Broken Piano for President Patrick Wensink 9781621050209 Books
Download As PDF : Broken Piano for President Patrick Wensink 9781621050209 Books
The international bestseller at the center of the "World's Nicest Cease and Desist" from Jack Daniel's.
Featured in the New Yorker, New York Times, Forbes, London Telegraph, Esquire, The Atlantic, NPR's Weekend Edition and more.
Ever drank too much and forgot what happened? Don't be embarrassed. Deshler Dean faces this problem every day of his life.
Dean is far more brilliant and productive when he's blackout drunk. In the last few months alone, he has invented a hamburger more addictive than crystal meth, scored a six-figure record contract for his terrible art rock band, and started dating a woman he doesn't even recognize. Worse yet, he has become entangled in the biggest war since the Allies took on Germany.
When rival fast food chains duke it out for control over Dean's burger-inventing genius, Dean and his band mates plunge into the absurd world of corporate paranoia and greed. As the violence of the burger wars spills out onto the streets, it's up to them to win over the hearts (and stomachs) of the American people and save the country from the equivalent of a deep-fried nuclear warhead.
With the humor of Christopher Moore and the madcap sprawl of Thomas Pynchon, Broken Piano for President is a comic masterpiece about the fast food industry, booze, and the necessity to choose happiness over work and security.
Broken Piano for President Patrick Wensink 9781621050209 Books
Like so many others, I found Broken Piano for President thanks to the infamous cease and desist letter from Jack Daniel's, but my joy from reading that letter from the Tennessee whiskey juggernaut didn't extend to actually reading the book. I must have started it a half dozen times before it took. When you're dropped into a character's life, and neither one of you know what's going on, it's going to be a rough start. It felt like it took at least 25 pages just to realize the title referred to a song performed by the protagonist's band, even though it was first mentioned on the first page.And when you do finally get into the story, you have something that feels like The Hangover mixed with Johnny English mixed with Fast Food Nation, as told by the staff of Mad Magazine. That's going to be a hit with a lot of people, but it didn't quite work for me. And I've never seen "fourth wall breaks" work in a novel, even after getting to the end of this book.
But the story is fun for it's bizarre twists, even if it doesn't end up having any underlying meaning. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I'm done reading it. I'm really glad to move on to something different.
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Broken Piano for President Patrick Wensink 9781621050209 Books Reviews
This book is a bizarro fiction novel. Bizarro fiction is a literary genre where weirdness is the primary characteristic. Since this book has become very well known due to the news story about the cease and desist letter (regarding the cover design) from Jack Daniel's going viral, the book will be many people's first introduction to bizarro fiction. Because of this, I was a bit worried that the book wouldn't be any good and people would be turned off from reading more bizarro. I'm happy to report this isn't the case. Broken Piano was a great read and my favorite Patrick Wensink book. It makes an excellent introduction to the bizarro genre because it does not take its weirdness as far as many other bizarro books.
Usually stories feature main characters who are active rather than passive (meaning they do things do things to move the story forward rather than have things done to them and for them). When a main character is passive, it almost always means that it will be difficult for a reader to maintain interest in the story. This book features Deshler Dean, a man who has no control over his life because nearly everything he does that is important is done while he is blackout drunk. He has no memory of these events, nor does the reader read about them as they're happening. Like Deschler, the reader finds out what happened through the consequences of Deschler's actions while drunk. He is an extremely passive character. The fact that the book is great rather than terrible because of this is a testament to how fantastic it is. Also, there's a fantastic Red Harvest/Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars vibe going on with Deschler doing things while drunk such as making each of the book's two fast food companies believe he's working for them and sabotaging them by playing them against each other.
Highly recommended for fans of Kurt Vonnegut, Tom Robbins, and Christopher Moore.
"What would Gibby do?" He would read this book! Deshler Dean, lead singer of Lothario Speedwagon and sometime burger executive, drunkenly stumbles his way through incredible scenarios that he rarely remembers, all while trying to fulfill his dreams of rock stardom and figure out how to maintain his relationship with Malinta, if there is one. I liked the way Wensink starts by giving you Deshler's black out "memories" and then proceeds to fill in the gaps as the story moves along. Another aspect of this book that keeps you wanting more is that there are lots of characters whose intentions you are never quite sure about. Who are the good guys, who are the bad guys, is there a difference, does it matter? You should read "Broken Piano for President" and decide for yourself.
This novel is a blend of influences - a stark view of Midwestern values as reported by Vonnegut in "Breakfast of Champions", mixed with the toxic taste of Thompson's "Fear & Loathing In Las Vegas".
Does this blend work? Sometimes. But more often than not, the reader gets lost in Wensick's wobbly story.
At its best, especially when the writer explains the bizzareness of the fast food industry and how a bland city like Louisville became one of its international hubs, "Broken Piano" is enlightening. But in between, Wensick's hero, who can only succeed when near-black-out drunk, seems to be every beer-ponging frat boy's career fantasy.
Overall, "Broken Piano" is entertaining enough to recommend.
This book has already had a number of favorable reviews, so I'll skip the preamble and tell you why this book affected me personally. Throughout it's pages, the protagonist references The B*tthole Surfers, a band with which many people may not be familiar, but a band which formed one of the corner stones of my adolescence. The Surfers are a band that cannot be called GOOD by any conventional estimation, but they are undeniably unique and bad-trip inducing. I recall taping their music on a cassette before going to skate badly in someone's driveway. The Surfers embody something juvenile yet unmitigated. Something raw yet transcendent.
Their music is the kind of thing that 3 young guys might sit around in a basement jamming on, thinking they were really doing something special, while their parents bang on the floor so they will turn their amps down. It's the kind of thing the 3 main characters of THIS book spend their time jamming on in the basement. And it is also the feeling of complete dissociation that this books invokes in the reader. Faking your way through life -- we all do it, but it is rare that we see it so eloquently confirmed for us on the page. My hat's off to Mr. Wensink. You made me feel like a young poseur again.
Like so many others, I found Broken Piano for President thanks to the infamous cease and desist letter from Jack Daniel's, but my joy from reading that letter from the Tennessee whiskey juggernaut didn't extend to actually reading the book. I must have started it a half dozen times before it took. When you're dropped into a character's life, and neither one of you know what's going on, it's going to be a rough start. It felt like it took at least 25 pages just to realize the title referred to a song performed by the protagonist's band, even though it was first mentioned on the first page.
And when you do finally get into the story, you have something that feels like The Hangover mixed with Johnny English mixed with Fast Food Nation, as told by the staff of Mad Magazine. That's going to be a hit with a lot of people, but it didn't quite work for me. And I've never seen "fourth wall breaks" work in a novel, even after getting to the end of this book.
But the story is fun for it's bizarre twists, even if it doesn't end up having any underlying meaning. I'm glad I read it, but I'm also glad I'm done reading it. I'm really glad to move on to something different.
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