OPINIONS ABOUT CHRIS MADOCH'S WORK

'At first sight, our friendship seems unusual. The highbrow writer, artist and poet, Chris Madoch and me. Comics scriptwriter and erstwhile gag writer. A man who never lost his schoolboy humour and who finds it difficult to take anything seriously. But we discovered that we inspired each other. Spurring one another on to reach new heights. It resulted in our collaboration with Chris’s partner, the talented artist Dan-Paul Flores, in Queer Messiah Media Incorporated.

But this is not about me or QMM. This is about Chris’s latest work. And I could have filled this introduction with superlatives and glowing opinions about Chris’ genius and about the contents of this book. Because they’re certainly well deserved. Genius? Yes. But we must be specific. Sadly, these days the word “genius” has been tarnished by hyperbole. Suddenly even the most mediocre can be labelled the work of a genius. In Chris’ case I use the word the way the Oxford Dictionary meant it to be used: “An exceptionally intelligent person or one with exceptional skill in a particular area of activity.”  But I've decided that his talents are strong enough to stand on their own feet. So I’ll let his work speak for itself. Read it and see. You won’t be disappointed. In fact, I’ll paraphrase a remark Eric Morecambe made about Tommy Cooper. If you don’t like Chris Madoch’s work you don’t like good literature. End of story.'

 

Mike Knowles: Writer and Satirist. Associate Editor Oneiros Books. Macclesfield. UK.

 

 

'Chris Madoch envisages a great anti-hero in his 'The News from my Area'. He is handicapped, thanks to thalidomide, but has a strong spirit within and a sense for survival. Madoch´s strength is his uninhibited lack of political correctness. Something that is refreshing in this day and age.' 

 

Fiona Pitt-kethley: Poet. Cartagena. Spain.

 

 

'His fictions are not fictitious, not even at their philosophical height. If the readers open their minds they will wrap around his words. Once he wrote, “At the end, in the ensuing silence- What would it take for you to believe That you have listened to the same story twice?” Indeed, but after an intense reading of his stories we find the second time is always different.'

 

Kushal Poddar: Poet and Lawyer. Calcutta. India.

 

 

 

'Chris Madoch is that rarest of storytellers who imparts even the most unpleasant of truths with an elegance that is refined as its intent is brutal, making the ugliness he describes simply far too seductive to turn away from. Encoded within each of his short pieces is an impassioned moral petition for sincerity and justice in a drably hypocritical world. Despite appearances, a generous heart beats with unpretentious humanity in the barbed mesh of Madoch’s prose, instilling his poetic critique of twenty-first century living with an integrity that renders the neurotic banquets of Palahniuk, Franzen et al as nutritionless as packet soup.'

 

Craig Woods. Author. UK. Contributing Editor at Paraphilia Magazine and Books.

 

 

 'Chris Madoch's uncompromising vision is a world where we can face the many human truths. His prose lives in the cognitive gap between our public and private selves; his skill, rare in modernity, is not to reconcile those poles, but to accord each its hour, and each its complement of meticulous attention.'

 

Petra Davis. Queer Activist and Journalist [Guardian, Diva, New Statesman] Brighton. UK.

 

 

 

'Existence, while you may believe it to be subjective, is wholly based on how much you matter to the Universe. Not for a moment do we dent the great womb of life; the most we can hope for is a scratch in the grubby fingernail of our small, self-created societies. Give up now perhaps? No, carry on, but drop the delusory picket fence one-upmanship, the denial that we excrete anything other than Chanel No. 5 and the self-congratulatory Friday night vodka train to oblivion. All humans are attracted to oblivion; stand on the edge of a cliff and stare steadily at the horizon and you will feel yourself lean forward, how far forward is a matter for you.

Chris Madoch is many and He is few. He is everywhere and yet nowhere; omnipresent in a creative firmament where the judgement is unblinking and the pronouncement unnervingly visceral. His low, muttering poetry holds the brave transfixed and the ordinary outraged. There is no in-between, why would He do that? Chris’s short fiction allows Him to give yet more breadth to satiate His need to hold up a wider mirror and here, for this writer, is where He finds his weight. Unrestricted by the stab of the stubby stanza, He luxuriates as the glass is turned and He draws out every morsel of the protagonists. You hear the blood rushing in their ears and the morals falling around their ankles. He grubs around in the dirt and fashions such exquisite truth that it shocks and leaves us all fools. In His short story, “Last Letter from Lyndhurst”, the prosaic tableau is electrified by Chris’s masterly nuance and utter refusal to draw a veil over a single moment. There is no innuendo, Chris makes you look this story straight in the face and He holds your chin while doing it. Consider your purchase of Chris Madoch an act of truth; ditch your paperback existence and remember that the little voice in your head is Him.'

 

Victoria Fotios. NeoPoiesis Press. UK. 

 

 

 

'Once in a while, we have the pleasure of meeting work which examines the harsher sides of humanity with beautiful language. Chris Madoch is the creator of work such as this. He injects a melancholic tenderness for humanity into stories which demand the reader’s acknowledgement of the grittier and unpleasant realities of not only the human species, but themselves personally. This is not the work of an exhibitionist or of one striving to be "edgy", this is the work of a mind adept at pointed political braising and social autopsy. Mr. Madoch’s writing is unapologetic, challenging, strikingly musical and honed to near perfection.' 

 

Dale Winslow, Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, NeoPoiesis Press. UK.