books
BY JOHN LOCANTHI
Fragments of a Compelling Story
Oregon writer’s debut novel a hack job, literally
R
emember the old days of pulp
fi ction, when writers eschewed
plotlines and pithy social
commentary in favor of stories loaded with
violence, gore and sex? In Natasha Stultz’s
self-published venture into fi ction writing,
Fragments of a Social Conscience, the
Eugene author confronts the reader with
far more brutality than any non-sociopath
could ever dream up.
This macabre novella follows Saffron,
a freelance journalist from Saddle Foot,
Ore., as she covers the exploits of Angel,
a serial killer/environmentalist seeking
revenge for her dearly departed father.
There is a plot, but it serves as little more
than a vehicle for the reader to get from
grisly murder to grislier murder. Angel’s
killings are meant to represent a kind
of poetic justice, as when a governor
interested in deforestation is put through
a wood chipper, but such violence goes
comically overboard the further one gets
into the story. Is being anally raped by
a mastiff and then electrocuted truly a
fi tting end for a sex traffi cker? Or a whaler
having his penis impaled by the bone of
a whale?
All the while, the author makes very
certain just how frequently (and easily)
the characters are sexually aroused, be
it by committing a gruesome murder or
being questioned by federal agents. The
vast majority of the characters simply
want to knock boots with every person
they meet. The whole book reads like a
pornographer’s take on David Fincher’s
fi lm noir Se7en.
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Fragments is a very raw — by which
I mean unedited — exploration into the
“divine work” of a demented sociopath. The
transitions between scenes are unmarked,
rare double contractions are used, some
terms are explained on the second reference,
if at all, and frequent word choice errors
mar the unnumbered pages. While there
is a thirteenth chapter and a fi fteenth one,
Chapter 14 is strangely absent from the book
— kidnapped, perhaps, by a serial killer.
This novel is a prudent reminder that,
while anyone can publish a book these
days, it’s not an easy task: Take your time,
and work with a good editor.
Fragments of a Social Conscience is
available at Amazon.com for $12.33 in
book form, $2.99 on your Kindle and is
for sale at Blue Moon Books.
ew
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