My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist is a book that attacks. The words shoot out like bullets. Leyner breaks every writing rule and holds the shards pointed out at the reader. It is like riding a bucking horse in a submarine on a roller coaster track or some other mish-mash of metaphors. This isn’t a laid-back beach read or the moderately titillating thriller your mom is reading, it is electrified and explosive and often insane. I suppose it depends on a reader’s taste whether the last sentence reads as a warning or an invitation.
           The stories are spastic and manic and all over the place. Leyner’s writing has a Pollack flavor to it. So as you might expect, My Cousin is often an overwhelming experience. The horse/submarine/roller coaster thing would also be overwhelming, but wouldn’t you at least be curious to try it?
           Leyner does not waste a word. He doesn’t give the impression that he is using sentences to build a cohesive narrative sprinkled with his world view. Instead he seems to view every keystroke as a chance to affect the reader, whether it’s with disgust like when he writes, “I’d been habitually abusing an illegal growth hormone extracted from the pituitary glands of human corpses,” or shock when he references a fake book entitled, “The Life and Loves of Mr. Jiveass Nigger.”
           Many writers want to transport their readers smoothly and seamlessly to their created world. But there is no serene bridge to crossover into Leyner’s world. For many readers, this will create an initial disorientation. I imagine that this is a book that is often closed and reshelved after just a few words.
           But if you are willing to work a little bit, to trudge through what seems like gibberish, a unique experience awaits. Reading My Cousin is like going to a concert and noticing that along with the usual guitar and drums, someone was playing the ribcage of a model skeleton or that the vocalist was singing with the microphone inside of his throat.
           The rules of the worlds in these stories seem to be made up in the same way kids handle rule making, doing it as they go. There are car bombs going off and nobody gets hurt. Choruses of XYY-chromosome gladiator-drones wait outside the door. Ape-women are getting shot. Leyner is said to be heavily influenced by cartoon industry giant, Tex Avery. It shows. If you always thought literature should have a little more frying pan in the face ridiculousness, My Cousin could be a treat. If Tom and Jerry physics seem out of place in literary works, this collection will probably just seem annoying.
           The rules of the worlds in these stories seem to be made up in the same way kids handle rule making, doing it as they go. There are car bombs going off and nobody gets hurt. Choruses of XYY-chromosome gladiator-drones wait outside the door. Ape-women are getting shot. Leyner is said to be heavily influenced by cartoon industry giant, Tex Avery. It shows. If you always thought literature should have a little more frying pan in the face ridiculousness, My Cousin could be a treat. If Tom and Jerry physics seem out of place in literary works, this collection will probably just seem annoying.
           For writers reading My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, it is probably equal parts inspiration and frustration. Leyner seems to be incredibly liberated. You can tell he is enjoying every minute of every story he writes and that is infectious. He makes up drugs, makes up foods, makes up everything. There are few times where you are not reminded that this is a fictional world and also that this is text. To see him at work will probably send inspired writers running to their notebooks and others to the nearest trash can.
           Leyner is not an ancient oracle passing down epic stories to a new generation. He is an experimenter and a chance taker. If that kind of thing interest, you may love My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist. Also possible, you may absolutely loathe it.

Leyner, Mark. My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist New York: Vintage Books, 1993

SHELFLIFEMAGAZINE : issue #003