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Review by Kaolin Fire Suglia hopes to make an impression with his novel "Watch Out". "Watch out" is the refrain, throughout, a heightened state of alert pumped into the brain stem with no explanation and no true context. "Watch Out" is the story, or several stories, of Professor Jonathan Barrows, a cold, violent, self-pleasuring egoist. The world of Jonathan Barrows is grotesque, stupid, and, like Jonathan Barrows, focused on Jonathan Barrows. While it is not rare for characters to have an exceptionally large ego, in this case Jonathan's view of the world is largely corroborated by the world's responses to him--even taking into account the self-colored glasses we're reading through. Jonathan Barrows is the pinnacle of humanity--so far removed that he, at times, considers himself not a member of humanity at all; while at other times he considers himself the only human. We join him on a trip to a small college town where he is to have an interview, and the first half of the book follows that arc--from the filth-ridden train that introduces us to Jonathan's contempt all the way through to a FINAL SHOWDOWN ORGY with his interviewer. The latter half of the book is comprised of increasingly violent and surreal vignettes of Jonathan's formative years, plus one farewell send-off to cap things--the only indication in the whole work that there might be some semblance of law and order in the world represented. Jonathan's incessant auto-arousal grows tiresome, but is balanced with the surreal abusement and dislivingmentation of a number of other parties. Suglia pushes the human body's natural resilience to absurd and engrossing dimensions with his vivid descriptions. The language used is colorful and clever--Suglia is a skilled user and playful inventor of language, and the inventions intensify the unsettling mindset, the disturbitude of it all. I laughed frequently while reading, either at a turn of phrase or at the audacity of the character. Laughter was both glee and surprise, though some scenes gnawed on my brain and others verged on making me uncomfortable. "Watch Out", with its detached violence, surreality, and repetition, puts me in mind of a modern pop culture riff on JG Ballard's "The Atrocity Exhibition". Finishing the book left me slightly disconnected from the world, as my mind struggled to come to terms with what I'd just read. It had no real denouement, with the first climax coming halfway through and subsequent climaxes coming more quickly until it just sort of withered off at the end. Watch Out!
Review by Jessica P. Wallin "I am the Him. The absolute being. Understand that I am not merely one being among other beings. I am the being, the being of all beings... The history of humanity is nothing more than a preparation for My emergence into the world." Talk about a God complex! Jonathan Barrows, the solipsist with delusions of grandeur, is the "hero" in Northwestern professor Joseph Suglia's latest book, WATCH OUT. Suglia takes us on a journey into the mind of Jonathan Barrows, an unmitigated egoist who comes off like an Ayn Rand character gone terribly, terribly wrong. However, whereas the characters in Rand's books worship themselves because of their accomplishments and ability to move the world, Barrows worships himself because, well, he deems himself a fine human specimen. A wretched agoraphobic, Jonathan Barrows loathes the touch, presence, and interaction of all other humans but has only one special love: himself. Excuse me, Himself. A modern day Narcissus, instead of falling into a pond upon seeing his own beautiful reflection, he is so enamored with himself, he has a blowup doll fashioned in his own image to make love to. Watch Out seems to be Barrows' catchphrase as he encounters all types of lowlifes and David Bowie lookalikes, all of whom want a piece of Barrows' perfection. He openly shows his abhorrence to the swarms of women who fall over him and throw their panties his way as if he were a rock star. And in his mind, he is a rock star. But really, what is supposed to be so great about him? Aside from the fact that he apparently looks like Jude Law ("I certainly do not resemble Jude Law. Mr. Law, however, may bear a slight resemblance to ME.") and has a very word-of-the-day vocabulary, he really has no talent. He can't even get an interview to teach at a third-rate community college! He's extremely close-minded in that he sees the world in black and... orange, a color that repulses him. There are only two restaurants in Jonathan Barrows' world: Burger God and Lobster King, over-the-top chain eateries with disgusting specialties such as chicken-powdered French fries. Every male looks like David Bowie ("he would look exactly like David Bowie, if David Bowie were three hundred pounds and wiglessly bald."), every tree is a yew tree, every television show is an exaggerated episode of Becker. Barrows acknowledges that despite his hatred for his fellow man, he in fact needs interaction with other people to accentuate his importance. The first part of the book puts the reader really into the mind of Mr. Barrows and introduces you to the world he sees. Personally, I'm someone who wants to like everyone, but truly, Jonathan Barrows has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. And that's what makes him so delicious. I found the antics of the protagonist to be quite entertaining, although it did get a bit redundant after awhile. However, I think that's the point. In the second part of the book, our hero decides he is going to assassinate the world's most celebrated pop star, Britney Spears. To sound like a bad book report, that is where I am leaving it because as repetitive as it gets sometimes, it's still a thoroughly entertaining read, outlandish and hilarious, and I absolutely recommend it. Joseph Suglia, despite his off-color absurdity, is a brilliant writer and subtly (and sometimes not so subtly) masters morbidity and humor. I read WATCH OUT while sitting in the hospital, and every show I watched really was Becker, and everything seemed to be awash with not orange but a garish shade of mauve; I was starting to feel a bit like Jonathan Barrows myself... minus the blowup doll. You can purchase Watch Out on amazon.com or visit Joseph Suglia's website at http://www.myspace.com/josephsuglia
Review by Susan Tomaselli from DOGMATIKA Watch Out, Joseph Suglia's verbally brilliant debut novel, starts conventionally enough - a young man taking a journey on a train to attend a job interview - yet the protaganist, Jonathan Barrows is anything but conventional. It is narrated for the most as an internal monologue which at times becomes a near-celebration of alienation. Barrows is "disinclined towards human beings." "I loathe humanity. Look at those insects! Squirming vermin!" Other human beings, for not only is Barrows like no one else - "the highest form that humanity has reached," "the most extraordinary being who has ever existed" and so on - but he is also in love with himself, literally and to the point were he masturbates using photographs of himself and fucks a blow-up doll made in his own image. "I want to manipulate My perineus muscle. I want to massage My testicles. I want to slather My penis with margarine. I want to fuck Myself savagely. I want to insert My penis into My doll's colostomized anus." Barrows, "the hottest iguana in the reptile house," finds the attention he warrants from other people repulsive - "both women and men are attracted to Me in the way that flies are attracted to filet mignon," he tells the reader. "All of these fools. Noisome sheep. They are nothing more than props on My stage. Tools, I can use them how I please. I have never met a single human being who is on My level. The history of humanity is nothing more than a preparation for My emergence into the world." And what an emergence. Suglia, a proponent (and inventor) of "excessive fiction," defined as that fiction which "presses the limits of language and possibility," has, in Jonathan Barrows and the subsequent work, crafted an exquisite character and a compelling novel reminiscent of Dennis Cooper and Raymond Queneau. His prose, rich and provocative, is like Bret Easton Ellis proof-read by Georges Bataille. "I'm the only real egoist. Everyone is concerned for himself. We\'re all self-seeking. We are all trapped in the deserts of our solitude. But I'm the only one whose life matters." Less Than Zero, Bret Easton Ellis's seminal blank fiction novel painted a pessimistic portrait of American life in the early 1980s: Clay's life is mediated by mass culture and consumption, it is a corrupt and meaningless society. Today's culture is not much better: "everything is reduced to the ordinary," we "idolize the average." Barrows tells us, "what we are witnessing is the banalization of the world." Suglia takes Ellis's fin de siecle writing to its logical conclusion, unleashing la bête humaine (or as Johnny Cash calls it "the beast in me") and recalls another of Ellis' creations when his narrator goes American Psycho on Britney Spears in the final chapters: "Simply because murder is "illegal," this does not mean that it is 'immoral.' What is allowed by the state has nothing to do with questions of right or wrong. What is right or wrong is determined by Me, Whatever pleases Me is right. That which does not please Me is wrong. I do whatever pleases Me, and, if it pleases Me to kill, then I will." Although Watch Out is by no means a comic novel - in fact, at times it is written almost in a deadpan style - the erotic nightmare, the tale of bodily transgression and excess raises a chuckle but is corrupt in a way that can only end in death. Intense, sharp, fatalistic and relentless, here is a novel that will force the reader to face up to the potential failure within themselves, yet at the same time Suglia - like a modern-day Huysmans - makes you want to shut yourself away and do very bad things.
A Self-Important Prick An exercise in writing to repel from PhD Joseph Suglia By Liz Armstrong WHY IS IT that I is the only pronoun we capitalize? “It’s because we believe that we are irreplaceable,” says Joseph Suglia. “We fetishize ourselves. We turn ourselves into gods.” Hence the premise of his latest novel, Watch Out, in which the main character, Jonathan Barrows—a vicious tyrant who’s self-obsessed to the point where the only thing he lusts after is himself—methodically and psychotically turns up his nose at the entire world. Littered with antiquated ten-dollar words—no colloquialisms for Suglia—Watch Out is meant to grate, to challenge your tolerance and notions of how to relate to a character. On one hand, you despise Jonathan Barrows for his oblivious conceitedness; on the other, you wonder if perhaps he truly is the hottest, smartest, most interesting stud in the universe. His obsession with his own “luscious erection” is repulsive yet engrossing—you end up feeling like a creep for getting so involved in his gruesome hallucinations. Suglia himself is a bit of a character: he has a PhD in comparative literature from Northwestern and a penchant for German philosophy, learned French and German because he refuses to read anything in translation, and obsessively screens all of his phone calls. He says he’s less influenced by literary artists than the concept of tableau vivant. “The characters aren’t really actors, they’re posing in a painting,” he says. “You have a situation that’s frozen. It occurs in time, but also outside of time because it never changes.” The core narrative of Watch Out spans about a week but feels cryogenically preserved: Jonathan Barrows shows no sign of and makes no reference to his age, the encounters he has bleed into one another without regard for a time line, and it always feels like dusk to him. Apparently this is what happens when visions serve as your only point of reference. You stagnate and ruminate and build yourself up so high you have nowhere to go but down. “All of us have the desire to become God,” says Suglia. “And all gods deserve to be slaughtered. Jonathan Barrows annihilates himself.” Watch Out, which Suglia calls “philosophical pulp” fiction, is his third book and the only one he really likes. Two weeks after its October release by FLF Press, a small publishing house that proclaims itself dedicated to providing “ideas and viewpoints that are under-represented in the mass media,” it had sold 400 copies. Even before it came out, local filmmaker Peter Lambert made a feature-length movie, Becoming a Man, adapted from a chapter in which Jonathan Barrows loses his virginity. When talking about his first novel, Years of Rage—the inverse of Watch Out, its main character believes he’s universally reviled and persecuted—or his book of literary criticism, Hölderlin and Blanchot on Self-Sacrifice, Suglia winces, confessing that the first one panders and the second one is boring. Lately Suglia’s been incorporating some of his character’s arrogant, self-important-prick schtick into his own public profile. His copious MySpace posts are suffused with egotistical superlatives—“In all modesty, I am the greatest writer in the world, and the world is slowly recognizing that fact,” reads one—though he won’t outright admit he’s doing it purely for promotional purposes. No doubt it will irritate some and draw in others, and perhaps it will even draw in those it irritates. “I want my writing to be read by everyone,” says Suglia, “but I don’t want it to be understood by everyone.”
Review by Kent Manthie, Reviewer Magazine, www.reviewermag.com Jonathan Barrows is an individual; not an "everyman" or the "average Joe"---no, Barrows is a unique singularity. He is also in love with himself. Literally. He keeps snapshots of his naked self around, at the ready for a joy-fest; he has a blow-up doll that has been custom-made, built to his own measurements, proportions, specifications, an inflatable Gotterdammerung. Jonathan Barrows's narcissism is so complete that everyone else in the world---in his world---is boring and boorish; he takes much delight in colorfully and quite humorously, though unintentionally on his part, rejecting those who dare approach his space and try to penetrate his world. Both men and women alike feel his specialness and want to be with him, want to be his friend, his lover, his buddy, his pal, his own, smothered pairing. Ugh. So goes "Watch Out", the latest novel from Joseph Suglia, whose previous two novels: "Holderlin and Blanchot on Self-Sacrifice" and "Years of Rage", are on my list of books to read soon. Hopefully you'll take my advice and FIND THIS BOOK! It is a page-turner, an eye-opening, fantastic trip. I simply couldn't put it down, I just had to keep on reading; I had to see what would happen next. That's the thing that makes you keep on and on---you just HAVE to find out what's next. This is a funny book! It was alternately a hilarious, screaming riot and a grotesque, ultra-violent catharsis, but all very stylishly done. Like I said---it is a FUNNY, FUNNY book. I laughed out loud so much---more so than anything I can think of, except Bukowski. Joseph Suglia is an academic-cum-novelist, having received a Ph.D. in comparative literary studies which, indeed, brings much to the table when writing a novel; he looks like David Bowie, if Bowie were short and stocky and Italian-American. He currently lives in Chicago and is hopefully hard at work on the next book that will blow our minds: the proverbial "Great American Novel". You can find him at MySpace too, although I don't know the exact route to get to him. I'm sure you can Google him or go to the publisher's website, linked at the bottom. He has no cult following at the moment but I'm sure that one will follow after the release of "Watch Out" this fall. If you are a fan of the late, great William S. Burroughs or the aforementioned Bukowski, you will be right at home in Joseph Suglia's world: a world of hallucinatory reveries, strange synchronicities and the most graphic sadistic, masochistic and sadomasochistic lunacies this side of "The Western Lands". But there is also the most hilarious, self-centered, self-loving (literally) portrayal of a character in the persona of Jonathan Barrows. I instantly connected with Barrowss misanthropy, nihilism, caustic wit, his use of cool, original-sounding metaphors and most of all the intense solipsism. It is a wonderfully and bleakly humorous or humorously bleak tale of one man who is swallowed up by a world he never made: a cold, cruel, stupid orbit of retards that is a microcosm of America. I won't give the ending away, but if you are as nauseated by pop culture as Suglia seems to be and as I am, youll not be unhappy with it ("X" = Britney Spears, OK?). Youll be thinking that there is justice possible in this world, even if it is only a fantasy!
BOOK REVIEW: from SAN DIEGO CITY BEAT Hate the world; love yourself Bands and wannabe porn stars have been using Myspace to promote themselves since the online networking site was created. Author Joseph Suglia, however, may be one of the first Myspace junkies to use the peer-to-peer marketing capabilities of the site to promote his latest book, Watch Out—a dark and twisted tale detailing the innermost thoughts of Jonathan Barrows, a man whose outrageous narcissism has him referring to the rest of humanity as “slag dead matter” and himself as “the absolute being.” Suglia hit me up on Myspace to ask if I’d review his book. I appreciated his ballsy conceit—at one point he wrote to say his book “is the greatest accomplishment of my life: literally or otherwise”—almost as much as I came to appreciate the conceit of his central character. Suglia introduces Barrows in one of the many arcane verses sprinkled throughout the book—I examine the contours of my mind without interruption. I ball myself up in the hollow of a womb. No one touches me anymore. The writing is gorgeous: pretentious but charismatic in its own right. p>The reader is swept along as Barrows slithers through his world loathing all others and loving Himself (personal pronouns referring to Barrows are capitalized; he is, after all, a “steaming mound of sensuality” and the center of the universe). Much of Barrows’ time is spent expressing this deep love of self—he screws his clone doll and masturbates incessantly. The sessions are grotesque.Even more disturbing than the sex scenes are the psychotic murder fantasies (we hope they are only fantasies, though Suglia never attempts to explain). The torture and perversions imagined by Barrows put Patrick Bateman’s fantasies in American Psycho to shame. Suffice it to say, cute fuzzy animals and dismemberment become a reoccurring theme. Sex and murder aside, Watch Out will entertain you with its heartfelt—though x-rated—contemporary reincarnation of Anthem, Ayn Rand’s novel about the reclamation of the word “I.” The book investigates individualism by exposing the creepy inner world of a narcissistic psycho, and in so doing, reveals some nasty truth—people are freaking nuts. Watch Out by Joseph Suglia FLF Press (September 2006) 10/11/06
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