Only Milo

By Barry Smith and Sim Kern

Meet Milo, a closet writer who emerges from his dull, SPAM-flavored retirement to become an unseen force in the literary world. But when Milo's illicit ghostwriting is nearly exposed on national... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592994237
• ISBN13: 9781592994236
• Release Date: September 2009
• Publisher: Inkwater Pr
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

horrific and yet endearing! loved it!

This book drew me in from the beginning. We meet Milo, retired, loves Spam, but wants to get published. He soon starts dating a publisher, Margaret, who hires him to translate José Calderon's first novel from Spanish to English. Except the book his horrible and decides to use his own novel as the "translation." But when Calderon finds out and almost cracks under pressure on live TV, Milo knows he has to "take care of the problem." And so begins Milo's journey to gain the recognition he deserves and nothing will stand in his way as one by one those who stand in his way fall by the wayside. It was shocking to see the callousness of Milo has he continues on his way to success. That was what was so incredible about this book. Milo is a horrific murderer and yet I care about the guy. I don't want him to get caught; I want him to be successful and find the happiness he's been looking for. What will a person do to gain their heart's dreams? We come face to face with the demon inside us all. How many people do we step on to gain our dreams and desires, how many do we callously overlook and destroy? I thought this was a brilliant satire on how we can corrupt ourselves to the point of losing our souls. Yet, in the end, Milo finds success and happiness; just as in life when good things happen to bad people, or people less-deserving. Barry Smith really shows us Milo, who he is, in only 256 pages. A fascinating read that makes you laugh and think! I say, a wonderful combination! Thanks to Nicole, again, for letting me be apart of the Only Milo book blog tour and giving me the chance to read such a fun and thought-provoking book!

Outstanding Metafiction

This is one marvelous book. Be warned: a highly addictive reading experience awaits all those who open these pages. Very funny, very exciting.

A Great and Easy Read

I am mostly a non-fiction reader, but this book was a real page-turner for me (which is rare). I've never read a novel before where I found myself trying to predict where things were going to lead, but I sure did a lot of that in this book. It's a quick and easy read, but still very satisfying. The writing style is very unique and at first I thought it was a bit quirky, but it didn't take me long to get into the flow of the book. I've never had the experience of reading a book and thinking at its conclusion that this would make a great movie. This one would. I'd be more of a fiction reader, if more novels were like this. Excellent book, and I hope there are more where this came from. (In the spirit of full disclosure, the author and I crossed paths many years ago as new professors. In fact, we had a common goal of wanting to become a fiction writer--Barry has grandly succeeded with this effort. I, on the other hand, well we don't need to go there.... Suffice it to say that I am both envious of and happy for his success.)

Fast-paced with snake-like twists at every turn

New Yorker Milo is a retiree whose stacks of novels have stayed buried in his closet for decades. Though he's a prolific novelist who devotes much of his time to the craft, he has nothing to show for it -- beyond the prerequisite stacks of rejection letters from agents and publishers. When authors finally make it big, these rejections are worn like badges of honor -- they're the giant, "HA -- see what you missed out on there, buddy boy?!" of the literary world. But until a struggling writer reaches that pinnacle, he or she is just... a struggling writer. And you know? Milo's tired of it. He's tired of the struggling, day in and out. So when a chance encounter with Margaret, a dynamic young publisher, brings the literary fame that much closer to his grasp, he pounces on the opportunity. Of course, pairing up with Margaret also means pairing up with Jose Calderon, her "gem in the rough." Jose, a young man who has been writing mediocre books in Mexico, has been picked up by Margaret's company for release rights in the U.S. The only issue? The books are all in Spanish. And how convenient that Milo can actually "translate" them for the company... With one decision, Milo sets off a chain of events that would make a "CSI" or "Dexter" fan flip the pages incessantly. Told in very short, numbered chapters -- usually only a page or two apiece -- Milo takes us through the ups of subterfuge and sudden literary stardom before catapulting us back down into the lows after he loses everything. It's impossible to really talk about the plot without giving anything away, so I'll keep it at that! I'm a nervous reader. If I have an inkling that something bad is about to befall a character, I'm going to flip furiously through the book until I reach that moment of no return. I can't amble along, feigning obliviousness, when I know a shoe is about to drop. But trying to do that with ONLY MILO? Impossible. Of course I knew this was a darkly humorous thriller about life in the literary world, but I couldn't have possibly predicted all the snake-like twists the story would take. Quite simply, it's impossible to figure out what's going to happen. I'm not a fan of crime shows -- I'll take back-to-back episodes of "Ugly Betty" over "CSI" any time -- but I still enjoyed the book for its supremely fast-paced, punchy writing style and short chapters. When reading, it all feels fluid -- quick, like water running from a tap. While there is a sustained level of violence in the novel, it's not overly gory or sick. Milo himself is a completely dead-pan, sarcastic and, ultimately, sympathetic narrator -- and despite everything, I still found myself hoping he'd eventually find peace and success in his own right. ONLY MILO is definitely a one-of-a-kind read; stylistically, I've never read another novel like it. Even the book's typeface is unique -- like an antique typewriter. Aspiring writers will grin a little at the chaos and injustice of it all, too, and fans of crime dramas will