Short Story Review Jay Clifton Loco Mosquito Punk Fiction 2009 Portico Press
Spoiler Alerts
Though the title comes from an Iggy Pop song, the story has a distinct William Burroughs influence in this tale of near spiritual redemption for a young washed out, drugged out punk.
O’Keefe is a hedonistic serial drugs and drink abuser, and saxophone player in a band. He is absolutely beastly to his girlfriend.
One night, in a particularly wasted state, he falls through the plate glass window of a flat beneath his own, and wakes up in a house with a giant mosquito talking to him about the state he has got himself into.
The Mosquito, (rather a literal take on the Iggy Pop title) has a very funny patter, and helps itself to O’Keefe’s blood, getting high on his own intoxications.
The Mosquito describes the sorry fate of other drug fiends it has visited, and O’Keefe realizes quickly that he is hallucinating, but the meeting makes him reconsider his ways and by its conclusion, he has gone through an Ebenezer Scrooge style change of direction in his life, and commits himself to detoxing and improving his lifestyle.
It’s a strangely unpunk moral fable of the self-destructive hero going straight and not exploding in self-destruction, but it is wonderfully written.
Arthur Chappell