Octavius the 1st

Publishers Weekly

Octavius Trotter, the antihero of Brewer's flawed novella, is a lonely, obese, flatulent masturbator who lives with his mother, chain-smoking grandmother and a constipated pug named Augustus in a deeply Baptist Stiltsville. Octavius's lonely existence is momentarily alleviated when he begins working at a library. But nervous about his first day of work, he ducks into a "Cheeses Christ" fast food restaurant and gorges on fried foods served to him by an albino named T-Lo who arouses feelings of love in Octavius. When he sees her later the same day studying in the library, Octavius accidentally horrifies her, ruining his chances at romance and employment. Returning home defeated, Octavius redeems himself by solving a few problems around the house. Unfortunately, the prose is overly stylized (imagine a less witty Ignatius J. Reilly aping The Sound and the Fury) and the scatological humor quickly becomes dull, while the Bible Belt lampooning relies almost exclusively on too easy jokes and lazy, absurd characterizations. (Jan.)