Fiction

The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories by Tim Burton

This falls into Poetry as much as Fiction: its a selection of narrative poems by film director Tim Burton, of varying length and able to be slotted into the nonsense tradition. All are written poetically, though one would describe his observance of form as lax at best -- even when he seems to be fitting a loose style, he frequently breaks it. While that's theoretically fine, most of the pieces read very rhythmically; some of his breaks actually support the rhythm, others shatter it.

My personal favourite was Anchor Baby -- it has a couple of serious flaws, but is otherwise brilliant. Stain Boy was also good. The titular tale is possibly the darkest of the lot, belying (as many do) the child-like nursery-rhyme style of the Burton's verse. But then, most of the best children's tales are, in their original form, surprisingly dark.

Perhaps the biggest flaw is Burton's tendency to repeat himself; not just with plots (they almost exclusively concern children who are born with some bizarre deformity and so remain outsiders -- working through his own childhood, perhaps?) but concepts. For example, there are two pieces about people afflicted by being pin cushions. Others are brief to the point of pointlessness, the prime offender being Jimmy, the Hideous Penguin Boy.

The whole text can be read online for free here. I have no idea if this is a legal copy or not.