FLYLAND
Charles Putris-Sirtup
312 pages · 2025
Ostensibly translated from the original fly text by debut author Sirtup, this four-volume book is a satiric pun fest featuring flies as the heroes. Who knew? Flies are not only sentient but literate and have been for eons. Fecal the Fly comes from royalty. His grandfather, the Great Fly, is a randy oaf and one of the rulers of Flyland. His father, Imago, disappeared after the assassination of Great-Grandfather Vloid Da Kine and Mother Fecaletta. Imago now roams the earth as a fly holy man known as Phat the Bodi. Against an absurd backdrop replete with Machiavellian intrigue, murder and sex, Fecal, who doubts the existence of God (Gad), leaves home to find his father and himself. At first blush, it's astonishing that anyone would go to such lengths — more than 600 pages filled with illustrations; glossaries; diagrams; scientific, cultural and literary allusions; an epilogue, afterword, and 100 quatrains comprising a second book of fly wisdom — to write a purposefully goofy story about insects. Once readers get beyond reading about excrement-eating, vomit-loving vermin who defecate in the food of people (known as monsters), however, they begin to appreciate this brilliantly executed tale. Sirtup remarkably succeeds in making these creatures genuine, sympathetic personalities. Pursued by the Four Horseflies of the Apocalypse, Fecal manages to trick them into a spider's web. He also falls in love, an act abhorrent to flies. Readers who thrive on satire, allusion, irreverence, puns and all-around nonsense rolled into a well-told tale with serious underpinnings will relish this sturdy tome.
