel in verse, and reading it is like watching an unusually wonderful contemporary silent film in novel form. It smells like Edward Gorey, Kathy Acker, Ed Wood, Guy Maddin, and Jean Genet all at once, but somehow doesn't feel derivative at all.This is a singular, unique work full of punning vampire queens, sexual slapstick, Lon Chaney and righteous queer carnie power. I can’t wait to read it again.
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