ben brooks wrote a book called FENCES.  fugue state press published it.  james chapman (editor) mailed it to me recently.  it is fucking righteous.  i read it in like two hours.  i couldnt stop.   most important to me was my ability to concentrate on it.  lately i have a bad attention span but this book booted that lack in the throat.  FENCES contains some of the strongest lines i have read in a while.  it’s not a book for someone looking for a traditional story or anything.  it’s more like a somewhat-narrative poem.  but for real, it’s so well done.  you can feel the filth of solitude from the very beginning where the narrator is “in a hole” where “nicotine eyes” stare at him.  the book then seems to progress by branching off endlessly into different tracts of hopeless love, self-hatred and general dismay.  this book is the message left by a burning tree blowing ash against the side of a garage where inside a man huffs gas to feel like a king.  the biggest success of this book to me was how disconnected it was while remaining engaging.  fuck.  good job ben.  don’t kill yourself yet.

here is some information on the fugue state website.

here is an exceprt on the fugue state website.