Ek Chuah by J.R.Cain

Wow! Holy Cow! Was this book weird!

Steve Vernon reviewed this book (200 pages) in C.D. and he gave it a good enough review where I wanted to read it. I can see why Steve enjoyed it, Cain seems to be Australia’s Steve Vernon.

The plot goes something like this: A fat balding guy who is still a virgin and never had a loving relationship with anyone is feeling mighty depressed and lonely. He does have a gay friend and after a night of drinking he winds up letting his gay friend have his way with him. The minute the act is over he realizes that he hates what he let his friend do to him and the next day in order to forget about his homosexual escapade, he winds up going on a blind date with a beautiful woman.

The evening out with this woman is fantastic and it turns into a multi day sightseeing journey culminating with his date having sex with him, sticking a finger up his rump, and then decomposing into nothingness while straddling him.

While this is happening, a bunch of gay men and a few cops get torn to pieces by some giant guy who can’t be killed. And this guy has a huge penis. How do the cops know this? By looking at the anal fissures of the dead gay men. They also study the semen in the dead gay men and they discover the ichy goo does not have human DNA, but it does have….err…other properties.

It gets better. There is a gang of women whose leader either partially owns or sells protection to a bunch of strip clubs, and the gang goes to one called The Tiny Tittie to find out why the manager of the club isn’t paying the monthly allowance like he’s supposed to. The gang goes into the club and things just aren’t right. They see a 90 year old woman with “tits like socks” dancing on the pole and only four customers in the place, and they seem to be mesmerized by the old stripper. The whole place smells like crap and decay and they soon find out why. What happens after is extremely bloody and wild.

This book is a violent as a Tarentino movie and shares like sensibilities. It is dark, crazy, and most importantly, thrilling as hell. I devoured this in two sittings. In fact, I just finished Old Flames which I thought was tedious and pointless as hell and then I picked this book up, what an antidote for the boredom of Ketchum’s novel!

This short novel does have some drawbacks; the development of some secondary characters who are important to the story is given short shrift, and the ending seemed to be way too rushed for me. I also had a problem with some Australian slang though I could guess for the most part what the words meant. But in a chapbook something has to give and I think Cain did a good job in the pages presented.

If you like extremely dark fiction, and weird stories, try out Ek Chuah.

Tt

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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"There's no law, no law anymore - I wanna steal from the rich and give to the poor."
~The Ramones~

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Reading:

The Spartacus War - Barry Strauss
Slow Death - Jim Fielder
The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon