An ambitious, quick satire that offers a mixed bag of the cynical and the odd.
Myers (Coyote, 2012) offers a satirical novel about one lawyer’s quest through a bizarre Midwestern world.
When readers first meet Lucien Carr, he’s outside the National Iowa Registration Entry Facility, running late for an appointment. He’s a small-claims lawyer from Indianapolis who’s seeking to deliver a legal document in Iowa City. Although such a mission seems simple enough, the book takes place in a most “odd and desperate time” in America. Not only is travel to Iowa City a measure that requires getting “an official transport” and various documents, as well as dealing with layers of bureaucracy, it also requires a strange sort of currency: corn kernels. Lucien is able to pay for his passage through Iowa with one such kernel, given to him by a man running for president. Things seem to be going in Lucien’s favor, until they inevitably don’t, but he does his best to navigate an ensuing adventure that’s every bit as odd and desperate as it appears on the surface. Indeed, making sense of the saga requires close reading, as it’s populated by odd people (such as a so-called “Chiron figure” named Porter) and contains such revelations as the fact that Lucien is related to the “Very famous” writer Kurt Vonnegut. Still, some details of this satire have clear counterparts in the real world, including numerous refugees and a hologram named Dick Chaney who’s an interrogation expert. In the tradition of Joseph Heller’s Catch-22, Myers mocks authority and has his characters deal with fantastical circumstances in a serious manner. Some readers may find the mockery a little heavy-handed at times, though; for example, at one point, Chaney states “exactly why [Lucien] hates these United States of America from the bottom of his wicked heart.” Others, though, are likely to double over in laughter at such references as “the little known John Phillip Sousa opera I’m White, So Don’t Make Me Red, Cause I’d be Blue.” The story moves rapidly to an ending that’s every bit as strange as its beginning.
An ambitious, quick satire that offers a mixed bag of the cynical and the odd.Pub Date: Feb. 27, 2016
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: 335
Publisher: Coyote Press
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2016
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.
Are we not men? We are—well, ask Bigfoot, as Brooks does in this delightful yarn, following on his bestseller World War Z(2006).
A zombie apocalypse is one thing. A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people.” Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival. Indeed, the novel does double duty as a survival manual, packed full of good advice—for instance, try not to get wounded, for “injury turns you from a giver to a taker. Taking up our resources, our time to care for you.” Brooks presents a case for making room for Bigfoot in the world while peppering his narrative with timely social criticism about bad behavior on the human side of the conflict: The explosion of Rainier might have been better forecast had the president not slashed the budget of the U.S. Geological Survey, leading to “immediate suspension of the National Volcano Early Warning System,” and there’s always someone around looking to monetize the natural disaster and the sasquatch-y onslaught that follows. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs.” Grossness aside, it puts you right there on the scene.
A tasty, if not always tasteful, tale of supernatural mayhem that fans of King and Crichton alike will enjoy.Pub Date: June 16, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-2678-7
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Del Rey/Ballantine
Review Posted Online: Feb. 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2020
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with...
Talk-show queen takes tumble as millions jeer.
Nora Bridges is a wildly popular radio spokesperson for family-first virtues, but her loyal listeners don't know that she walked out on her husband and teenaged daughters years ago and didn't look back. Now that a former lover has sold racy pix of naked Nora and horny himself to a national tabloid, her estranged daughter Ruby, an unsuccessful stand-up comic in Los Angeles, has been approached to pen a tell-all. Greedy for the fat fee she's been promised, Ruby agrees and heads for the San Juan Islands, eager to get reacquainted with the mom she plans to betray. Once in the family homestead, nasty Ruby alternately sulks and glares at her mother, who is temporarily wheelchair-bound as a result of a post-scandal car crash. Uncaring, Ruby begins writing her side of the story when she's not strolling on the beach with former sweetheart Dean Sloan, the son of wealthy socialites who basically ignored him and his gay brother Eric. Eric, now dying of cancer and also in a wheelchair, has returned to the island. This dismal threesome catch up on old times, recalling their childhood idylls on the island. After Ruby's perfect big sister Caroline shows up, there's another round of heartfelt talk. Nora gradually reveals the truth about her unloving husband and her late father's alcoholism, which led her to seek the approval of others at the cost of her own peace of mind. And so on. Ruby is aghast to discover that she doesn't know everything after all, but Dean offers her subdued comfort. Happy endings await almost everyone—except for readers of this nobly preachy snifflefest.
The best-selling author of tearjerkers like Angel Falls (2000) serves up yet another mountain of mush, topped off with syrupy platitudes about life and love.Pub Date: March 1, 2001
ISBN: 0-609-60737-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2001
© Copyright 2026 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
