Post by Vaughan on Sept 28, 2009 14:54:43 GMT
Incongruous.
Yes, that's the word I'd use to describe this one.
This novel seemed to me to be a mix and match of the the weirdest elements, both for the story being told and more especially for Guy N. Smith himself. It's weird, and wonderful.
And incongruous.
Let me explain (I expect there are fans - even big fans - of this book here, and I want to make myself completely clear.)
The book opens with cowboys and Indians. The wild west. The frontier days. The Cavalry. Yes - GNS is up for some bow and arrow action - tipi's, totem poles, river bed action and circles of wagons, all that stuff. Incongruity number 1. GNS writing a western?
Hard done by, a squaw is raped and generally downtrodden. Cursed and cursing.
Next.
England. A place I thought of a Southend-on-Sea, because it's always bloody raining. A fair ground with stereotypical crooks everywhere. And motor bike gangs. Not only motor bike gangs - but THE motor bike gang. Hells Angels.
Big Dipper, throwing rings into nails, air guns to shoot metal ducks, lions, apes, an elephant, candy floss. And an Indian. In Southend (or wherever you fancy the place is). A Squaw. A squaw named Jane. Jane.
Incongruity number 2.
Our central cast: Roy, Liz, and Rowena.
You're going to spend a lot of time with these three, and you're not likely to meet a more dissatisfying group for quite some time. Roy is a wimp. Liz is a bitch. Rowena is deaf and dislikes her mother.
They mope, they moan, and they have no control whatsoever over their child. They're holidaying in a hotel that is run by left-overs from the Second World War (or so it seems). If only it'd been Basil Fawlty's place we might have had more fun.
As the cover blurb states: Hell's fury breaks loose on a holiday weekend".
But it actually breaks loose over the ENTIRE WEEK.
Incongruity number 3.
And it rains. And it rains. It rains every day - all day - all the time. And apparently when it rains there is only one place to go, to the fair. Of course. So to the fair they go, they meet Jane. Liz gets angry, Rowena gets a free doll carved from wood, Roy gets an erection.
The Squaw doesn't mind Roy's erection at all.
Jane isn't just a fortune teller - she's a repair woman. She repairs things around the fair (there's quite a bit of this to do, since the bikers smash the place to bits). A handy-woman, no less.
Jane is raped by the bikers. She likes it. Heck - we're told - she even orgasmed.
Incongruity number 4.
From here hell's fury breaks loose. Jane is as much a victim as everyone else. Rowena is running the show. A man is kicked to death while swimming in the sea - by a doll a couple inches high (no, seriously). A woman is kicked to death in a cave - by the same doll.
And it rains and rains. It's miserable. People start dying. The police appear every now and again but the Keystone Cops would have had more luck with an investigation - I've seen Abbot and Costello figure out far larger mysteries.
So they close the fairground after murder number one? No. Two? No. Three? No.
There's an attempted rape on the Big Dipper. While it's moving. Going around, throwing people about. It doesn't work out (wonder why?)
Boats sink, machines fail, engines stall. It rains. Rains some more. The rain is followed by copious amounts of water falling from the sky - AKA: more bloody rain.
And the book cover - not the one shown above - lies. My cover has a carved Manitou doll, clearly in the wild west, an (apparently) naked woman in the background, arms aloft. Odd.
I think we can assume that I was left floundering by this one. There are so many odd elements thrown together. The fair ground, the story of native Americans, the carvings, the best Punch and Judy show ever, and rotten relationships thrown together in holidays none of them really wants.
Odd.
Frankly I didn't settle with it. Part of me is surprised I got through it. On the other hand it has some wonderful moments - and there's some pure pulp nonsense going on.
But it didn't feel GNS-thy. It felt disassociated, strange, and obtuse.
I liked it. I disliked it at the same time.
Going to need to read again some time. GNS caught me off guard. That can't be a bad thing.
And as for those incongruities.......