Title: The Blueberry Society: A Schoolyard Novella, Misguided Short Stories and Other Ramblings
Author: Zeebo
Publisher: Thawland Creative Studios LLC
ISBN: 979-8-9901616-4-1
Pages: 329
Genre: Memoir / Humor / Non-fiction / Short Stories
Reviewer: Jack Chambers
Pacific Book Review
The hardest thing for a person to do is find and hold onto the truth in any given situation. While the world is filled with opportunists and manipulators who will warp the truth for their own needs, it is often the lies people tell themselves that are the foundation for their own unraveling. Being able to confront the truth and be honest with themself is often a person’s best path forward towards understanding their own identity.
Truth and identity go hand in hand in author Zeebo’s The Blueberry Society: A Schoolyard Novella, Misguided Short Stories and Other Ramblings. The collection of vignettes captures the author’s life through non-fiction yet humorous storytelling, collecting stories of a man who is a self-described “Brooklyn Man-Child.” In search of friendship, love, and navigating instances of loss and sorrow, the author uses humor and wit to boldly challenge mankind’s natural ability to hide the truth and bring it out into the light without looking back.
A phenomenal and engaging collection of stories, the author does a remarkable job of crafting each story to be self-contained and yet brings important themes of identity and the realizations people come to in life. The author’s tone in each story is a beautiful blend of hilarious and sobering, capturing the author’s witty writing style while also engaging in life lessons which are hard earned yet rewarding in the long run. The author writes with honesty and a creative flair and often makes it a point not to hold back with the language as stories range from career lows and relationship drama to sexual encounters – and so much more.
For those who enjoy non-fiction books, especially those written to feel like memoirs while incorporating moments of humor, full-blown comedy, and poignant short stories, this is the collection to jump into without taking a second look. The chapter “Christmas and the Art of Curling” was a particularly engaging read, as the author’s two part story explores the author’s deep dive through an acid trip as he examines the direction of his life now and then delves into the dissolution of a college relationship, exploring what he did wrong in the past and how it impacts how he moves forward in his marriage in the present day, all through a humorous lens as a bad LSD trip causes him to pluck the hairs out of his body and hunt ice aliens from his refrigerator (read this chapter for a full understanding of the bizarre memory). Honest, compelling, and thought-provoking, the author artfully brings a series of life experiences and humor-filled creativity to all in a series of stories that compels the reader to return to the book over and over again.
