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Rimbaud said, “I is an other.” Not long after that, he was selling GUNS. Contra Rimbaud, I, No Other admits only I. In the hallowed “tradition” of the avant-garde, these stories unseat tradition. You may call them absurd, surreal, irreal, experimental, transgressive, dark, playful, or even just funny… but DON’T call them Other!

Ten offbeat Narrations & Exaltations for your delectation:

—a flâneur of consciousness exploring his native city,

—a not-guilty conscience endlessly revising the crime it can’t remember,

—the Holy Assumption of a rogue sexbot,

—a man and his golem usurping Death,

—a timid college girl coming out of her shell to expropriate the Godhead,

—and more!

I, No Other is a cerebral defibrillator you forgot had been implanted until it routinely—and unexpectedly—shocks you back to life. They may hurt at times, dear reader, the jolts of these agitations, but it is a vital hurt. With a cast of narrators on the brink of discovery in all its forms, I, No Other collects Yarrow Paisley’s most exquisite absurdist interludes.

(Nota bene for trigger-sensitive peeps: contains graphic imagery, sexual situations, and broken taboos.)

“Lewd, lascivious, lovely; surreal, strange, sinister. The prose adrip with the lusty syrups of paranoia. To be read by candlelight in a velvety boudoir in which you are about to be forcibly deflowered by the ghost of a distinguished Russian-American entomologist.”
—Jason Kane, author of Deep Sky Objects

“Paisley’s voice reshapes your skull as you read his work. That voice is formal, alluring, unmoored. The author scoffs at political correctness while shining a laser beam on sexuality, cultural norms, and societal hypocrisy. Warning: be prepared to be triggered. Or to laugh out loud.”
—Virginia Aronson, author of J’Adoube (I Adjust): Stories

Relevant Publicity

“Man of Letters”. An insightful and incisive article from The Take Magazine, a now defunct local publication. Nathan Frontiero, the author of the article, very generously sat with me for several hours discussing Literature and I, No Other.

Critical Acclaim

“The title of this collection of short, sharp fictions from Paisley (author of Divine In Essence) comes from a famous remark, given in an epigraph, of Rimbaud, and much of Paisley’s work shares a spirit of aggressive transgression with that Symbolist firebrand. Paisley’s stories pointedly share but a slight acquaintance with the real world, instead unfolding in an existence that’s much stranger and less reliable than ours—even as its deeper anxieties prove wrenchingly familiar. […] Paisley’s pyrotechnic, precise style unites his elaborately strange plots, with a careful attention to rhythm and sound grounding even his most far-flung or baffling excursions. His work can be wildly abstract, obscene, and absurd, but it always retains an internal coherence and lexical lustiness that should delight adventurous readers, particularly fans of bold post-modern greats.”
—BookLife by Publisher’s Weekly, Editor’s Pick

“The surprising, alluring short stories of I, No Other subvert conventional expectations in both subject matter and narrative format. Innovative and provocative […] short stories linked by transgressive sexuality and absurdist violence.”
—Carolyn Wilson-Scott, Foreword Clarion Reviews, ★★★★

“The prose is rich yet precise, immersive yet disorienting, drawing readers into a world as unstable as their own reflections. Paisley’s characters wrestle with the weight of existence, their longings and reckonings raw and deeply human.”
— BookView Review, ★★★★★

“This is not a book for casual consumption; it demands full immersion, a willingness to be unmoored, and an appreciation for the absurd. At its heart, it wrestles with the fluidity of identity, the instability of memory, and the porous boundaries between reality and dream. The fingerprints of literary modernism are all over it, Rimbaud’s fractured self, Beckett’s black humor, Burroughs’ fevered hallucinations, all pulsing beneath its surface. For those drawn to the outer limits of language and thought, Paisley’s work is an intoxicating, disorienting plunge. Readers seeking conventional structure may find themselves adrift, but perhaps that is the point. This is not a book to be neatly understood; it is a book to be felt, wrestled with, and ultimately absorbed. A stunner.”
—The Prairies Book Review

“If Shakespeare’s eloquence could be tossed into a blender with George Carlin’s polarity, it would only scratch the surface of this anthology. The writing is rich and versatile with each story featuring a unique tone, texture, voice, and mood. […] Love the book or hate it, readers will not emerge unscathed as they take in the uncomfortable themes that darken human nature. Mainstream sensibilities are far from ready to embrace the hedonism and artistry showcased in I, No Other.”
—R.C. Gibson, Indies Today, ★★★★

“A disturbing but entrancing collection of stories. The prose is meticulously stylized from start to finish with painstakingly chosen language, wry slaps of wit, and a deranged energy behind much of the writing. The deviant edge of some stories is reminiscent of William S. Burroughs, while others boast the sinister mania of Edgar Allan Poe, or the coarse profundity of Bukowski. For those readers who enjoy every type of challenge—to their senses, sensibilities, taste, and morality—this collection offers no end of intense taboo corners to explore.”
—SPR Review, ★★★★

“In the grand tradition of experimental fabulists like Donald Barthelme and Ben Marcus, Yarrow Paisley’s audacious story collection I, No Other gathers ten deliriously unhinged tales that plumb the depths of the psyche’s more disordered precincts. Employing an exuberantly baroque prose style shot through with seams of mordant wit, Paisley conducts an unsettling exploration of themes encompassing identity’s mutability, the tyranny of libido, and the fundamental unreliability of language as a medium for conveying stable meaning.”
—Edward Sung, IndieReader, ★★★★½ (IR Approved)

“This is a book that will haunt readers long after they’ve turned the final page, its images and ideas continuing to unsettle and provoke with each reading much like Joyce’s Finnegans Wake. In an era when much literary fiction feels safe and predictable, I, No Other stands out as a bold experiment in what narrative can achieve.”
—Maria Ashford, BookShelfie, ★★★★½