Bro, do you even know what happens if you stand in front of a mirror and say “Blockbuster Video” exactly one million times?
No, bro?
Well, don’t feel bad, because neither did newly rich Tim Carmichael-Wellingtonshire, a man obsessed with becoming the inbred banjo boy from the movie Deliverance. That is, he didn’t know until he moved into the original “Dueling Banjoes” house in the blue hills of northern Georgia, a place indeed haunted by the ghost of Blockbuster Video, as murderous as he is obnoxious.
But with the support of his brand-new kidney butler—obviously, a kidney butler is a butler made from one’s own surgically removed kidney (bro, did you even know that?)—Tim can deal with the ghost and focus on learning how to play the goddang banjo.
What's in a name?
In this case, a whole lot. One look at "You Only Need One Kidney's" expansive title largely lets any potential reader know exactly what they're in for in terms of the level of absurdity present within its pages. I'm therefore not going to spend much time dwelling on that. Yes, the book is ridiculous, and gross, and intentionally provocative, not to mention humorous and all the other things well-crafted bizarro fiction tends to be. Thus, without a doubt, fans of that sort of storytelling will almost certainly enjoy it. Still, as with Hackle's other works that resonate for me, and other standouts of the genre, there's something extra that occasionally shines through all the chaos, brief moments where those zanier elements recede and the author lets instances of (seemingly) genuine sincerity and earnestness occur, even if only to bash them over the head with a rubber mallet or lop them off with a chainsaw. I appreciate those little touches, which went a long way toward keeping me engaged and turning pages when the fundamental premise and gimmicks of the experience might have otherwise worn thin.
Stories like "You Only Need One Kidney..." are often hit and miss for me, with certain aspects firmly landing and others falling flat, largely as a consequence of personal taste. Fortunately, this was a case where a lot more worked for me than didn't. So, I find this one fairly easy to recommend to any adventurous reader with a reasonably thick skin who might be looking for a "different" sort of speculative-fiction tale that could well leave them saying "What did I just read?" in a good way. 4.25 stars for me, rounded up so as not to underrate it.