How Best to Avoid Dying

Few characters in this Kafka-indebted 22-story collection from Egerton (The Book of Harold) actually want to “avoid dying.” Instead, they mock, glorify, seek, or ruminate on death. In “The Martyrs of Mountain Peak,” Jesus-camp counselors orchestrate their own deaths to inspire their campers to convert. “Lazarus Dying” follows the saint into modern-day New York as he yearns for his rightful end. The writer in “The Fecalist,” whose excrement is interpreted as art, attains enlightenment upon defecating himself to death while Norman Mailer watches and weeps. “St. Gobbler’s Day” is narrated by a jaded store employee who considers killing his infuriatingly upbeat coworker. And in the final story, titled “Lish,” the author asks a character who has dived into death, “What’s there, Lish?... I can’t follow,” to which she responds, “You really are a shitty writer.” More surreal than hilarious, these stories cast a derisive light on contemporary American optimism and self-righteousness, and are held together by existential themes. Egerton offers a collection in the vein of Chuck Palahniuk, full of cynical insight and sardonic humor. (Feb.)