Tacky Goblin
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
"A sublimely contemporary study of a universal truth: Growing up is weird to do. Inventive, funny, grotesque, and ribald—a book with something for everyone as long as no one demands that it makes sense." —Kirkus Reviews
Tacky Goblin is the diary of a young man’s journey through the grotesque underbelly of daily life. Or maybe it is the exposure of daily life itself as a grotesque underbelly, blistered and searing and glaringly obvious, like a passed-out sunbather.
Fleeing a talking mold stain in the ceiling of his bedroom in Chicago, he moves to Los Angeles, where he rents an apartment with his sister, Kim. Despite the new city, new friends, and new love interests, something haunts him. The siblings share a surreal and irreverent view of life, and perhaps Kim can help him out of his funk. Or maybe she’ll just lead him to hell. Absurdist, nihilistic, lovable, Tacky Goblin is a very funny look at the dark side of (not) becoming a grown-up.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Steele's deliciously bizarre debut is a dream, a nightmare, and a carnival ride a wacky, heartfelt trip through a young man's struggle to digest early adulthood. The unnamed 23-year-old narrator experiences psychosomatic anxiety from his impending move from Chicago to L.A. with his sister, Kim, and often drifts into a creepy, surreal world where ceiling mold can speak, time is flexible, and an infant and a puppy can share a conflated identity. Whether taken as flights of fancy, metaphors for the strangeness of life, or literal occurrences, these imaginative turns create an irresistible world for the reader to explore. One may wonder whether a hole in the narrator's belly is literal or symbolic, but either way, this forces the reader to ask what causes feelings of emptiness. Between a relationship with his drug-addicted neighbor, Laurie, and a haunted apartment, the narrator faces typical 20-something problems with a unique sense of humor and a perpetual feeling of unrest. These sensations work together to make something new, a display of worry and angst as pleasant to read as they would be unpleasant to experience. This novel seamlessly blends the real with the fantastic to portray a young mind in turmoil.
