A review by lordofthemoon
Keep the Giraffe Burning by John Sladek

2.0

In his introduction to this collection of short stories, the author denies that these stories are 'surrealist', claiming that they were just written to entertain. I suspect they probably entertained the author since I bet they were really fun to write, but they certainly aren't fun to read. After more than a few of these stories, you start getting worn down, they mostly just feel clever for their own sake which made it a difficult book to plough through. There were a few stories that were worth it (such as the one nesting nine layers deep, which was fun) but mostly I was just impatient with them. I must confess that I broke towards the end and only skimmed the second last story and skipped the last one, reading only the first few pages in the vain hope that it might be readable. Only worth it if you're a fan of surrealist writing.