Straight Razor

Postmodern narrative fragmentation, streetwise psychologic, and grade-school social criticism strut and rumble through 12 violent vignettes by Fiction International editor Jaffe, author of Madonna and Other Spectacles (1988), etc.. Some stories are only lists ("Things to Do During Time of War") of lines of exchanged dialogue, and several of Jaffe's deliriously moribund characters are only voices. Those who assume human form include: a punk pair who terrorize a middle-aged train passenger; a male executive caught shoplifting lingerie; street people with minicams who "shoot vid" of their city's terrors; "Sex Guerrillas"; feminist serial killers; and a very contemporary "Invisible Man." Fitful stabs, as it were, at sociopolitical correctness are represented by the ironic presentation of skinheads who murder purchasers of Japanese automobiles and call themselves defenders of the American economy. It's clogged with blood and guts and assorted viscera, it aims to shock, and it's all been done before. (Kirkus Reviews)