Donihe, Kevin. Grape City. Portland: Eraserhead Press, 2006. 116 pp. Paperback. $9.95. ISBN 1933929510.

Cult author Kevin L. Donihe’s (Shall We Gather At the Garden, The Greatest Fucking Moment in Sports) third novel, Grape City, may be his best book yet.  The novel concerns a demon named Charles, who attempts to find purpose in working low-wage jobs.  Hell has closed its gates for business and demons are now a central part of the Earth’s low-skilled work force.  When Charles gets set up on a blind date and the "Demon Days" festival approaches, he is forced to evaluate the point of his existence.

Donihe creates a lively, vivid world in which people are obsessed with activities such as “bang-murdering” and “hack-raping.”  This morally ambiguous place is where Donihe examines the ideas of right and wrong.  Charles longs for the time when he knew for certain that he was evil, but the world he now inhabits is so degenerate that he doesn't know what he is.  When his old friend Satan comes back into his life, Charles begins an existential downward spiral.

Satire is a particularly hard genre to write, but Donihe pulls it off masterfully. The novel explores the idea of purpose while having to work in the corporate world, where purpose seems irrelevant.  Charles is a stand-in for everyone who has felt their souls sucked away on an hourly wage.  He battles to find freedom in his own mind, but is constantly set back by the absurdities of living.

Grape City succeeds on every level: compelling characters, a brilliantly horrible universe, and an engaging plotline.  Charles is intensely relatable. Through his exploits, Donihe rails against the absurdities of the world we live in.  Bureaucracy, public assistance, and customer service are all targeted in the novel.  Grape City is a major accomplishment for Donihe and an essential addition to the Bizarro library.

— Jeff Burk