I reviewed Matthew Simmons’s A Jello Horse for Vol.1. Here’s a bit of it:
This mundane surrealism contrasts with a more vivid dreamlike imagery that arises throughout the novel in intervals, sometimes as a result of slumber, sometimes arising out of hallucinations. It serves as a bridge between the protagonist’s childhood and his restless twenties, and range in temperament from a massive lion tearing through bedroom walls to a tortoise “the size of a minor league baseball stadium� paying a visit to a rest stop. These are creatures that have stepped out of creation myths, dwelling in a book that takes as its epigraph a lyric from Mudhoney.
The full review can be read here.