Written by D. Harlan Wilson
Published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2008

Review by Mo Ali

Welcome to ‘Vulgaria’, situated somewhere in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In this all-consuming and totally suppressing locale, Rutger Van Trout is up to his Dutch neck in problems: first off, his daughter is probably a porn-obsessed nymphomaniac, his son may well be a werewolf, his wife’s skeleton is possibly haunted, and the neighbourhood is very definitely awash with crazed denizens and freakish superheroes - and Trout’s own desire to turn the family estate into a three-ring farm has now become a full-blown obsession.

Just as things couldn’t possibly get any more complicated for the Van Trout family, Vulgaria’s suburban community is targeted by a new breed of blood-letting serial killer - his name is Mr. Blankety Blank, and he’s all set for a killing spree…

In Blankety Blank fact and fiction don’t so much blur as they collide like lovesick Sumo’s fired at each other from cartoon cannons, resulting in a pseudo-biographical romp interspersed with fictional histories, strange quotes, haikus, and plain ludicrously fun happenings.

Following in the footsteps of Kurt Vonegut, Percival Everett and Steve Aylett, D. Harlan Wilson continues on from the ‘plaquedemic’ shenanigans of his previous novel Dr. Identity with this next slice of refreshingly Bizarro goodness, turning his razor-sharp attention and wit to American Suburbia and the concept of the Memoir.

With wickedly amusing chapters, such as ‘ A Short History of the Handlebar Moustache’ and many quotable bits ( “carcasses bleed at the sight of a murderer” ), Blankety Blank takes surrealist fiction into new and very interesting directions.

Intelligent, funny and unrelentingly vicuous, Blankety Blank is surreal SF satire of the best kind, and it demands your attention.