"A surreal collection of stories based on Anthony Zen’s mundane yet absurd life."
Available in kindle and paperback from Amazon.
Told in a collection of 23 stories, The Surreal Adventures of Anthony Zen by Cameron A. Straughan is a collection of dreamlike narratives following the overarching story of Anthony Zen’s mundane, yet absurd life. It seems contradictory to explain something as absurd and mundane, but I’m at a loss to describe it any better. We see Anthony wake up, go to work, head out for dinner with parents, and take visits to the cinema. All the while, his cat rings like an alarm clock, Hippos form part of the police force, he doesn’t always wake up in his own bed, he forgets to put on trousers (an inherited trait) and it always seems to be around 9am.
A book that, the more you concentrate on the details the more you are rewarded with absurd twists and irreverent humour filled payoffs. I found the twist on the ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy really funny, and the play on words (Mount Tingtension) appeals to my love of punny, “dad-humour”. The structure of the book as a collection of short stories adds to the overall feel of the absurd, they read almost like snatches of a dream (one where you always forget your trousers when you leave the house) which adds to the surreal quality of the story.
Charlotte Walker, A LoveReading Ambassador
| Primary Genre | Humorous Fiction |
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