Transgressive Fiction Reviews | Guy Portman's Blog

5 Transgressive Fiction Reading Recommendations

Nov 27 2020

It is back to books this week. Of late I have been immersed in Transgressive Fiction. Here are five transgressive books that I have read recently. Click on the links to read my reviews.

The Devil All The Time

This gothicesque novel is replete with reprehensible rednecks, depraved content and frequent shifts in points of view.

My Review: Willard’s wife has cancer, so he turns to God for help. As her condition worsens, his invocations become increasingly extreme. There are …(more)

Black Hole Town

This aptly named novelette boasts memorable characters, visceral prose and an abundance of effectively employed adjectives.

My Review: Friends Fortz and Goose are degenerate drinkers and drug users. Goose is fed up with his psychotic, pill-popping girlfriend Miley, so he hatches a …(more)

A Decent Ride

This is one of Welsh’s lighter books. Its seediness, humour and bawdy Leith vernacular dialogue will appeal to many.

My Review: Terry ‘Juice’ Lawson is an Edinburgh taxi driver who moonlights as a porn actor and drug fixer. Since losing his virginity at the age of eleven, he has …(more)

Blood Meridian

Set in the 1800’s, Blood Meridian is an episodic book, which is almost unparalleled in its misanthropy and repugnant content.

My Review: ‘The Kid’ is a fourteen-year-old hailing from a Tennessean backwater. Following an ill-fated stint as a conscript in a Mexico-bound militia, he is …(more)

The Rules of Attraction

Published in 1987, this transgressive work adroitly captures the era’s zeitgeist with regards to drugs, music, and above all relationships.

My Review: The book is written in the first person from the perspective primarily of three students – Lauren, Sean and Paul. All are pupils of Camden College, an …(more)

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6 Disturbing Reading Recommendations

Feb 28 2020

It’s been a while since I dedicated a post to disturbing books – other than my own of course. Here are six disturbing reading recommendations. Click on the links to read my reviews.

The Road

The aptly named The Road is a bleak, minimalist post-apocalyptic novel.

My Review: A cataclysmic event has left the world in ruins, and almost everything and everyone is dead. In the absence of food, the remaining humans are reduced to …(more)

Marabou Stork Nightmares

This inventive book boasts parallel stories and different levels of awareness.

My Review: Roy Strang narrates this story from the hospital in which he is lying in a coma. It begins in South Africa, where he and his friend Sandy Jamieson are hunting the …(more)

Novel with Cocaine

Novel with Cocaine is a nihilistic novel about adolescence and addiction.

My Review: Set in the years immediately before and after the Russian Revolution, Novel with Cocaine follows the life of Vadim, a Moscow adolescent and …(more)

Haunted

This series of short stories explore a variety of themes, including the media-obsessed nature of society.

My Review: Haunted is about a group of writers, who have been assembled by the conniving Mr Whittier to attend a writers group. The location of the retreat is in an isolated theatre with … (more)

Dark Places

This dark psychological thriller boasts an unpalatable subject matter and reprehensible characters.

My Review: Libby Day was only seven when she witnessed her family being brutally murdered in their Kansas farmhouse. It was Libby’s testimony that saw her then teenage …(more)

Lolita

This highly controversial book is about a man’s infatuation with a twelve-year-old girl.

My Review: The protagonist, Humbert Humbert, is an intellectual with an all-consuming craving for young girls, or nymphets as he refers to them. After his wife leaves him for …(more)

7 Transgressive Fiction Reading Recommendations

Jul 12 2019

It’s been a while since I wrote a Transgressive Fiction related post. Here are seven works of Transgressive Fiction that I have read. Click on the links to read the reviews.

Definition: Transgressive Fiction is a genre that focuses on characters who feel confined by the norms and expectations of society and who break free of those confines in unusual and/or illicit ways.

In Wolves’ Clothing by Greg Levin

This first-person transgressive work features a troubled member of an anti child trafficking organisation.

My Review: Zero Slade is a member of an anti-child sex trafficking organisation. The role entails infiltrating the industry by masquerading as
high-rolling sex …(more)

Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh

This is an inventive book, boasting parallel stories and different levels of awareness.

My Review: Roy Strang narrates this story from the hospital in which he is lying in a coma. It begins in South Africa, where he and his friend Sandy Jamieson are hunting the …(more)

Between the Shadow and Lo by Lauren Sapala

This first-person work of Transgressive Fiction is written by a female author, and it boasts an alcoholic female protagonist.

Review: Twenty-something Seattleite Leah is an emotionally damaged alcoholic with a penchant for drugs, sleeping around and books. She has an alter ego, a dark …(more)

Women by Charles Bukowski

The story follows the exploits of ageing lowlife and Bukowski alter ego, Henry Chinaski.

My Review: Fat, ugly fifty-something Henry Chinaski is a degenerate drinker, gambler and womaniser residing in downtrodden East Hollywood.
After a lifetime spent toiling in …(more)

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Based on Heller’s own experiences as a bombardier in WWII, this satirical anti-war novel is brimming with absurdist humour.

My Review: Set on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa during WWII, Catch-22 is about the exploits of the fictitious 256th Squadron. We follow protagonist Yossarian and his comrades’ farcical attempts to …(more)

Child of God by Cormac McCarthy

Child of God is a tautly written and concise work of ‘country noir’. Themes include loneliness and necrophilia.

My Review: Having been dispossessed of his land, Lester Ballard is now homeless and eking out an existence in the backwoods of Sevier County, East Tennessee. For food, he steals and forages. For …(more)

The Blade Artist by Irvine Welsh

The complex and manipulative protagonist, sordid characters and squalid descriptions will appeal to fans of the Transgressive genre.

My Review: Reformed Scottish ex-con Jim Francis (formerly Franco Begbie) is now a successful sculptor living the dream in sunny California with his former prison art therapist now trophy wife …(more)

5 Controversial Transgressive Novels

Apr 20 2018

I am an avid reader and writer of Transgressive Fiction, and the proud proprietor of the world’s largest resource for Transgressive Fiction (this website).

Because of the ‘deviant’ nature of their protagonists, Transgressive Fiction has often been viewed as controversial. Here are five works of Transgressive Fiction that have caused controversy. They are presented in chronological order. Click on the links to read my reviews.

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller (1934)

Why Controversial: It was Tropic of Cancer‘s candid sexual content that led to it being banned from being imported into the United States after its publication in France in 1934. In 1964 the U.S. Supreme Court deemed it to be non-obscene in a landmark verdict.

My Review: Set in the late 1920s and early 30s, Tropic of Cancer is a semi-autobiographical first-person account of a young, struggling American writer living in Paris, and for a short period Le Havre. His is a seedy existence, characterised by a shortage of money …(more)

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955)

Why Controversial: Citing the book’s controversial subject matter and perceived pornographic content, the UK Home Office confiscated all copies of the book in 1955. Lolita was banned in France the following year, but never in the US. It continues to cause controversy to this day.

My Review: The protagonist, Humbert Humbert, is an intellectual with an all-consuming craving for young girls, or nymphets as he refers to them. After his wife leaves him for another man, Humbert Humbert becomes a live-in tutor for the Hazes …(more)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess (1962)

Why Controversial: In 1973 a bookseller in Utah was arrested for selling A Clockwork Orange. The text has been banned in various High Schools and libraries down the years in the US. Much of the controversy surrounding the book is because of its violent film adaptation.

My Review: Alex is an eccentric 15-year-old delinquent with a penchant for classical music and drinking milk. He and his fellow ‘droogs’ assault, rob and rape with impunity, that is until a serious incident sees him arrested and incarcerated. Our anti-hero is anticipating …(more)

Last Exit to Brooklyn by Hubert Selby Jr. (1964)

Why Controversial: This cult classic was lauded by many at the time of its publication and continues to be to this day. However, its candid portrayals of numerous taboo topics drew the ire of the authorities in the UK, where it was subjected to an obscenity trial. The book was banned in Italy.

My Review: This inter-related collection of six stories are set in 1950s Brooklyn, New York. One revolves around a Benzedrine-scoffing transvestite’s unreciprocated love for a hoodlum. The protagonist of another is a callous, heavy-drinking prostitute, hell-bent on …(more)

American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis (1991)

Why Controversial: Even before its publication American Psycho received damning criticism for its graphic violence and perceived misogynistic content. The book was banned in Canada and Queensland (Australia). In the rest of Australia and New Zealand its sale remains restricted to over eighteen’s.

My Review: American Psycho is a highly controversial novel that brought its author Bret Easton Ellis instant fame. The book is written from the perspective of a young Wall Street financier, Patrick Bateman. Patrick is intelligent, well-educated, wealthy and …(more)

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