Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Flushed: The Meantime Stories, No. 1 is a humorous short story written by Svingen and Pedersen. He had always been rather circumspect with regard to bodily functions. It had started, he would guess, when his sister had made a big deal out of entering a bathroom after he had used it. Now, he was really only comfortable using his own toilet in his own home. He had gotten quite adept at constraining nature’s course when at events and such, but this current trip had already been five days out, and finally nature won the battle. While rendered very uncomfortable by the strange surroundings and the fact that world leaders were assembled just on the other side of the door, he couldn’t help but gaze with both satisfaction and awe at the one he had just squeezed out. He even took a few photos with his smart phone; after all, he was the best at just about everything, including, it seemed, mammoth and perfectly formed excrement. The situation quickly went from giddy relief to outright panic, however, when he tried to flush away the evidence. Failing the first time, he gamely flushed once more with predictably awful results. What could he do now? How to resolve it? He could fix it. With his impressive IQ and problem-solving skills, he could easily fix this.

Svingen and Pedersen’s wry and humorous short story, Flushed: The Meantime Stories, No. 1, takes the secret dread every visitor feels on discovering that their host’s toilet won’t flush and turns it into an entertaining look at how a self-important, impetuous and entitled political leader might attempt to salvage his dignity and honor while safely disposing of his poo in another bathroom. Flushed is a prime example of dark humor, of the grotesque, as the reader both laughs at the idiocy and toilet humor while fearing all the while just what will happen to the country and the world in the meantime. The authors’ writing is skillful and seductively smooth, and I found I was unable to stop reading this absurd and awfully seductive tale of power, politics and poo. Some readers may be offended by the scatological subject matter, and others may feel that the authors tread a little too closely to current politics and political leaders. The rest of us will, no doubt, be both entertained by the absurdity and troubled by the reality of our situation. I know I fell in the latter category. That said, I enjoyed some robust laughter as I read this brilliant little story and am looking forward to more stories from these authors. Flushed: The Meantime Stories, No. 1 is most highly recommended.