Witch PissSam Pink. Lazy Fascist Press, $8.95 paperback (112p) ISBN: 9781621051343
Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare play dedicated
entirely to the gravediggers in Hamlet.
The interesting part about the Bard’s comic characters — not only the
gravediggers, but Lear’s fool and the underappreciated Autolycus — is that they
are smarter and more honest than their neighbors of higher social standing.
Sharp wits and true souls, always taking the piss out of the upper-class twits
around them. Sam Pink’s characters share the same qualities. He’s as obsessed
with the down-and-out as Shakespeare was and James Kelman is. So much so that
Pink devotes all of Witch Piss to the
homeless and destitute of Chicago. They’re addicts and drunks and sinners and
thieves. Most are a bit off their rocker. Like Shakespeare’s fools, insanity is
part of the package. But they make no apologies. Nor do they operate under any
delusions. Pink cares enough about the characters to show them at face value and
not romanticize anything. Sometimes they’re extremely funny, other times sad
and self-destructive. Denizens like Spider-Man (who is so named for the obvious
reason that he tries to dress like Spider Man) and his girlfriend Janet come
across not as clichés but living breathing complex human beings. Anyone who
lives in a large city knows them well.
While Witch
Piss doesn’t boast a plot, it still grabs you. The big draw is Pink’s use
of language. It’s downright lyrical, percussive, and sharp. Even when writing
in dialects or broken and slurred english, he finds a poetic flow to the
characters’ voices. While not having a story per se would hamstring some
authors, Pink turns the novel into the equivalent of a photo essay. Each
chapter is a snapshot of a group of locals doing exactly what they do on any
other day, laid out in Pink’s high-contrast delivery. The narrator, who is
present in the story, but essential only as a recorder of events, is shoved to
the side. Here and there he utters a platitude or two, from which we can tell
that he is as lost as the others. In many ways, he finds his humanity by
joining their circle. But the spotlight is not on him. For some this may strike
a sore point, but it’s the smarter choice. The narrator really is a stand-in for
the reader. Pink smartly keeps the focus on people like Spider-Man who
naturally have more interesting things to tell us about human beings. The
reader can’t help but get caught up in their stories. Sometimes there is a
point, sometimes not. Sometimes it’s really funny. And at other times, the
reality of their situations throws a gut punch. In the end, Pink never drags
the novel down to a sordid level. Nor does he sugar coat anything. Like life
itself, Witch Piss is funny and sad,
often at the same time. (February 2014)
Purchase Witch
Piss HERE.
Reviewer bio: Ken
Wohlrob is the author of the novel No
Tears for Old Scratch and two short story collections.
