His new novel is full of haunting images: the stagnant puddles on the faded tiles of a once-grand, now ruined Roman villa; a wounded bat found in a cave, a hole through its ribs "as though someone had taken a bite from a crisp apple", to the recurring figure of the boatman who bookends this weird, compelling tale.
Even if the sport just ain't your thing, my plan is to write about all the weird, compelling, and controversial things that happen in the world of MMA, and I can assure you that there is no shortage of such stories.
It's a microcosm of this whole fascinating, weird, flawed, compelling, artificial, authentic, divisive experience.
It's weird but compelling viewing.
But full of weird, wacky and compelling tales off the field, as well as raw, back-to-basics and often spectacular rugby on it.
It's your last chance at theNorthcott in Exeter for Footsbarn's Indian Tempest, but Exeter's hidden gem is the Bike Shed which plays host to the weird, but weirdly compelling Botallack O'Clock about the artist, Roger Hilton.
"We're doing fantastic business with Barbie," said Stephanie Solomon, the fashion director of Bloomingdale's, where a promotion celebrates the 50th anniversary of Barbie (real name: Barbara Millicent Roberts), the weird and enduringly compelling "fashion" doll based on a "working girl" toy developed in postwar Germany.
Their famously weird lenses produce compelling pictures, and the LC-A+ body is actually capable of doing some ASA and focus adjustments, unlike pretty much every instant camera ever.
I was also interested to hear that it is a "weird book, but oddly compelling".
To those who don't, it can seem profoundly weird, yet endearing -- compelling evidence of the things people will do for the love of their dogs.
The effect, at first, is unnerving; as About Time marches on, Gleeson's innate charm gleams through and this weird disconnection becomes quite compelling.
