Oh, Title!

A literary yawp; a compelling, sundry collection of stories and essays - Oh, Title! is a unique offering. At times a humorous memoir of the author-be-damned, at times a compilation of impressively eclectic fiction, this strange audiobook is almost always away from turning into something else. You'll listen to it tensely, then you'll stop to laugh, then you'll pause while you look up a wonderful new word - but always you'll go to it with affection because clearly it was written with love. In listening to the collection it quickly becomes apparent, that Daniel Donatelli loves listeners - more than himself, even - and that every word of this audiobook, from the invigorating heights of its descriptive bliss to the comical blue sewers of its sometimes deep scatology, was placed there with a simple hope: that those noble listeners might find a thoughtful enjoyment in the sum.

The short stories (and to a large extent they are truly short indeed) are a sweet, alchemical mix of philosophy and fiction; the essays are engaging attempts at honesty and insight; the pastel parades are thought-provoking, entertaining little palette cleansers between the beastly rounds; and the final pieces - the two disturbingly funny teleplays and the giant poem of existential and linguistic gymnastics - display a refreshing (or maybe bewildering) creativity. The sum is greater than the parts, and the parts are greater than the sum, and all logic goes right out the window.