Gardening won't seem like such an innocent pastime after you read this first novel by Dallasite David Searcy, which gives the term "stalking" a nasty new horticultural slant. An elderly Walter Mitty- esque widower, afret over a gopher invasion that has threatened his pride-and-joy roses, orders some exotic flora guaranteed to put off pesky varmints. When the "gopherbane" plants arrive—fuzzy, smelly, weird-looking plants— pretty soon the gophers aren't the only things in trouble. Cicadas swarm and grackles attack; in the street a dog lies dead—or is that a dog? And then the neighbors' daughter develops a fascination for the ever-growing plants with their huge blooms. Searcy is clearly paying homage to the likes of The Birds and Little Shop of Horrors, but he has cultivated his own style—one that, like the seedlings, starts out unassuming and grows increasingly, insidiously more macabre. No monsters or murders here; it's the everydayness of the subjects that gives you chills. (Rubber bands have never seemed so beastly.) That's what the "ordinary" of the title refers to; the "horror" half is extraordinary indeed. Reviewed by Anne Dingus
The ivy-covered halls of higher learning are neither hallowed nor hushed in The Lecturer's Tale, Austinite James Hynes's wicked satire of high and low professorial ambitions at a fictitiously renowned university in Minnesota. Rather this tale of underachiever Nelson Humboldt—newly cashiered from his lecturer's position—noisily flays the school's oddball faculty for both their personal oddities (Professor Vita Deonne's indeterminate gender) and their postmodern posturing (Professor Penelope O writes a paper in which she fantasizes about having sex with authors from the canon). The story takes a turn when Humboldt's right index finger—accidentally severed and then reattached—begins to compel others to do his bidding. Humboldt is faced with the timeless superhero dilemma: to use his powers for good or evil, for humanity or personal ambition. Hynes takes the long route to provide the answer, thoughtfully dishing up a fable of redemption in a world gone mad with academic pretension and personal hypocrisy. The Lecturer's Tale is rowdy and brilliant—pointedly literate and scathingly funny all at once. Reviewed by Mike Shea
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