Arts & Entertainment

Jerry Stahl's 'Naked' full of insane antics

Miriam Rouziek
The Daily Cougar

Well, here it is, folks. The penultimate pseudo-detective-love-story-romance youive been waiting for. Or maybe not.

Plainclothes Naked is the latest book from Jerry Stahl, whom you may remember from his works featured in such grade-A magazines as Playboy, Esquire and Details. But thatis not important. 

What is important is the fact that Plainclothes Naked is plainclothes crazy. From the opening scene, featuring a half-naked geriatric fleeing down a rest-home corridor, to the pseudo-Deliverance re-enactment, Plainclothes Naked is chock full of insanity.

The story centers around a photograph of a certain mayor of Upper Marilyn, a.k.a. Tit-ville (twin city to Lower Marilyn, a.k.a. "Butt-burg"), and a certain pseudo-President (George W.). As you may have already guessed, this photograph isnit your average smile-ini-wave public relations bit. Specifically, itis a close-up of the presidential cha-chas and … well, you get the picture.

Everyone, it seems, is after this picture and the potential millions it could bring in as a blackmail campaign.

Zank and Mac, two degenerates from Butt-burg, stash the photo under Zankis motheris mattress at the local rest home; Tina, the nurse of the day, finds it and steals it for herself; and Manny, a crack-addict cop, falls in love with Tina and makes plans with her for its "final destination."

Jerry Stahl delivers a dark comedy with Plainclothes Naked. Some parts are hilarious, like the internal struggle within Mac about his desires for Carmella; some parts are just gross, especially the description of Tinais husbandis demise (have you ever watched the aftermath of a Drano breakfast?).

The whole novel is well written. For once, I didnit find myself anticipating each scene, as I usually do in a detective novel. There was a distinct lack of the typical "neighbor finds body, detective hunts suspect" scenario of the average mystery novel. What you get is the strangest, and yet most intriguing, detective novel since the Poirot novels of Agatha Christie.

All in all, itis a great distraction for all you literary buffs out there. It sure beats reading your textbooks.
 
 

Plainclothes Naked

HarperCollins Publishers

The verdict: itis awesome stuff, and worth wasting your time on.
 Send comments to dcshobiz@mail.uh.edu