I was just going to write one word: terrible. Just that, nothing else. Nothing else seemed needed. I figured you could read the title, think ‘Hmmm…interesting’ and then read the one word (it’s ‘terrible’–remember? I just wrote it, right up there…), just read that one little word and think ‘Oh, okay. Thanks for the warning.” Yep. I was going to write just one word. I could have added that the press release came with a definition of satire, but then I’d have to point out that the book failed to live up to that definition. Sure, sure–I would have told you that “human vice or folly is attacked” in the novel but it wasn’t really done “through irony…or wit”. And maybe, by this point, you would expect a quotation, or justification as to why I thought it was so bad (and I’d rather spare you that and you would owe me another “Oh, okay. Thanks.”) But, if I had had to say all that, I might have lost the effectiveness of my one word review: Terrible.
Books Editor’s Note: In case you are wondering if the reviewer actually read the book, he did and clarified what made Men are all Murderers and Women are all Whores “terrible”: It was mostly just crap. Supposed to be parable/satire but was just “Our Hero did this and killed so and so. The Princess did this and lusted after so and so.” Didn’t hit the mark, nothing clever about it. Men and women were portrayed equally poorly so it wasn’t really sexist or offensive. Merely an irritating book. (Mitch Adams)
by Justin Zaza, $19.95, 94 pgs, Hammer Game Publishing, 250 Wellington St. W. #642, Toronto, ON, M5V 3P6, mmww.ca