Review: Cuckoo for love, a cautionary tale that's seriously entertaining
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 14, 2012
When Mishka Shubaly labels himself an "amateur anesthesiologist" he's really describing the twenty years he spent as a drunk and drug enthusiast. Two decades is a long time to remain wasted and Shubaly is only in his mid- thirties."Are You Lonely Tonight," is the third installment in his bad-boy, outrageous life. It picks up after the kaleidoscope of an existence he describes in his two previous Kindle Singles "Shipwrecked" and "The Long Run."This time out he's turned from seeking chemical stimulation to searching for true love. And he thinks he finds it in Johna. Looking at her photo he's captivated, "She had the kind of face easy for a lonely man to project a whole imagined future upon."It's a fixation that we know is going to go from bad to totally bizarre so quickly and with so much certainty that you can almost hear a young Tina Turner in the background singing "Fool in Love."In a flash, the object of Shubaly's woefully misguided desire becomes the spurned lover in "The Magus" or the ensnaring temptress in "Kiss of the Spider Woman."  Oh, Mishka, we want to scream, "How could you be so stupid to be duped so completely."Later on and trying to describe the lunacy of the woman he once dreamed about sharing his life with, Shubaly thinks "insane" and "crazy" just don't do her justice." Instead archaic words such as "bonkers, nutso, batty, wacko, bananas, around the bend" come to mind and the best way to depict the craziness of her is probably "cuckoo."Everything about his search for true love, Shubaly says, has been either seriously terrifying or terribly hilarious. He hasn't decided which. I suggest you read this installment of his story as a cautionary tale and with the expectation of being seriously entertained.