(Reviewed by JD Jung)
“By closing, I’d carried a drunk woman out, separated two fights, stood in the doorway to block someone from coming in after she pissed/puked herself out front…scooped puke out of a urinal with stunning accuracy, and made a hundred dollars betting on a bowling match on TV.”
The bartender then asked him to check on the women’s bathroom. “After confirming that the women’s bathroom was still there, I also noticed a toilet covered and filled with shit!” There’s more to this incident, and he describes it in graphic detail.
Working with garbage inside and outside a sleazy Chicago bar seems to be his lot in life. In fact, every job he ever had involved garbage…or vomit, excrement or at least the use of a plunger. And he talks to all of it like it’s a living, breathing being. He does have some actual human friends or at least acquaintances though, and they’re as pitiful as he is.
You may think that Garbage Times ends abruptly, but hold on. This Chicago loner —I think it’s the same guy— moves from a freezing Chicago slum to a warm Florida suburb with his now-girlfriend (where did she come from?) in the accompanying novella, White Ibis. This subculture is so foreign to him with its pool parties and red Styrofoam plates, that he has difficulty relating with her family and friends.
Though the landscape and situations are totally different in these two novellas, the poetic style and voice is the same. Our “loser” in Garbage Times takes us to dark and depressing places while we’re shamefully laughing. In White Ibis he puts us in amusing situations where we’re snickering at him directly. I enjoyed both and really couldn’t pick a favorite. Sam Pink succeeds in using dead-pan humor to take the ordinary and turn it into a hysterical event.
Those who enjoy crass humor and well-written prose will enjoy this duo.
