T. Fox DunhamReseñas

Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality; or, Searching for Andy Kaufman is a book I won't soon forget. OK, I might forget the title, after all, it is a mouthful.

The story is a fictional expression of the author's life after being diagnosed with a rare combination of large cell lymphoma and Hodgkins. T. Fox Dunham was only the tenth person in the world to have this diagnosis. Thankfully, he's a survivor. His protagonist is not so lucky.

Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality; or, Searching for Andy Kaufman is filled with wonderfully offbeat characters. Anthony, diagnosed with cancer. Cynthia, his childhood friend who wants to be more. Tolya, a Mad Russian truck driver. Manhattan, who loves Anthony because he has death inside him.

The opening sequence had me gawking, wondering what the hell I had gotten myself into, but much like an accident at the side of the road, I couldn't tear my eyes away.

Great chapter titles, too, like "ELVIS DIED ON THE TOILET FOR OUR SINS" and "I DON"T BELIEVE IN HELL, JUST NEW JERSEY."

And then, there's the search for Andy Kaufman. If you're already familiar with the comic's legacy, I think you'll really enjoy what the writer has done with this. If you're not, the story is all there with some imaginative twists that could certainly be within the realm of possibility.

Part self expression, part surreal fantasy, part convoluted love story, and part road trip comedy. Dunham manages to intertwine it all into a cohesive and wacky read that might just might you think.

I wanted Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality; or, Searching for Andy Kaufman to be true, every word of it, but it can't be. But then? Makes you wonder, much like one of Andy Kaufman's bits.

Highly recommended and published by Perpetual Motion Machine Publishing, Destroying the Tangible Illusion of Reality; or, Searching for Andy Kaufman is available in both paperback and e-book formats.

T. Fox Dunham is an established author with several upcoming books and hundreds of short stories published in all mediums. His first novel, The Street Martyr is being made into a major motion picture by ThroughLine Films.

This horror novel was different than any other horror novel I have read and I found it surprisingly refreshing. William Saint is dying from cancer and is brought to Mercy Hospital against his wishes. There he finds not only is he is dealing with demons from his past but a very real horror that has changed the medical staff and the hospital itself. Now William is fighting not only the visions from his past but a very real evil that wants to use him to gain access to our world.
I really liked this novel. I found it to be very different from anything I have read before and also very unsettling at times. All in all, I didn't want to put the book down (but had to as I do have a non book life lol) and didn't want the story to end. It is very well written, informative, and the author also has a talent with keeping a growing sense of unease and suspense. Highly recommended.

If you enjoy reading super depressing and fairly disturbing stories...then this is the book for you. It certainly was NOT for me. I'm not sure what I really expected after reading the synopsis, but this wasn't it... I think it was the last sentence of the synopsis that hooked me - "But, as is always the case after a storm passes, you will also find life beginning anew." Yeah...maybe a couple of the stories have a victorious ending, but the vast majority of them just left me feeling extremely uncomfortable. Also, even though the synopsis makes it seem as if at least half of the stories are storm related, most of them are about abusive spouses and horrible human beings. I guess having gone through the big tornado on April 27th of last year, I was looking for an anthology that focused on the sunshine after the storm and how the human spirit and "Mother Nature" have an incredible ability to bounce back from adversity. If that's what you're looking for too, then don't look here...

Note: I received this in a member giveaway on LibraryThing. All of the above is 100% honest.

A fairly well done anthology with storms of some kind as the running thread. Short stories, poetry and imagery made for an interesting combination but my overall enjoyment was slight. I thought some of the short stories wordy and obvious, my favorite being "The Wait" by Farah Ghuznavi.
I'm also discovering I like the idea of poetry with it's sparsity of words and it's imagery more appealing than the reality. Though I quite enjoy Haiku. My favorite of the poems was "Tornado Brewing" by Carol Alexander, I think due to childrens viewpoint.
The included imagery was, sadly, hard to enjoy on my first generation nook.

This was a book that I could not get into. I read a few stories and I could not get interested. I am also not a big poetry reader and there are some mixed in.

This seamlessly edited anthology has something for every discerning reader. From well-crafted, various forms of poetry to short stories ranging from magical realism to ethnic fiction to SF, these pieces have been carefully chosen to mesh together smoothly and subtly from one to the other. The quality and range is fantastic. The storm metaphor is utilized in unexpected and clever ways.

I enjoyed it thoroughly- very highly recommended.