Mellick III, Carlton. Teeth and Tongue Landscape. Portland: Eraserhead Press, 2006. 112 pp. $9.95. ISBN 1933929553.

Ruminations on Loneliness and the Nature of Acceptance
Carlton Mellick, Bizarro Author Extraordinaire

This is my second of Carlton's work in the novella species of writing, the first being The Baby Jesus Butt Plug. This novella contains many, many scenes of the main character's loneliness while walking the scorched, fleshy surface of a crucified earth. Along the way he meets various strange figures now populating the landscape in a manner akin to The Wizard of Oz, but without all the pointless questing. Well, I take that back. The quest here would be the main character's search for "friendship-belonging," as Carlton might put it.

There are several sly comments on the nature of how one makes friends and trys to fit in as they progress through the cardboard world we now reside in. One particularly telling scene involves the protagonist questioning the rules of a specific region, not so he can defy them, but so he can quickly commit them to memory to make himself conform with what the others expect of their kind.

While the sociological portions of the story were expertly crafted, I did wish the more bizarre elements had been described in greater detail. This is not to say they weren't described at all—-you had an idea of what was going on around the protagonist, but it wasn't quite as consuming an environment as the one that envelops you in Baby Jesus. Considering is an earlier Mellick work, I'd chalk this one quibble up to that.

Overall, Teeth and Tongue Landscape is a great read. If you like a bit of social commentary with your Bizarro and you've ever wondered what it might be like to live inside your own mouth—look no further.

—Mark McKee Jr.