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Collection 10
THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
A collection of uncommon fiction by Arthur Davis
The Arts And Entertainment Magazine/Eerie Digest (www.eeriedigest.com) published Fat Men And
Flying Saucers in their October 2011 issue and The Belly of The
Beast in November.
Collection fully reviewed below…
Fat Men And Flying Saucers
The Belly of The Beast
The Dumpster
In The Company of Strangers
The Chronicles of ChocolateBoy
The Hero of Monte Alegre
Bathroom Battles
Fantasy of The Flesh
A Sly And Knowing Grin
Someone's Hero
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************* REVIEWS **********
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FAT MEN AND FLYING SAUCERS
Reviewed by Bryan Alaspa
June 2006
In the tradition of the old science fiction comics comes Arthur Davis' terrifying and mystifying tale of two men with nothing going on in their lives and what happens one dark, Texas night.
It is a story of humor that combines with outright terror and ends with a kind of sad melancholy.
Claude Longley is a large man who has managed to do nothing with his life, and whose only bright spot is a possible mail-order bride, ends with a visit from life from another planet. It is then that the terror begins and the screams start.
A tale that will make you laugh, then make your palms sweat. By the end, you’ll never want to drive down a dark road in the country again.
Davis has written a classic tale that should bring back unsettled memories of childhood spent hunched over science fiction comic books with bizarre aliens drawn across the covers. What makes this one different is the sadness at uncertainty that ends the tale.
What happens when your life is going nowhere and, suddenly, something from another world turns everything upside down? This story attempts to answer that, but does it in such a way that it will bring a chill to your bones, and probably cause you to sleep with the lights on. Lights in the sky will never look just like airplanes again.
THE BELLY OF THE BEAST
Reviewed by Todd Watson
November 2005
In
the cold winter of 1949, Stephen Connors meets his destiny in a musty
Chicago bookstore. What follows is a roller coaster ride of fantasy
tinged with Catholic mysticism that is as inspiring as it is
entertaining.
As always, Arthur Davis is expert at pacing his story,
allowing us to identify with his characters before sending us shooting
off on a wild adventure.
We meet young
Stephen at a moment of uncertainty and disillusionment with his life.
He is drawn by strange forces to Scully's bookstore, a cluttered
repository of rare manuscripts. Once inside the belly of the beast he
befriends the shop's proprietor, the mysterious Yoda-like Mr. Henley.
Their master-pupil relationship is evident from the first meeting.
"I was passing by."
"Looking for what?" the old man said shuffling papers and stacks of
books in front of him as if he was suddenly capable of instilling order
to the confusion.
He didn't sound as if he was referring to a book. "I'm not sure."
He looked up without taking real notice of me. "A man needs to know
where he is going if he ever expects to get there."
That Stephen will be led by Mr. Henley is plain for anyone to see, but
where and to what lengths no one could possibly foretell.
Davis'
tale of personal spirituality is told with grace and tenderness, but it is
also an astounding thriller that will set your heart pounding as you
rush to turn the pages.
THE DUMPSTER
Reviewed by James Morone
April 2009
Arthur Davis’ The Dumpster is a powerful, contemporary tale of a young man’s soul-searching journey from despair to hope.
Young Ramon Sanchez's South Bronx life is bleak. Barely able to make a living, he responds to his impoverished lot with resentment. When misadventure and coincidence leaves him in the care of strangers in the farthest corner of New York City, Ramon is exposed to another possible approach to life—taking responsibility for his actions and future.
It would have been easy to oversimplify Ramon’s challenges in a social and moral context. Indeed, everything thing happens to Ramon, and everyone he meets, is quite mundane. Instead, Davis crafts a character of great depth and vulnerability.
We see Ramon’s anger and apathy, but are also privy to his more noble thoughts, which include an earnest desire for a good life, which is easily compromised by his natural distrust.
Davis sets up an internal conflict in Ramon that builds convincingly to a poignant epiphany reminiscent of a Flannery O’Connor tale. As in O’Connor’s great short stories, characters experience grace as a result of their own inner contradictions, not by the intercession of some dues ex machina.
Like much great fiction, The Dumpster leaves the reader with the thrilling suggestion that even as we live our quotidian tedium, there exists the possibility that, on any day, a couple of small coincidences will change the course of our life forever.
IN THE COMPANY OF STRANGERS
Reviewed by Mary Kathleen Patrick
August 2006
A
simple theme, fraught with emotion and pathos, Arthur Davis' In The Company of
Strangers is story that recounts the planning of a party being given by
a woman who has recently divorced, and has reached out to a friend for
support in order to make the evening successful.
Davis writes from the divorcee’s perspective, offering telling insights
into his characters frailty, and with dialogue that was fun, and shed
insight into how we are all part of the greater party of life.
The story is rich with dramatic sensibilities from beginning to end.
A
thoughtful recounting of the lives of each of the guests and their
relationship to the host is expressed in beautiful detail and imagery.
You will recognize these people. You know them, love them and have
doubts about them that you too may never have expressed
An example from Davis’s story continues with a wrenching description of
her best friend’s son and his battle with cancer and surviving
chemotherapy, “I once said David had his mother’s heart and brains and
a more focused, directed dazzling charm. He possessed his father’s wit
and patience, assets that were sorely tested during the series of
chemotherapy treatments he had to endure.”
Davis is describing an instant or a moment that happens to us all,
going through our address books and remembering and discarding old
numbers. This story however, is not to be discarded. It’s well worth
the read.
THE CHRONICLES OF CHOCOLATEBOY
Reviewed by Kara Rogers
August 2006
‘The
Chronicles of ChocolateBoy’ by Arthur Davis documents the misadventures
that occur over the course of eleven days in the life of the ravenous
villain, ChocolateBoy. Hungry for everything chocolate, except milk
chocolate, this cookie tycoon uses his appetite as his weapon of choice
to take down his closest competitor in the chocolate industry, Amos
Marianna.
In the mold of comic book
hero, Batman, ChocolateBoy hurries to the call of a cookie shaped
beacon lighting up the night sky.
But rather than helping others, this
true cookie monster devours a truckload of his competitor’s highest
quality chocolate, only to find that it has been contaminated. “…he had
tasted the taint of nanonitrogenated Burmese vanilla extract in the
tank of Peruvian Mocha Grande Elegante Select.”
“Captain 'Fatass' Hennessy of the city's crack CIU, (Chocolate
Investigations Unit) had been asked to step in and take over the
investigation by the Mayor himself, a celebrity chocoholic of some
repute.”
Davis shows his creativity in plot development in a series of
mysterious events in which ChocolateBoy begins to suspect the city
detective of foul play. Just when ChocolateBoy’s nemesis is about to be
revealed, the plot takes an unexpected twist.
The suspension of
disbelief is well executed and Davis leaves plenty of room for the
reader’s imagination to play.
‘The Chronicles of ChocolateBoy’ is a fun, lighthearted and humorous read with a surprise ending.
THE HERO OF MONTE ALEGRE
Reviewed by Janis Hunter
September 2005
Arthur Davis', "The Hero of Monte Alegre" will transport you into the world and thoughts of an Argentinean man as he takes a daylong trip on a rickety bus up and over the mountains to visit his elderly mother.
"The sun blisters the land below. The jungle is alive with the frenzy of feeding and narrow escapes. We were just beginning the most perilous part of the journey toward the steep climb up the other side of the mountain.
Many years ago, a bus broke its axle and stranded sixty passengers overnight. But it was too late for the child, a beautiful girl with braids and a quick, disarming smile, accompanying her mother home. It was that way in the mountains. Life, so dear and precious, could be ended quickly, without reason or provocation."
You will taste the dust, you will smell the smells of the bus, and hear the sounds of the jungle. You will journey up the mountain and into this man's thoughts as he thinks about his life, his childhood, his marriage, his fears and his country. You will share every moment of his day.
You will watch in amazement as he takes action in a way he would have told you himself he never expected. And when you return to the present, you will feel as though you just returned home from his journey as well.
BATHROOM BATTLES
Reviewed by Allison White
March 2006
Territorial
gain and surviving in the conditions of ones environment are the
threads that weave Arthur Davis’ “Bathroom Battles” together.
Davis
takes the unlikely point-of- view of what he calls, “hideously
malevolent creatures which swarm in the night and impose themselves
into places once thought to be uncompromisingly private,” and scripts
an inner monologue with such striking realism that the reader almost
believes it is a human speaking.
Staking claim over the confined space, the battle comes to a head
between the two bathroom creatures, the younger believing he has more
power, more agility to win.
Davis’ captures the creatures posturing
monologue as if it were a boxing contender pumping himself up before a
fight.
“Than he will have to decide; fight or flight. I believe he is a
coward. He will flee when he sees me stand my ground. He will not
commit to a confrontation. Such is the way of all poltroons. I have
seen their kind before. They are the most loathsome subspecies of our
kind.”
Ultimately, the two creatures must join forces to survive against the
human world, or give in to impending death. The bond forged over the
same sense of potential and absolute loss speaks to the humanity of
every living thing.
Sometimes a different and unsettling point of view
is needed to get a message across. Davis accomplishes this throughout
this story.
FANTASY OF THE FLESH
Reviewed by Bryan Alaspa
July 2006
It’s
a perfectly normal day for Harold Higgins, an aging widower who spends
most of his time in his favorite pasty shop, and looking at pornography
on his computer. It’s been a long time since Harold was with a woman,
and never like the women he sees undulate across his monitor. He often
wonders what if he could transport one of them to the shop, or into his
bedroom?
“Naturally she would be slightly startled by the transformation from
the safety of her electronic apartment to his cluttered Brighton room
overlooking the southeast, English Channel coast. She would be
defensive, frightened, and more than likely panicked by the unexpected
change.”
Then, into the pastry shop walks a woman of stunning beauty with the
rather remarkable ability to read minds, and cloud the minds of others.
Harold is immediately in lust. When he discovers she can read his every
thought he is first mortified, then intrigued.
She says she has made a
bet with herself; an offer to give Harold one more chance at intense
sexual pleasure. However, the price could be his life.
When flying saucers attack and the world appears about to end, what would you rather be doing?
Intensely erotic, at times funny and always peculiar, Arthur Davis'
“Fantasy of the Flesh” is a remarkable, wholly believable tale no
matter how outrageous it gets.
You believe Harold is there. You
experience his emotions and feelings from terror to the utmost sexual
pleasure. My advice is to get a grip, and hold on until the end of the
story.
And, as the narrative suggests, “it’s always better to choose the time
of your departure than to have circumstances, alien or not, choose it
for you.”
Reviewed by Jane Lytle
November 2005
With the opening sentence the reader enters the mind of a “tortured soul” named Kelly Christina Ramos.
Through her eyes and perceptions we are treated to a riveting wordsmithing interweaving of the macabre, mental frailties, human coping mechanisms and a dab of science fiction.
Kelly tells us that she could hear, “sounds of flesh and bone being torn and rendered spilled from the aisle only a dozen feet behind. The young man was finishing his prey.”
And when Manny Perez the manager of Fields Antiques, the setting for this tale, announces and enforces the edict that, “no one leaves” a surprising course of action is suggested. “No, let’s try square dancing,” an elderly woman suggested, an idea which immediately soothed, and was quickly accepted by the rest of the customers, with the exception of Kelly Ramos.
A car accident, saucer shaped spaceships, green lights that overwhelm, possible shapeshifters and a book whose title modifies are just some of the ingredients found in this story reminiscent of a Stephen King novel.
Arthur Davis expertly reveals intriguing aspects of human nature and the psyche in “A Sly and Knowing Grin”.
This is an entertaining, and at times hair raising, literary treat.
SOMEONE’S HERO
Reviewed by Shanty Lewis
June 2006
As the narrator of this story waves good-bye to his girlfriend of four years, Shoshana Lowenstein, he begins to contemplate their future, and analyze the days leading up to her departure. As the silver bus crosses Alexandria Boulevard and heads south towards the airport, he confirms the differences that he and Shoshana share, such as the fact that he himself “wasn’t much of an explorer of possibilities,” or that Shoshana chose to accompany her ailing father, Charles Weinstein to war-torn Israel.
Rich with foreboding, Arthur Davis' natural dialogue is reminiscent of Ernest Hemmingway’s style.
As the narrator replays scenarios and conversations with Shoshana in his mind, the reader can see how Charles Weinstein’s motivation for his final trip to his beloved homeland mirrors the final troubled years of this couple’s relationship.
Davis also uses dialogue to subtly convey details about this relationship, and the narrator’s suspicions of emotional infidelity on Shoshana’s part.
Davis’ style makes the reader feel like a treasured friend being brought into a fragile confidence. “There are parts of my life that will die with my love for Shoshana. There is no way to recapture them with another woman, no matter how much I may love again,” with the utterance of these words we are pulled into this character’s sorrow.
We never learn the narrator’s name, but we do gain something far more important. We become touched by his genuine vulnerability, and the secret glimpse into his heart that reveals his desire to be “someone’s hero”.
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