The Poverty of Good Portions is a curious book. On its face, it’s a collection of short fiction stories showcasing some struggles of modern young adults, utilizing themes of bullying, pornography, unrequited love, toxic relationships, drug use, violence, and obsessive-compulsive behavior, with an exclusive focus on a male point of view.

What lies beneath the surface is a symbolic arc of psychological development, the burning evolution of a particular type of masculine character that could be described as a kind of Hades archetype. Hades, holding no position of honor in the Pantheon, and though powerful in his own right, is isolated and charged to rule over hell, and is powerless to keep his spouse at home, ultimately coming to represent the immature, undeveloped, and sadly insignificant among us. This is the nature of Allyn’s protagonists, and from the first story to the last, sandwiched in acts of violence, despite no repeat characters, we can detect the evolution of a single degraded and degenerate psyche.

With this is mind, the question to be asked is whether these stories are meant to evoke empathy, pity, disgust, or perhaps even serve as a warning to young men about the pitfalls of the given situations? Perhaps a mix of these responses is the point, but whatever the intended takeaway, The Poverty of Good Portions delivers an intensity of psychological explorations that, to the trained eye, draw clear influences from Nietzsche and Dostoevsky among others, but with a uniquely grounded approach that makes the content much more accessible to the common reader.

Further, Allyn’s stories have generated positive responses from both male and female readers, indicating that the stories resonate to something deeper than just the surface level angry young man trope, likely due in part to the relatable themes and the engaging storytelling approach, but also the inclusion of twists or surprises in each story, giving a spark of unpredictability to the narratives that challenge what we would otherwise expect from such stories.

This is the first published work of J. Friedrich Allyn and is not for the faint of heart. In fact, included within the prose is a sense of rebellion against modern social mores, in particular the first story A Most Unlucky Sailor with takes the language and banter of bullying right up the line of cringe without fully crossing it, while still employing lines and phrases that would earn a suspension from most social media platforms. Read at your own risk.