Review: A Winter's Tale of Three Stooges
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 08 30, 2012
In this very short eNovel that can be read in an hour or less, the author tells the story of how a certain Norman, Sr. shows up with his pal Len at the home at 22447 Oaklane in Warren, Michigan rented by his estranged wife Levontina ("Lev") so that he (Norman, Sr.) can kidnap his son, Norman, Jr. Lev immediately comes upon the duo after they've entered through a window; she threatens to call the police unless the two crawl into the space underneath the house and chase away some bothersome feral cats. It's winter, and snowing, and cold.There are some things so low-brow and crass that they inspire a horrible fascination all their own. The old Cream-Pie-in-the-Face sight gag comes to mind as well as my own personal favorite - dare I admit it? - the late 20th century TV sitcomMarried...with Children: The Complete Series.CATS AND DOGS by Norm Augustinus is just such an offering. And, while a written piece, the sequence of sight gags it calls up in the Mind's Eye makes the yarn worth a surreptitious look when your friends with "cultcha" aren't watching for chinks in your public image.Norman, Sr., Len and Lev are three of the biggest misfits you'll likely come across in popular fiction - Norman and Len more so than Lev, but, still, she has contributions to make.The narrative also contains several brief side-stories that are just as asinine.I admit to not understanding the "dogs" in the title since there's no mutt to be seen either above or below the flooring at 22447 Oaklane. I thought perhaps it was a reference to "raining cats and dogs", but that idiom refers to a heavy downpour of water and not a surfeit of troubles.There are also a couple of lapses in logic that I can't reconcile with a five stars, so four will have to do.And, I'm left wondering. Is CATS AND DOGS in any way autobiographical?