Man, I had so many stab wounds, it was crazy. There I was at the
conference center, and I hadn't even adequately prepared my
presentation. And so begins "Bleeding Man and Wounded Deer," one of the
stories in this collection of literary short fiction from the pen of
acclaimed Seattle novelist Ryan Boudinot. Bouncing between experimental
fiction, absurdist farce, paranoid futurism, and stinging satire,
Boudinot's funny, inventive prose lays bare the hopes and anxieties of
our age. From a heartbreaking and pitch-perfect account of the end of
Bert and Ernie's relationship, to a story about lovelorn robots looking
for a "chop-shop owner who's willing to look the other way" in a world
where robot sex is illegal, to a Miyazaki-esque story about an entire
town that shares the same heart, Boudinot's prose crackles an acerbic
wit. Also featuring: "Chopsticks" (the protaganist's cat who develops a
hard drug problem); "An Essay and a Story about Mötley Crüe"
(wish-fulfillment disguised as memoir); "I Used to Be a Plastic
Bottle!"; and "The Guy Who Kept Meeting Himself."