Pineapple

by Joe Taylor

Overview

Fiction. Poetry. Welcome to Los Alamos, where the big-brained boys and girls are at it again. But atoms have become passé now it's the Higgs boson, which they are using to develop a clean, efficient weapon of mini-destruction, mysteriously dropping bodies and groups of bodies into junior black holes within a fifty mile radius. Moreover, they're accomplishing this perfidy in comic rhyming quatrains. Can an intrepid group of six amateur do- gooders resolve the mystery and prevent the unleashing of this new WMD? With the help of several Doberman pinschers, a versificative Kentucky writer and his vivacious muse, Herr Morguemeister, and Verdi's Otello, a resolution seems just possible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781944697273
Publisher:	Sagging Meniscus Press
Publication date:	06/01/2017
Pages:	350
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Joe Taylor has had two previous novels, both with mouthfuls for titles: Oldcat & Ms. Puss: A Book of Days for You and Me, plus LET THERE BE LITE, OR, HOW I CAME TO KNOW AND LOVE GODEL'S INCOMPLETENESS PROOF (Livingston Press, 2014). So PINEAPPLE (Sagging Meniscus Press, 2017) presents vast streamlining. He's also published three story collections, edited several anthologies, and directed Livingston Press at the University of West Alabama for nearly 25 years. He walks the woods in lovely and rural Coatopa, Alabama, Native American for "wounded panther"—often enough apropos of his emotional state.

Editorial Reviews

2017-06-07
A New Mexico spy and her friends stumble upon a murderous plan involving a dangerous new weapon in Taylor's (Let There Be Lite, 2014, etc.) novel in verse. Taylor's unique novel, written almost entirely in rhyming poetry, is largely narrated by a character also named Joe Taylor (more affectionately known as Our Beloved Writer). His muse, Trixie, aka "Dixie" or "Pixie," reads his pages and offers up effervescent, sexually charged critiques. His story is about four friends, their families, and associates in Los Alamos, New Mexico ("the town that spawned the atom bomb"). Dockworker Hank Riser has just bought a new, two-story rancho, and he's anxious for his girlfriend, Carmen Brown, to move in. Hank has an inkling that she's a spy; as it happens, she's investigating a cartel that deals in science instead of drugs. Somehow, the tech for a new weapon, the "G-string gun," has been stolen by the cartel and is being used to kill off young women. Along with friends Dave McDowell and Lorrie Taylor, Carmen and Hank aim to crack the case, helped along by a wacky "Morguemeister" and his medical examiner/assistant. Some shady characters drop off tickets to a performance of Giuseppe Verdi's opera Otello in Santa Fe, which may hold the key to solving the case. Taylor's story in rhyme is definitely an adventurous narrative in terms of structure and style, although it works best when the action is more grounded. Joe's scenes with Trixie are the most helpful for understanding a narrative that's a bit of a riddle. Carmen is an intriguing character, tough and determined, though she feels underdeveloped, as chapters sometimes end in a cursory manner ("No sense in ending this chapt. with a turd") before they make complete sense. The playfully vulgar and sometimes-witty story does have a plot, but it's often buried under tangents, asides, and extraneous dialogue. Acronyms and abbreviations for characters' names also tend to be confusing; the helpful character list at the end should have been placed at the beginning. An ambitious novel whose frantic pace and quixotic nature obscure its plot.

Kirkus Reviews