The Bleeding Man, by Craig Strete

This is one I have read before, and was glad to read again.  It's Strete's most famous story, I believe, now collected in If All Else Fails.  Strete's images and ideas are extroardinary, which is a good thing as his characters tend to cardboard, other than the mystical ones.  This story is the best example, a completely inexplicable man, bleeding continuously at a rate no one could sustain.  Very simply described and told, yet complete.  The characters' reaction is revulsion, yet the way Strete describes him is not overly horrific.  Mostly it's the simplicity, the lack of over-the-top adjectives and creepy tension.  It's a man in an institution. 

Read this for a thoughtful horror fix, it's a good surrealism example.  3 stars.

Time Deer, by Craig Strete

Craig Strete is a fine author from the intersection of Native American and stoner culture, with lots of deeply surreal work to his name.  The collection this story is in, If All Else Fails, has an introduction by Jose Luis Borges, no less.  This story is just a little taste, there is a better example coming, but Time Deer is representative.  Nominally about an old man being committed, it wanders in to explore what Native American life ending would be like, as his mind wanders away.  It's short, so painted in stark caricature, but indicative nonetheless.  The collection is worth checking out.