Everything Abridged is the debut short story collection of Dennard Dayle, internet comedy writer and Ivy League Fine Arts graduate and teacher. The entire book is presented in a sort of glossary/encyclopedia format where it lists word and phrases (everything from "magic" to "the American Dream" to "Tyler Perry" to "Neolithic Revolution" to "HP Lovecraft"), all of which have been given satirical/brutally honest definitions. After a few dozen entries or so, it will list the title of the short story and tell it. Once it's done, it will continue with the definition entries alphabetically.
I had been exposed to Dennard Dayle from his writing on 1-900-Hotdog and thought he was clever as well as hilarious and decided to look into him. After picking up some fun entries on his website, I decided to check out his first published book. Honestly, I loved it. The glossary definitions are hilarious and broad in knowledge, but Dennard's writing is truly a treat. As an African American who earned a BFA from Princeton and an MFA from Columbia (where he teaches creative writing classes), as well as a nerd, weaboo and bright individual who's at least aware of technological developments in several industries, he has a lot of knowledge and authority in a lot of topics and he definitely shows that in his fiction. His writing is dry, cynical and hilarious, but he also breaks ground in the genres that he clearly has studied extensively as a fanboy.
His short stories include topics and settings like a monarch of a smaller nation welcoming each visiting president of a bigger and more influential nation over the years, a ranking champion of a Warhammer40K-like tabletop RTS introduces the game to the warring sisters that he's babysitting and learns even more lessons in strategy and warfare from their vicious gameplay, a government employed hacker has dating misadventures with a cyborg government agent as well as a former lawyer turned hack-musician who may be part of a terrorist group, a comics writer gets so frustrated with rejection that he eventually rewrites his character to be a white supremacist just to get guaranteed publishing (from white supremacists).
Dennard shows that he can write excellent science fiction multiple times over in this collection, but I'm honestly interested in reading any future horror/dark fantasy or fantasy or slice of life or genre he decides to dabble in. Overall, I loved this collection and am eagerly awaiting any future published works from the author in the future.
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Guffaws all around
This is the first book I've honestly read for leisure in a decade and there's not a better book I could ask for to bring me back. Dennard Dayle is exquisitely witty, his jokes cover a range that puts Brittannica to shame. They say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. It also takes quite a bit of muscle movement to type this review. Even so, by my estimation, the amount of energy I've exerted to write this review is immensely outweighed by the lifetimes worth of decreased facial frown muscle use after reading this book. Get this book, read this guys stuff in the New Yorker and your life will be better. Your facial muscles will rest easy.
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This is the first book I've honestly read for leisure in a decade and there's not a better book I could ask for to bring me back. Dennard Dayle is exquisitely witty, his jokes cover a range that puts Brittannica to shame. They say it takes more muscles to frown than to smile. It also takes quite a bit of muscle movement to type this review. Even so, by my estimation, the amount of energy I've exerted to write this review is immensely outweighed by the lifetimes worth of decreased facial frown muscle use after reading this book. Get this book, read this guys stuff in the New Yorker and your life will be better. Your facial muscles will rest easy.
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