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Ten Words about Each of Them: A Spiraling Summary–Type Review of Bradley Sand’s Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy

‘Seth Schultz’:

Seth ruins an orgy by coming dressed as a bear.

‘Eggs Benedict’:

A Tyrannosaurus rex, hollandaise, & the second story containing teeth.

‘Refrain’:

He wore an eye patch over his eye. He saw.

‘Brave Contestant of Faith’:

A game show, God or No God, & earwax-flavored  Starburst.

‘Temporomandibular’:

A made-up word & a kitten is in a mouth.

‘A Man Buys a Gun After Losing His Remote Control’:

Imagine watching Everybody Loves Raymond for the last ten years.

‘The Attic’:

I wish I had a conflict-free backup family. He does.

‘Today Brandi Wells’ Cat Fell Out of a Tree But He Was Not Upset’:

Brandi Wells is a writer & her cat climbs trees.

‘The Fall of Atlantis’:

Atlantis is bullied, & needs to stand up for itself.

‘A Suicidal Amputee Tries to Kill Himself By Rolling Off His Bed, Down the Stairs, Through the Screen Door, and Into Traffic; Some Dominican Kids Poke Him With Sticks Too, and an Eagle and an Eagle Shits on Him’:

Every sentence in this begins ‘The suicidal amputee’s left/right leg’.

‘Want To Hear Something Really Creepy?’:

Writing takes us elsewhere, even without trying, go try it.

‘Magic Show’:

Detective. Magician. Rabbit. Lovely Assistant. The longest story so far.

‘Going At It Like. . .’:

The difference between fucking & colon exams, & more bunnies.

‘Electric Boogaloo’:

If you wanted to breakdance then launch like a rocket.

‘The Time Traveling Giraffe Is On Fire’:

First story with a giraffe, second with bursts of fire.

‘Cormac McCarthy’:

One long sentence that actually looks more like William Faulkner.

‘Bread and Body of Christ’:

If you could sue a Pope and he showed up.

‘A Sloth and the Newspaper Boy’:

These two things are made related in this one story.

‘Liquid Gold’:

Like a pirate in a bathtub of toys & blood.

‘The Den’:

All about growing up & how fathers become their fathers.

‘Tao Lin’:

Tao Lin & a neutral facial expression & ape-flavored smoothies.

‘The Detective’:

The second lost remote. The second detective. This ends happier.

‘Birthday Present’:

Socks represent our only two choices of emptiness or emptiness

‘Reading Sam Pink’:

About conquering Sam Pink, who also designed this book’s cover.

‘Debunking the Bard’:

William Shakespeare & a hot dog vendor & an academic.

‘Hide and Seek Champion’:

Death as a winless game of hide without anyone seeking.

‘In the Airport’:

A maybe monologue of we talking to no one listening.

‘The Adventures of a Small, Ceramic Giraffe in Tudor England’:

The second giraffe but the first mention of Tudor England.

‘Four Answers to Four Questions’:

There is only one question mark in this entire story.

‘The Lunch Date’:

Many sentences here say only ‘Adolf Hitler is now choking’.

‘Time to Eat’:

A textual rendering of Dali’s perhaps most famous clock painting.

‘The Ghost Parade’:

A meta-fiction & sometime within a cat becomes a millionaire.

‘The Study’:

A secret passage behind a book leads to a womb.

‘A Texas Cowboy and His Pal, The Genie, on Vacation’:

Who likes Bermuda more, a Texas cowboy or a Genie?

‘The Architects of the Dismantling’:

This is dedicated to me & appeared in Mud Luscious.

‘Archeologist’:

This is a story like trying to hold a tiger.

‘Caterpillars and Watermelons’:

Caterpillars = 12. Watermelons = 14. Petrol = 1 (lovely).

‘A Headless Man Falls in Love with a Bowl of Rice’:

As if an emotion were a tick trying to enter.

‘The Time Traveling Giraffe Defies God’:

The third giraffe, the second God mention, the first Zimbabwe.

‘In the Restaurant’:

Second person point of view, baby as an entrée. .

‘Gathered in Nerdy Congress’:

Maybe the only story ever with both Wii and War.

‘The Laundry Room’:

A laundry room, I suppose, as a kind of bedroom.

‘Crawling Over Fifty Good Pussies to Get One Fat Boy’s Asshole’:

I didn’t ever expect: ‘Alex Tron’ or ‘ My nigga’.

‘Invincible’:

Lemonade business involves an interdimensional dimension transcending time & space.

‘Alligator in Space’:

The title defines the alligator astronaut that longs in this.

‘Scenes from the Life of a Greeting Card Designer’:

Tim Hallmark wields an AK-47, yeah, that’s right, that happens.

‘Defeat of the Mountain Spirit’:

Mount Holyoke is in this, & so is Bradley Sands.

‘One of Those Poorly Written Stories That Are Impossible to Follow Because There Are Too

Many Goddamn Characters’:

That is exactly the story. It needs no further explanation.

‘Hold-up’:

I’m unsure how many guns there have been in here.

‘The Writer’:

This story only applies if we keep reading bad shit.

‘How to Get Beautiful Women Into Bed’:

Blood sacrifices. That’s how to do it. Many blood sacrifices.

‘Electronic Gaming News’:

How it would be to be invincible if we could.

Sorry I Ruined Your Orgy

Bradley Sands

Lazy Fascist Books, 2010

$10.95

  • John Madera is the author of Nervosities (Anti-Oedipus Press, 2024) and Nomad Science (Spuyten Duyvil Press, forthcoming in 2026).  His  fiction is also published in Conjunctions, Salt Hill, Hobart, The &Now Awards 2: The Best Innovative Writing, and many other journals. His poetry is also published in elimae, Sixth Finch, Contrapuntos, and elsewhere. His criticism is published in American Book Review, Bookforum, The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Rain Taxi: Review of Books, The Believer, The Brooklyn Rail, and many other venues. Recipient of an M.F.A. in Literary Arts from Brown University, two-time New York State Council on the Arts awardee John Madera lives in New York City, where he runs Rhizomatic and manages and edits Big Other.

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