SEPTEMBER 2010 ONLINE EDITORIALS
Bottoms Up: Hilarious tales of adventure from outdoor writer M. John Fayhee
By Molly McCowan
M. John Fayhee, editor of and contributor to The Mountain Gazette, a quirky and unabashedly left-leaning magazine devoted to life and activities in the Colorado high country, has recently released a collection of his favorite stories from the Gazette, entitled Bottoms Up.
As the name implies, Bottoms Up exudes an energy only enhanced by the partaking of a few strong drinks. Fayhee is sardonic, witty, and not afraid to push the limits of classic sentence structure. He tells the kind of stories that people steal; the kind of stories that draw together a crowd at the local pub; the kind of stories that still leave you chuckling days after reading them.
This is storytelling at its finest: humorous yet sincere, off-color and off-kilter, entertaining yet almost always delving into a deeper truth beneath the dusty layers. Best of all, these are the kinds of truths that can only come out of years of (the absolute slightest) exaggerations, as Fayhee writes in his introduction:
“With a ‘story’ there is less concern about conveying accurate information and more concern with a combined effort at edification, enlightenment, and yes, entertainment. If a few facts get lost or ignored or misrepresented or taken out of context or mis-remembered in the telling, who cares?”
Bottoms Up leads us on a winding road of odd tales and eclectic yarns, from the hilarious way Fayhee lost his virginity (in the Kentucky river), to a rock-climbing mishap that involves a friend dropping a Clif bar on Jon Krakauer’s head, to “Things in Jars,” which chronicles the strange (and disgusting) assortments of pickled foods often found on the back shelves of grimy taverns and bars. Here is an excerpt from “Things in Jars”:
“The Barfly Code clearly stipulates that, while it’s OK to ingress a watering hole at 9am, and it’s even OK to be the only one in the sitting hour after hour in the bar, even as the rest of the world is outside working, playing, or otherwise being perplexingly productive, under no circumstances should you look around. Any bar worth being in was never meant to undergo the scrutiny of daylight…If you do not heed this advice, then you should not be surprised or repulsed by anything, unless it resides in the depths of your own soul.”
Fayhee’s stories take us through a myriad of landscapes, introduce us to more than a handful of unforgettable characters, and teach us the ways of the roads less traveled. His stories effortlessly transition from explaining the boundless hatred Fayhee feels for fake cheese (goldfish snacks beware) to talking about the ins-and-outs of the outdoor adventurer’s dating world.
Bottoms Up is heartwarming and inquisitive, philosophical and hilarious. It is, quite simply, a great read from a seasoned writer who knows how to spin a good yarn. Don’t miss out on it.