HOME
BOOKS OVERVIEW
This is the story of Theo Schism, who at the age of nine climbs into a refrigerator, remembers his life until then, and imagines (?) the rest.
Side-stepping “why,” the question becomes “how long is he in there?” If the answer includes the numeric value ’65,’ what is the temporal unit? Second, minute, hour … all the way up to (“theo”-retically) decade, century, eon … ?
The Haunted Refrigerator is NOT a trilogy but a single saga, published for “user-friendly” reasons in three volumes (i.e., “books”), titled:
- In
- Bifurcated Proceedings
- Hoist a Few Cold Ones
Otherwise, it would be as big as a dictionary. And who wants to lug around a big honkin’ dictionary—or else would be in very small type.
It’s a free country, but the editor strongly advises against reading Book Two (see above) before Book One, or Book Three before Book One and/or Book Two. Should a reader insist on this, the likelihood is that he or she will encounter confusion, and hence disgust, and end up not reading anything, which would be bad for all concerned.
In the old days, they called “user-friendly” ergonomics.
Finally, elsewhere are data “ABOUT THE AUTHOR.” I’m the EDITOR. Don’t look at me.
“What happened, Unca Dave?” Young people today deserve an answer. To restate our hypothesis: on November 4 1953, Theodore F. Schism climbed into his mother’s defrosting refrigerator and shut the door. He was 9 years old.
The first book of his story was appropriately called In. Now comes the middle, the “unloved child,” and yet its pages introduce the villain of the piece, a role which by definition is far more interesting than that of any so-called hero.
As for getting … out? Young Theo might succeed, or maybe not. Looked at in that way, his is the only hope we have.
So start with In, or don’t and take your chances. Bifurcated Proceedings are just that, a lucky break for all of us, so how bad can it be? And if you need fortification, you can always Hoist a Few Cold Ones: Book Three.
“Life is a Trial,” says Henderson. Like he knows S about S.
Every year on March 1 comes the Alive Day of Robot Larch. Down on the Rez, the ghost of Jim Fence still walks the mesa. And Snap and Henry B. are way up there on Tuesday Island, like hummingbirds trapped (as if by clear glass) along the Pacific Coast.
“What goes around comes around” said Daniel Boone, among others (we won’t say who—long dead).
AND THEN—
The saga of The Haunted Refrigerator has not easily been contained (try it sometime). Book One was called In; Book Two Bifurcated Proceedings; Hoist a Few Cold Ones is Book Three and not the traditional place to start.
Yet here we are.
Our advice? Read the first book first, the second second, and this one last.
Or not.
About all we can say for sure is that Sam Bagwa still wears a custom-fitted orange jumpsuit, and that somewhere swoops the Nested If.
Like we know S.
