Pineapple O'Riley's! (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798201710750)

Pineapple O'Riley's! is a convalescent, down-the-rabbit-hole look into the life of protagonist and narrator Nick -a neurotic, sexually-repressed bachelor working in a themed family restaurant that juxtaposes Hawaiian cuisine with traditional Irish pub fare in a cacophonous and fantastical fusion. The action follows Nick's declining mental state as he searches for love as a sycophant waiter lodged helplessly in his 30's, struggling to endear himself to the autonomous and enigmatic Maggy -a fellow waiter/waitress who is his equal as an oddity and social outcast.

Already suffering the isolating and depressive affects of CTE from years of rugby and boxing injuries, Nick suffers a concussion when he's struck by a wayward food tray during a busy dinner shift. The head trauma that he suffers triggers a schizoid episode during which a pornography actress supernaturally intervenes into his life and instructs him to recapture his past by revisiting his childhood growing up among the neon decay of Tourist Town.

Pineapple O'Riley's is a darkly aimed satire of the food industry and of the hyper-capitalist world in which it is set -at its centre is the contestation of corporate trend's power to commoditize culture and cuisine, as well as to shape our understanding of dating and sex.