 Life throws poor Stanley Maddox a curveball to remember… and another one… in hilarious genre-bending head-scratcher Over the last couple of years, I have been greatly impressed by the high quality of truly crazy novellas and short novels being released by the small American presses. Hats off to Eraserhead Press (Portland, Oregon) for unleashing Jon Bassoff’s truly bizarre Drive-Thru Crematorium onto an unsuspecting world, which had me shaking my head and laughing in equal measures. Actually, I read the 160 pages deliberately slowly as I did not want to miss out on any of the escalating weirdness or comic set-pieces which were often presented in a droll dead-pan style which totally nailed it. It is genuinely difficult to know what to compare this bizarre book with. However, the blurbs are quite accurate, Jake Hinkson says: “Bassoff is the Kafka of Colorado, a writer who spins feverish nightmares out of the insane realities of modern life”. Dave Zeltersman comments: “Toss Kafka, David Lynch, and a pinch of Flannery O’Connor in a blender, and you might end up with The Drive-Thru Crematorium”. Before I started the book I would have said comparing an obscure writer to Kafka or Lynch was a pointless exercise and in the long run would do them little favours as the reader will ultimately be disappointed. However, on this occasion I would agree, Bassoff is definitely influenced by Kafka and arguably Lynch. He is also very funny, especially if you like the darker side of things. Imagine you’re walking down the road and there is a guy checking his phone, distracted he steps in a huge streaming dog-turd. Do you laugh or sympathise? Maybe I’m not making much sense, but this book is a bit like that. You’ll be glad is not you in the book. Jake Hinkson is bang on the money with his quote “spins feverish nightmares out of the insane realities of modern life” and much of the book is a series of hilarious and grotesque set-pieces where the life of Stanley Maddox (or is it Mallory?) goes from bad to worse. The story begins with Stanley going to work for Evergreen Lending, where he has been employed for the last six years, however, when he arrives nobody remembers who he is and his old boss seems to think he is the new underwriter. Eventually his old boss says he can continue working for free (which Stanley agrees to), however, when he returns to work the next day his desk has been removed and he has to work on the floor. Before long he is kicked out of the office, after he makes a fuss when someone eats his lunch (incidentally, this scene was a real hoot), but on the way out the door his old boss asks him to take some files home to work on. Which Stanley agrees to, and so we go on….. Some of these sequences are excruciatingly funny; one day Stanley was just a normal guy working a nine to five and the next his life has turned to crap. This, however, was just the beginning…. A couple of days later he returns home from work to find another man sitting on his sofa beside his wife. She fails to introduce him to the interloper. His hand slowly edges towards her crotch…. When his wife makes dinner, she sets only two places for herself and her new boyfriend…. Stanley stands and watches them eat. When bedtime comes around the other guy takes his spot in the family bed and Stanley crawls into the bottom part of the bed and tries to find a place close to their feet. He also notices he is disappearing from some of the family photographs, and so it goes on….. Confused? If not, you soon will be. For much of the time it was hard to tell exactly where the story might be heading, obviously downhill for Stanley, and there are more direct Kafka references as the story develops. Much of what happens may well be open to interpretation, and I’m not claiming to have all the answers, but it almost morphed into a thriller in the final forty pages and when it did I felt it lost some of its weirdness and a small part of its charm. I’m not sure it really needed to make any sense, but most of the story-threads were pulled together, including the serial killer which lurked in the background. Along the way Stanley picks up a facial scratch which festers and worsens when he pokes at it. Ultimately, just when you think nothing can get worse for Stanley, that’s exactly what happens. A rabbit with a damaged foot wanders around his house, which morphs into a baby (which he never knew he had) and he meets oddball characters one after another. I also laughed heartily at the restaurant scene where he is stuck in the furthest away corner and then ignored by the bored waitresses. Why is it called The Drive-Thru Crematorium you may ask? You’ll have to read it to find out. If you like strange books you’ll love this, if you prefer something which makes sense with a standard plot, character development and a proper ending then this book might not be for you. I found it to be a very entertaining journey in discovering the monster which lurks within. If you went to work one fine Monday morning and everyone had forgotten who you were and you later found another bloke smooching with your wife you’d probably crack up also! Highly recommended (especially for the small man who feels downtrodden by life). All of us probably…. Tony Jones  The Drive-Thru Crematorium by Jon Bassoff   Comments are closed.
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