Month: August 2021

Time for Your Dose of Existential Humor

When Daniil Ivanovich Yuvachev steps in front of a trolleybus and is killed, he immediately regrets not looking both ways before crossing the street. It’s one of many deaths Daniil faces in these eighteen absurdist tales. From a mind that wanders too far at lunch, and a madcap chase through St. Petersburg, to a clock that stops time whenever it’s observed, these stories trace not only the lives and deaths of the hero, but the author’s impossible nostalgia for a time, a city and a writer he never knew. Filled with existential humor, this masterful collection explores the thinly-veiled boundary between sense and nonsense. 

“The Many Lives and Countless Deaths of Daniil Ivanovich is an absurdist gem in which Jason E. Rolfe channels the best essences of Gogol and Dosto evsky while authenticating his own unique voice. Uncanny, whimsical, and smart, these interstitial stories and vignettes reminded me that literature isn’t dead yet after all.” —D. Harlan Wilson, author of Outré and The Psychotic Dr. Schreber

“Whether you find this funny or frustrating, I would recommend a few sips of this book from day to day. Taken all at once, it can induce mental chaos, but taken one story at a time, it can promise wide smiles. Jason E. Rolfe might be the most specialized of specialist writers, but he deserves a wide, non-specialized readership.” —Mark Fuller Dillon, author of Ice and Autumn Glass


THE MANY LIVES AND COUNTLESS DEATHS OF DANIIL IVANOVICH
by Jason E. Rolfe
with a Postscript by Paul Rosheim
Trade paperback, 112 pp., $14
ISBN 978-1-7373711-2-0

Available on Amazon in North America, Europe, and Australia

Jason Rolfe writes fiction that is both darkly comic and comically absurd, often using humour to shed light on things he finds philosophically absurd. His publications include the novellas, The Puppet-Play of Doctor Gall (Black Scat Books, 2020) and An Archive of Human Nonsense (Snuggly Books, 2017), and the short story collection, Clocks (Black Scat Books, 2018). His short stories have recently appeared in the anthologies The Neo-Decadent Cookbook (Eibonvale Press, 2020), Bitter Distillations (Egaeus Press, 2021) and Uncertainties V (Swan River Press, 2021). Jason is a frequent contributor to Black Scat Review.

Also available from Black Scat Books:

LEAVE IT TO EVE

“If I ever wondered why, this was the answer that kept me glued to my task. Their flesh was the humble instrument on which I sang praises to God. For God was love, and God was transgression.”

Every girl deserves a good mentor.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born on Lesbos, Greece, Eurydice is a feminist writer, artist, multi-modal scholar, and podcaster. She is the author of Satyricon USA: A Journey Across the New Sexual Frontier (Simon & Schuster, New York, London, Sydney, Singapore, 2000 &  Touchstone 2001), f/32: The Second Coming (Virago Press, London: 1993), f/32 Revisited (Richard Kasak Books. New York: 1994), f/32 (Fiction Collective II. Normal, IL: 1991), two chapbooks (Labyrinth, and Gymnostithi, a book of poems in Greek), and dozens of investigative articles for Spin magazine. Her essays, articles, reviews have appeared in magazines like Harper’s and Newsweek, and literary journals. She was an investigative staff writer for Spin magazine and the sex advice columnist for Gear magazine. Her art has been featured in numerous shows in Europe and the U.S. and is in private collections and public museums. In 2010 she had a ten year retrospective in Miami Beach during Art Basel. Her podcast, Speak Sex w Eve, is available on every audio platform.

WHERE IT ALL BEGAN . . .

A special reprint edition of BLACK SCAT REVIEW #1 is now available.

Originally published in 2012, the issue sold out quickly and has long been out of print. It features John Crombie’s translation of “Like Mother” by Alphonse Allais; a hilarious accusatory text by the legendary Canadian absurdist Crad Kilodney; collage art from the UK by Michael Leigh; Elizabeth Archer’s revealing interview with British humorist Samantha Memi; experimental comic art by Florence Bocherel; a rare comic drama by Pierre Henri Cami translated by Doug Skinner; bizarre poems from Portugal’s Pedro Carolino; and astounding short fiction by Samantha Memi, Yuriy Tarnawsky and Tom Whalen. (EDITOR’S NOTE: The original cover photograph by S. N. Jacobson has been censored to allow its display on Amazon.)

BLACK SCAT REVIEW (Number One)
edited by Norman Conquest
paperback; illustrated; full color;
ISBN 979-8450666396