"Some stories are less Borges and more Stephen Crane (author of The Red Badge of Courage): bleak, violent. Like "Lightning Love," narrated by a wife whose husband changes into something (the twist at the end is brilliant). Others are political fables, like "Santa Claus and Madam Secretary," which makes Havel's proclivities as clear as the image on a 98-inch TV. The Odd and The Strange is quite an accomplishment: unusual, provocative, and honest. Mixing the fabulism of Jorge Luis Borges with the bleakness of Stephen Crane, the tales contained in Harvey Havel's The Odd and The Strange draw the reader into a world they won't soon forget." ——- IndieReader