New from Anxiety Press: Strange Fle$h
Blurb
Freddie Bickel is a degenerate and a louse. He is not a good man. He never wanted to be. But how things have changed.
Freddie has spent his life being angry while mostly drunk and high. He has never been much of a friend or an employee, but sometimes life doesn’t come with choices. Some days all any man can do is hang on hoping he won’t die or go to prison. So far, Freddie is doing pretty good.
Sunday Jones is a young and pretty woman in her 20s but isn’t ready for life as a grown-up. Unable to adult alone, her mother Jerusalem is glad to keep her daughter at home, to help run her life. Most of all, Jerusalem wants to have a family again, but that is going to require more than good intentions.
Freddie has a crush on Sunday, and she knows it. But her mother Jerusalem has taken a shine to the lousy security guard, despite his obvious flaws and has no problem using her daughter as the bait that will trap Freddie.
Even though Freddie is willing to make a deal —to be Jerusalem’s common-law husband and father to this weirdly strung together family, as well as a personal drug dealer to them all— Freddie cannot seem to say no to Sunday’s autistic son, Octavius. In exchange for all this, Freddie wants only one thing; to have a home he has no right to claim as his own but one he has dreamed of having all his life.
For the first time in his miserable, wasted existence, Freddie Bickel will get to see what it is like to wear golden handcuffs; to be a husband and father, a man with responsibilities far greater than he could expect or imagine in order to have what he has always wanted — a place in this world where he belongs.
Now all he has to do is not fuck everything up... like usual.
Review
“Bukowski himself would raise a glass to this stark and brutally honest portrayal of a man's struggle to find meaning in a world hell-bent on grinding him down.” — Owen Grey, author of Puking Up Rednecks
Author Bio
Joe West, an astute observer of the disaffected lives that society often overlooks, draws inspiration from his own tumultuous childhood marked by poverty and abandonment. Having honed his survival instincts through wit and resilience, Joe delves into the gritty realities of his characters, exploring their struggles and triumphs with a keen eye for authenticity. Born and raised in the City of St. Louis, Joe has intimately experienced the pulse of urban life, which permeates his stories. Having toiled through numerous menial jobs, where a clean drug test and a decent haircut were the primary qualifications, he has witnessed firsthand the struggles of those navigating the underbelly of society. It is within these narratives that Joe finds his creative fuel, weaving tales that expose the raw truths of existence. In Joe's own words, "It is not the malevolence of human actions, but the inevitable and often dire consequences they face that captivate me as a writer." Through his insightful storytelling, he seeks to shed light on the profound impact of life's choices and the inescapable web they create.
For further information, book reviews, or interview opportunities, please contact JoeWestWrites@gmail.com.
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