Swamp’s (The Gyre Mission: Journey to the *sshole of the World, 2012) comic and obscene cautionary tale pits the haves against the have-nots in a remarkably unpleasant future.
Having escaped the poverty of his childhood, claims adjuster Floyd Jasper is now gainfully employed by a large health insurance company. In a nightmarish near-future America suffering the ill effects of post–Citizens United election-buying, he has, because of his profession, become a supremely unpopular man. Just as 99 percent of the U.S. is poor, 99 percent of the insurance company’s claims are denied. The sick have three choices: pay in full, start a payment plan with 75 percent interest, or be executed. Floyd delights in the gruesome nature of the job: though he was born poor, he nevertheless considers these unfortunate souls to be nothing but vermin. Few things weigh heavily on his conscience as he murders, rapes women, and shoots annoying kids in the street. Nevertheless, he is a scathing and wry critic of the oppressive government, the delusional media, and the rich. His intense love for his brother is often on his mind, and a torrid affair with co-worker Gloria Estrella opens up a new dimension in his career and personal life. The mysterious death of his colleague Carl Winters as well as a fateful encounter with a 700-pound woman lead Floyd to believe he’s being stalked, so he goes on the run with Gloria. As he grows into an impromptu inspirational leader, the resulting battles make him question the motives of everyone around him. Swamp’s rollicking and witty prose makes the stomach-turning events somewhat easier to swallow. The narrative is solid, if wordy and long, casting Floyd as a deadpan antihero. Zany though informed, disgusting but relevant, the story offers insight into American class divisions and the general public’s feeling of powerlessness toward the government machine. Think American Psycho if it were written by Carl Hiaasen, plus characters from The Handmaid’s Tale on a lot of hard drugs. If Swamp had been more concise, his book could have taken flight a bit more easily.
Overlong but astonishing social commentary.
Pub Date: April 20, 2015
ISBN: 978-0-692-31601-6
Page Count: 446
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2015
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles...
Sisters in and out of love.
Meghann Dontess is a high-powered matrimonial lawyer in Seattle who prefers sex with strangers to emotional intimacy: a strategy bound to backfire sooner or later, warns her tough-talking shrink. It’s advice Meghann decides to ignore, along with the memories of her difficult childhood, neglectful mother, and younger sister. Though she managed to reunite Claire with Sam Cavenaugh (her father but not Meghann’s) when her mother abandoned both girls long ago, Meghann still feels guilty that her sister’s life doesn’t measure up, at least on her terms. Never married, Claire ekes out a living running a country campground with her dad and is raising her six-year-old daughter on her own. When she falls in love for the first time with an up-and-coming country musician, Meghann is appalled: Bobby Austin is a three-time loser at marriage—how on earth can Claire be so blind? Bobby’s blunt explanation doesn’t exactly satisfy the concerned big sister, who busies herself planning Claire’s dream wedding anyway. And, to relieve the stress, she beds various guys she picks up in bars, including Dr. Joe Wyatt, a neurosurgeon turned homeless drifter after the demise of his beloved wife Diane (whom he euthanized). When Claire’s awful headache turns out to be a kind of brain tumor known among neurologists as a “terminator,” Joe rallies. Turns out that Claire had befriended his wife on her deathbed, and now in turn he must try to save her. Is it too late? Will Meghann find true love at last?
Briskly written soap with down-to-earth types, mostly without the lachrymose contrivances of Hannah’s previous titles (Distant Shores, 2002, etc.). Kudos for skipping the snifflefest this time around.Pub Date: May 1, 2003
ISBN: 0-345-45073-6
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Ballantine
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2003
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.
Coelho is a Brazilian writer with four books to his credit. Following Diary of a Magus (1992—not reviewed) came this book, published in Brazil in 1988: it's an interdenominational, transcendental, inspirational fable—in other words, a bag of wind.
The story is about a youth empowered to follow his dream. Santiago is an Andalusian shepherd boy who learns through a dream of a treasure in the Egyptian pyramids. An old man, the king of Salem, the first of various spiritual guides, tells the boy that he has discovered his destiny: "to realize one's destiny is a person's only real obligation." So Santiago sells his sheep, sails to Tangier, is tricked out of his money, regains it through hard work, crosses the desert with a caravan, stops at an oasis long enough to fall in love, escapes from warring tribesmen by performing a miracle, reaches the pyramids, and eventually gets both the gold and the girl. Along the way he meets an Englishman who describes the Soul of the World; the desert woman Fatima, who teaches him the Language of the World; and an alchemist who says, "Listen to your heart" A message clings like ivy to every encounter; everyone, but everyone, has to put in their two cents' worth, from the crystal merchant to the camel driver ("concentrate always on the present, you'll be a happy man"). The absence of characterization and overall blandness suggest authorship by a committee of self-improvement pundits—a far cry from Saint- Exupery's The Little Prince: that flagship of the genre was a genuine charmer because it clearly derived from a quirky, individual sensibility.
Coelho's placebo has racked up impressive sales in Brazil and Europe. Americans should flock to it like gulls.Pub Date: July 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-06-250217-4
Page Count: 192
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1993
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
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