Originally published in Verbicide issue #18

Raw Dog Screaming Press, 172 pages, trade paperback, $13.95

John Edward Lawson’s absurdist novel Last Burn In Hell is a strange odyssey that begins in a women’s prison and ends, well…let’s just say it doesn’t end where you think it will. All of the bizarre references, erotic adventures, and the glimpse into the mind, habits, and obsessions of the Kenrick (our protagonist) come together for a startling and unsettling conclusion — one that lays the groundwork for a sequel. According to Lawson, he will “continue it as a series.” This first installment is “a Fight Club-ish crime story,” but the following titles will be very different.

Kenrick works in a women’s prison. The night before condemned women are to be executed, they are allowed a conjugal visit with Kenrick — he’s the official, state-sanctioned prison gigolo. Not your everyday profession, but this book doesn’t take place in your everyday world. As a state employee he deals with gangsta rappers, perverted co-workers, and other oddballs while fighting off militant murderous feminists and a strange conspiracy that wants to see him dead. He is a humane man who services the female prisoners with compassion and treats them with respect, allowing them a brief moment of happiness before the state takes their lives. He forgives them for their acts, acting as a sort of priest while fucking their brains out. Finally, he turns and leads an escape attempt out of the prison through the underground sewer systems and into sunny Mexico where things just get weirder.

Escaping prison — with a group of equally odd prisoners in-tow — Kenrick finds himself in Mexico, pursued by a Mexican crime cartel…as he transforms into a world-famous pop star. Like a bukkake party, you never know what’s coming next. But events become more serious for Rick as he begins to learn about his own strange past.

In his journey, he is enlightened about Mexican culture and the plight of the women he has helped liberate. He continues to be a whore, but also a student of the strange as his journey takes him from one bizarre situation to another.

Did I mention he collects ancient torture devices, which he names and talks to (as in “Pillory Clinton”)? Is fascinated with Mexican culture? Loves to swim? Is the victim of a shark attack? If you can’t tell, this is one absurd, strange tale. And it is filled with hip-hop dialogue and cultural references — Lawson informed me that in “hip-hop we can see a wild mix of contradictions, and its extremity lends itself to satire. At the same time, it is the music of the youth, and as the youth are the future, hip-hop is far more relevant than people are willing to admit. Plus, nobody seems to be fusing ‘street culture’ and genre fiction.” He is hoping for a blurb from Ali G to go with the next book.

Perhaps the one element that remains constant through the book is its absurd eroticism. This is a very spicy novel, not surprising when you consider what Kenrick does for a living. The sex scenes aren’t just boring descriptions of the ol’ in-out, in-out, but genuinely erotic, at the same time telling us much about the characters and their hidden dreams, desires, thoughts, and problems.

What I must stress is a shocking turn toward the end of the book where the tone changes from humorous to deadly serious, and we learn about Kenrick’s past and how he came to be the man he is, and how and why his life has taken so many turns. The abrupt change is a nice literary feat — disturbing, amusing, and always entertaining. I have read a lot of Lawson’s short fiction before, and hope his full-length novel is the first of many. Let’s hope the rest of the series is as well done and takes us more into Kenrick’s bizarre world, and gives us more of Lawson’s hilarious, deadly accurate social and cultural commentary.