K: Bowl of Cherries by Millard KAUFMAN

Chosen because

I like quirky looking books and this one, published in San Francisco (price $22), seems to qualify with its distinctive illustration on the cover and a ¾ dust jacket. It’s another first novel, but from a nonagenarian with a screenwriting background; based on the blurb and the extract on the front flap it promises some dark humour of the grumpy old man variety.

The Review

The book opens as the narrator is awaiting execution in an Arabian prison. As he muses how it came to this we alternate between his unfolding life story and the unpleasant details of his present day predicament.

Written in an expansive style and use of vocabulary that may send you scurrying for the dictionary, it needs to be read at a leisurely pace. Nevertheless it moves rapidly enough through a rather bizarre set of episodes in which we are introduced to an eccentric cast of characters. It is witty and humorous, more chuckle than laugh out loud, and some of the satire is a bit heavy handed.

Quicker than expected, while the imprisoned narrator is still a very young man, the book arrives at the business end of the story in the Middle East. The past catches up with the present and the story moves to its potentially sticky end.

Read another?

I did like his writing style - apparently he is writing his second novel so it’s possible.