Peeling back the layers of the afterlife with his imaginative pen, Michael Honig delivers a macabre and thought-provoking read with his novel RotaryPug.
John Castlemaine is dead, under grim and unusual circumstances, but his eternal soul must still be judged. Thus begins his existential wanders through an in-between realm, where he must examine the value and impact of his somewhat ignoble life. Castlemaine is an intriguing figure at the story’s center, introspective and empathetic, as he wanders the mysterious realm of RotaryPug. Somewhere between a nightmare, a hallucination, and a dire warning, the story is undeniably original, adding far more depth and nuance to the traditional binary of heaven and hell.
This bizarre plane of existence is an ideal canvas for deep philosophical explorations of virtue, morality, lust, redemption, regret, and everything in between. There is some sloppiness in the prose from a technical perspective, ranging from misspelled words (“steel” vs “steal”) to overly informal phrasing and awkward dialogue. Additionally, the format of brief chapters keeps the pace moving well overall, but some chapters seem to end abruptly, feeling as if the scene has been interrupted.
That said, the vocabulary on display is rich and expressive, the descriptions are unique, and the premise is wildly entertaining, forcing readers to interrogate their own imperfect lives and what this means for the future, or for changing the present.
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