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Automatic Safe Dog

by Jet McDonald

Automatic Safe Dog

Automatic Safe Dog is available in the following formats:

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In this, his extraordinary debut novel, Jet McDonald has created a heady brew of volatile cocktail ingredients. Madcap surreal humour blends with vicious parody of the world of work, the vanity of “Creative” types, the torments of unrequited love, animal cruelty and the excesses of consumer society. Words and sentences undergo some kind of alchemy under McDonald’s reckless stewardship, he whips them up into little frenzies like performing pooches and makes them jump through the burning hoops of our open mouths and frazzled brains. Not so much a breath of fresh air as a snort of something industrial, read this book and become initiated into a rebellion of the mind that will leave you inspired and laughing with exhilaration.

"...Jet McDonald has a vivid imagination and he writes witty satire about modern way of life, corporate life and unrequited love. He's taken a risk with this book, because writing satire is difficult, but he's managed to write a funny and inventive book, which will appeal to readers who enjoy black and twisted humour. This book reminds me a bit about the works of J. G. Ballard, David Sedaris, Chuck Palahniuk and William Burroughs, but it's distinctively different from their works."

Seregil of Rhiminee - Rising Sshadow

 

“…There are certainly surreal elements reminiscent of Brazil, as well absurdist set of coincidences and events which are as good as Tom Sharpe’s. However, McDonald has been able to find his own writing voice and a very funny one it is… Overall, the book is a splendid read and the best scatological narrative that I read in a while…”

Charles Packer - Review Graveyard

 

“In McDonald’s London, none of the people have any real sense of who they are or what their place in the company (and the world, since the company is their world) really is. All of them have inflated egos and low self-esteem, trying to prove to everyone else—but mostly to themselves—that they have some sort of worth, which is always being undermined; a cruel, vicious circle, yet they all keep going round and round it voluntarily, apparently blind to its existence. People are driven to move for the sake of movement; forward movement at all costs, never taking a moment for reflection or introspection. They don’t work for the love of their work, they work as a means to an end, like a horse chasing a carrot. Everyone wanting to ‘make it’ (whatever ‘it’ may be) and never taking any real joy from the lives they’re living, always looking and reaching forward for more, better, newer, trendier. In this sense, McDonald has created a wonderful treatise on progress as opposed to conscious living…”

Jessica Nelson - The Future Fire

 

“…Automatic Safe Dog is a crazy story, but it’s madness with a barbed point. It reminds me a little of the film Brazil, although really it’s too unique to compare successfully to other works. Telby Velour is a great character, funny and incompetent and a real chancer, and he captured my imagination from the story’s shocking start to its stunning ending. This is a good read, which I like best for the way it takes aim at corporate leadership, marketing madness, and the easy acceptance of the dictates of people who wear suits, no matter how insane they may be.”

Ros Jackson - Warpcore SF

 

“…Jet McDonald has a vivid imagination and he writes witty satire about modern way of life, corporate life and unrequited love. He’s taken a risk with this book, because writing satire is difficult, but he’s managed to write a funny and inventive book, which will appeal to readers who enjoy black and twisted humour. This book reminds me a bit about the works of J. G. Ballard, David Sedaris, Chuck Palahniuk and William Burroughs, but it’s distinctively different from their works.”

Sami Airola - Rising Shadow

Jet McDonald is a writer, musician and storyteller. His fiction has been published in Subtle Edens - An Anthology of Slipstream Fiction from Elastic Press, Catastrophia from PS Publications and Blind Swimmer from Eibonvale Press. His work has been included in The Idler and Paraphilia Magazine. He is a member of spoken word collective Heads and Tales and in 2008 won the Missouri Review Audio Fiction Award for his contemporary spoken fiction. He has performed his stories and music at festivals across the UK including Glastonbury Festival and the Hay on Wye Literary Festival. His freaky folk band Jetfly have been aired on BBC 6 radio and toured nationally with four albums. In May 2010 Jet began an overland cycle tour to India.

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