only miloOnly Milo by Barry Smith (Inkwater Press, September 1, 2009), 272 pages

Milo is an aspiring author with rejected manuscripts piling up in his closet. When he’s given the opportunity to ghost write, he can’t turn it down. But then he gets nervous, and jealous, and things just generally don’t turn out as he wanted them to. So what does he do?

This is a spoof of a book. Think Office Space (the movie). Except instead of making fun of the cubicle farm aka corporate office, Only Milo is making fun of writing and publishing. Like all spoofs, it’s very over the top. Enough so that it’s borderline offensive, if the subject matter is something you care about.

But I didn’t find Only Milo truly offensive; more like absurd. Ludicrous. The main character’s motivations and reasoning are never logical — and this is a problem for me.

Still, it’s a very quick read — it took me well under 2 hours from cover to cover. And at several points (mostly early on) I was laughing out loud.

The writing itself had me smiling, too.

Barry Smith is a professor at Emporia State University.

Other reviews:
Devourer of Books
I’m Booking It
Write Meg
The Charmed Bracelet

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