As I promised in my post about Smashwords, once I had downloaded a book from them I would write a review of it, to give you a small idea of the sort of books you might come across there, well here is the first one......
THE BEARD, by Andersen Prunty
This is a truly extraordinary book, a sort of collision between a Surrealist writer such as Jacques Prevert and writers such as John Bunyon or Dante.
Mr Prunty is the author of a number of other books, apparently all much in the same vein; books such as The overwhelming urge, Jack and Mr Grin, which can be purchased from Amazon, among other places as hard copy or eBooks.
Mr Prunty is the author of a number of other books, apparently all much in the same vein; books such as The overwhelming urge, Jack and Mr Grin, which can be purchased from Amazon, among other places as hard copy or eBooks.
The synopsis on the website doesn't really do this book justice, and I quote:
"Seven-year-old David Glum watches as his grandfather is abducted by a legendary herd of elephants. Twenty years later, David returns to his parents' home to focus on growing a beard, a goal he feels sure he can accomplish. Hilarity ensues."
The book starts in a reasonably calm way, with a rather touching description of a young boy and his relationship with his Grandfather, and nothing much about the first couple of pages gives one any reason to expect anything especially strange to happen in this book - to be honest, reading this chapter I began to think that perhaps my more or less random choice of a book had been a bad one. That is until the above mentioned elephants put in their appearance.
From that moment on, things became stranger and stranger by the minute. I shan't describe anything more of the plot, as this would take away the genuine pleasure that you will experience should you read this book - well, I hope you will experience pleasure reading it, I did.
Basically it is a tale of an anabasis, a voyage of self discovery and a very wry commentary on the world we live in. Also, it is an extremely enjoyable book to read. The further into it I got, the less easy I found it to put it down and get on with other things. It completely captivated me; all the various - and extremely strange - characters are surprisingly sympathetic and (this is a real achievement on Mr Prunty's part) believable. As is the wildly off-beat world they all inhabit.
As you can probably see, I was extremely happy that I had stumbled across this book, and have no hesitation in recommending it to you.
For me this is one of the great joys of free online books, I can risk experimenting with books and authors I know nothing about, and I frequently stumble over real treasures in this manner. Another powerful argument for owning an eReader, no?
SHARE WITH US
If you also read this book, or even if you happen to be the author, I would be very pleased if you would let us know what you thought of it. Should you be Mr.Prunty, I would be intrigued to know how this very curious book came about.
SHARE WITH US
If you also read this book, or even if you happen to be the author, I would be very pleased if you would let us know what you thought of it. Should you be Mr.Prunty, I would be intrigued to know how this very curious book came about.
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