Suspect Press

Tag: Cory Casciato

  • Book Review: Zebra Skin Shirt by Gregory Hill

    Book Review: Zebra Skin Shirt by Gregory Hill

    By Cory Casciato

     

     

    Narwhal Slotterfield has a lot of issues. His social skills are questionable. His ethical approach, particularly in his work as a basketball referee, could charitably be called unusual; less charitably, it could be called a disaster. But his biggest problem is the fact that, for him and no one else, time seems to have literally come to a complete stop.

    Slotterfield is the protagonist of Gregory Hill’s latest, and strangest novel, Zebra Skin Shirt, a tale of one man’s quest to find himself in a world where he’s the only thing moving. The story kicks off in earnest when Slotterfield relieves himself in a diner bathroom on the eastern plains of Colorado. During his moment of urination he’s inspired to propose to his girlfriend, Veronica, who’s waiting for him back at their table. Unfortunately for his plan, but perhaps fortunately for his soul, cosmic coincidence interferes, and when he exits the bathroom he finds himself in a unique predicament: the world has stopped, leaving him the only thing still moving.

    In his now still, silent world, Slotterfield is, at first, still something of a jerk, but eventually his time alone—and some of the things he learns by peering into other people’s business, not to mention a bit of psilocybin—push him to reevaluate his past, his actions and his place in the world. It’s an epic tale in its own way, though less the Hero’s Journey and more the fool’s, with a suitably grand and thoroughly bizarre ending that manages to tie together time travel, Slotterfield’s improbable origins and the author’s two previous novels into a satisfying package.

    It’s a literary novel that has plenty to say about the human condition, but don’t let that scare you off. Where some might choose to explicate those truths via long, ruminant passages from the mind of a sensitive and tortured protagonist, Hill does so with clever, biting wit and pure doses of absolute bugshit insanity, all held together with a solid story and some likable-despite-themselves characters. Absurd and surreal, without ever crossing the line into silliness, Zebra Skin Shirt is an excellent novel from an author that clearly understands the stupidity, chaos and madness of existence, and isn’t afraid to embrace it all and put it on the page.

     

    Cory Casciato is a Denver-based writer with a passion for the geeky—from old science fiction movies to brand-new video games. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Colorado Public Radio, Westword and many other places. He really likes zombies.

     

  • Book Review: Strange Stars by Jason Heller

    Book Review: Strange Stars by Jason Heller

    By Cory Casciato

     

    Cover by Butcher Billy

     

    A good music book will take you on a guided tour of a new genre, all while being entertaining in its own right. A great music book will do the same thing, only about an area of music you thought you already knew a lot about. Jason Heller’s Strange Stars is a great music book.

    While I’d never call myself an expert, I certainly know a fair bit about science fiction in pop music, as music and science fiction are two of my absolute favorite things. David Bowie, too, for that matter. But Strange Stars made it apparent how little I really knew, particularly about the 70s, where the two collided urgently and frequently.

    Each chapter covers a single year of the 70s (plus one chapter on the end of the 60s and another on the beginning of the 80s), diving deep into the rock, pop, funk, soul and disco that incorporated science fiction tropes. Heller also delivers a solid amount of context for the music, touching on everything from the novels to the technology that was coming out alongside the tunes.

    Despite Heller’s lively and imaginative musical descriptions, the book is best enjoyed with easy access to Spotify and YouTube (for the really obscure cuts). The problem, if you can call it that, is that the writing is engaging enough you won’t necessarily want to tear yourself away from it to hear the music under discussion.

    Erudite without ever being dry or excessive, Heller has wisely chosen to deliver his payload of musical knowledge through a series of overlapping narratives, telling the stories behind the major players of the day. Bowie himself, as the subtitle promises, serves as something of a throughline, offering a point of comparison and contrast as his love affair with science fiction waxes and wanes throughout the decade. It’s not a book about Bowie, precisely, though he gets more space than any other single artist. He’s simply an anchor to the larger story of spaceships, time machines and aliens of the pop world. That’s the real story here, and Heller tells it with depth and nuance, offering a sparkling portrait of the point where pop music left the planet and was changed forever.

     

    Cory Casciato is a Denver-based writer with a passion for the geeky—from old science fiction movies to brand-new video games. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Colorado Public Radio, Westword and many other places. He really likes zombies.
  • Film Review: JonBenet’s Tricycle by Andrew Novick

    Film Review: JonBenet’s Tricycle by Andrew Novick

    By Cory Casciato

     

    Photo courtesy of Andrew Novick

     

    Denver’s godfather of weird—Andrew Novick—knew that he wanted to make a film as soon he got his hands on JonBenet’s tricycle, and in typical Novickian style, the results are a delight. Delirious and disturbing, yes, but a delight all the same.

    The titular tricycle—which Novick took from the backyard of the Ramsey family home shortly after the infamous murder—is the documentary’s focus, but the film is so much more than that.

    Recursive and multilayered to the point of being almost fractal, the film is a bewildering ouroboros of ideas and concepts, folding back on one another over and over again, stuttering and sputtering in a dance of intellect and emotion that’s surreal and beautiful, while also deeply creepy.

    It opens on an interview with Novick, before spinning off to give viewers a peak of his collections of everything and anything, from vintage clown memorabilia to morbid merchandise spawned from the Manson killings. Before long, we’re reliving the infamous JonBenet murder, communing with psychics (and debunking with psychic skeptics), meditating on tabloid culture, delving into the ways we experience cultural phenomena, examining the way we form both memories and attachments to objects, and dealing with the backlash to some of Novick’s especially outrageous stunts, such as the t-shirt designs that seemed to advocate suicide.

    Does this sound like an unfocused mess—a madhouse rollercoaster ride through dozens of concepts and ideas and images, going everywhere and nowhere all at once? It is. But it’s also a loose-limbed but fascinating look deep into one of the most unusual and unique minds you’re likely to ever encounter. It’s like an early Werner Herzog doc if Herzog had less focus and a hell of a lot more whimsy, but mostly it’s just like Novick himself: weird and at times off-putting, but always charming and full of joy.

     

     

    Cory Casciato is a Denver-based writer with a passion for the geeky—from old science fiction movies to brand-new video games. His work has appeared in The AV Club, Colorado Public Radio, Westword and many other places. He really likes zombies.