Where Maggots
first seems to be the most avant-garde flipbook ever, readers' enthusiasm may turn to dismay when they see the instructions printed on the inside jacket flap. Readers are, in fact, supposed to read the book, made up of tightly gridded, postage-stamp-sized panels of improvisatory black pen work sketched over the pages of a Japanese book catalogue. As if this were not challenging enough, you are to read the panel rows in a zigzag pattern, left to right and then right to left, down the first page and up the second except when “its [sic] tricky like page 4 gets weird,” as the author kindly notes. Suddenly what was a dynamic, unconventionally animated book of strange characters in hallucinatory landscapes becomes a slow, patience-testing novel of the same ilk. Shunning the contrivances of a clear plot, character development, theme or setting, the pages buzz only with the nervous scratching of an overly busy pen, through which brief moments of clear activity—typically a sex act—arrive amid long stretches of action too tiny and messy to comprehend. Chippendale belongs to Thunder Bolt, a leading “noise” rock band, a music that seeks art and beauty through chaos and energy. Fans of same may find something to enjoy here. (Nov.)
