John Bennett (not to be confused w/ John M. Bennett) is a small press survivor, though I'm not sure if he would agree with my assessment. THE NEW WORLD ORDER, with all quirkiness of style and subject, is a paean to the fine art of survival in modern America. There are 25 short pieces here; they encompass varied subjects--alcoholism, mental decay, Vietnam, childhood trauma--and the message is unmistakable: one must bounce back, hold tight, weather the odds and survive. "Each day," Bennett writes, "I rise up from the world of dream into illusion... and ask myself: what next? Receiving no answer, I set about the all-important task of recreating myself." From this departure, Bennett transmutes into the various personalities of this book. Not surprisingly, John Bennett wrote a book entitled SURVIVAL SONGS, which appeared in two self-published mimeograph volumes. Bennett is a literary dynamo, an avowed outlaw on the fringes of literary convention. This book sharpens and hones his alienated, rough-and-tumble vision of a chaotic world "that embraces insanity like a succubus, living on the brink is what sanity is all about: torque resistance, crystallized perception full of sunlight and terror."--Kurt Nimmo
This review originally appeared in TapRoot Reviews #5,
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