Enjoy Me - Softcover

Smith, Logan Ryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1505553334 ISBN 13: 9781505553338

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015

Synopsis

Enjoy Me, a collection of stories by Logan Ryan Smith, tells the tales of unreliable narrator, Luke—a down and out, sometimes unemployed writer living in San Francisco among zombies, monsters, and cricket-people. He navigates this world in search of love, respect, drugs, booze, and satisfaction, often seeking others through a haze of fantasy, despite his evident misanthropy. But fantasy and reality mix, leaving everyone involved with questions of which is which, and whether it even matters. Sometimes likable, more often despicable, Luke relates his narratives with lyrical urgency and a healthy dose of fear, anxiety, and the inevitable apathy. These are stories of dark comedy and just plain darkness taking cue from writers the likes of Brett Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Joyce Carol Oates, but with a little less than one foot on the ground and more than a couple twitching antennae in the clouds.

About this title

About the Author

Logan Ryan Smith writes unclassifiable fiction that fits somewhere in between dark fantasy, transgressive, and literary, all with a dark comedy underbelly and lyrical leaning. Enjoy Me, a collection of interconnected stories told by the same narrator, is his first full volume of fiction. Though focusing exclusively on novels and short stories these days, his poetry books include The Singers & The Notes (Dusie Press, 2007), Stupid Birds (Transmission Press, 2007), and, most recently, Bug House (Mission Cleaners Books, 2013)—a narrative series of poems that shares many of the same fantasy elements of his fiction. Logan’s fiction has appeared in Hobart Journal, Meat for Tea: The Valley Review, and Great Lakes Review, which nominated his story “Bret Easton Ellis” for a Pushcart Prize. Hailing from places all over California (San Francisco, Brawley, Crescent City, Sacramento), he now calls Chicago home.

Review

"Enjoy Me is a strikingly unsettling collection of interlinked short stories set in San Francisco about a troubled young man called Luke. The opening story introduces us to his bizarre, nightmarish world where zombies and giant crickets seem to coexist side by side with the regular world. As the book progresses, it gradually becomes clearer that Luke is probably hallucinating these mad visions, although tantalisingly this is never made clear to the reader. We follow Luke through a series of episodes during which his mental health steadily disintegrates and his connection with the 'normal' world breaks down in a spectacular manner. I can be completely honest in saying that I've never read anything like this book, and that it is startling in its originality. There are elements of Naked Lunch, American Psycho, Last Exit to Brooklyn, and Donnie Darko (some hints too of Stewart Home's 69 Things to Do with a Dead Princes) but it is entirely its own beast. Smith's biography explains that he was formerly a poet and this shines through in his wild and vivid use of language. Luke's damaged and unsettling world will stay with me a long time, and I look forward to reading more of Smith's work." -Neil Cocker, author of Amsterdam Rampant

"This is the third book I've read by Logan Ryan Smith this year, and he has fast become one of my favourite authors. He is a master of stream of consciousness prose, unreliable narrators, and vivid dream logic. Enjoy Me is no exception. This is presented as a collection of short stories, but feels more like a stash of vignettes from a scrapbook of Luke's life. Some are close to making sense, some are not. Some inform the context of others, some obliterate what you had taken as truth. It has all the confusion, hilarity and despair of an unhinged mind if it could be recorded directly on paper. At first I thought of it like the thoughts of a writer, where his obsessions over characters and narratives are mixing in with reality, but it could just as easily be the ramblings of a madman or drug user. Whatever interpretation you choose, this is a skilful study of the way reality seems to warp when unconscious associations are not quite in check, and because it's all through the eyes of the protagonist, this makes for an intense, immediate and uncensored experience. Another highly recommended title. I can't wait to read its sequel." -C.R. Dudley, author of Mind in the Gap
"The magic in Enjoy Me is finding the lessons in the parallels between Luke's fantastic world and the conventional world we all inhabit." -Windy City Reviews
"The hallucinogenic divergences [in Enjoy Me] are beautiful." -John Sakkis, author of The Islands

What readers are saying about Enjoy Me:

• "[T]he author's talent and imagination is very impressive throughout, dreaming up a powerful story and bringing fantasy to life in a way that could easily rival Fight Club or Donnie Darko." -Rebecca McNutt, Goodreads Review
• "An acid trip gone horribly wrong, and I loved every page of it." -Cait Lambert, Goodreads Review
• "Following the story of Luke felt like drinking champagne while suffering a brain hemorrhage... Hugely enjoyable from start to finish, with a 'why am I reading this' edge." -Pierra, Goodreads Review 
• "Without a doubt, one of the strangest things I've ever read." -Amanda, Goodreads Review

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1505553334
• ISBN 13: 9781505553338
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 234