Richie's Picks: GOING BOVINE by Libba Bray, Delacorte, September 2009,
496p., ISBN: 978-0-385-73397-7
"...Remember then, that summer birds with wings of fire flaying
Come to witness springs new hope, born of leaves decaying.
And as new life will come from death,
Love will come at leisure.
Love of love, love of life
and giving without measure,
Gives in return a wondrous yearn
For promise almost seen..."
--Graeme Edge -- "The Dream"
"'You people slay me,' she says with a laugh, and there's an edge to it.
'Always worrying, "What will happen? What's next?" Always everywhere but
where you actually are. You just don't get it.'
"'Get what?'
"'Here. Now. This.' She gestures wide, turns around. 'This is it,
cowboy. The whole ride. Pay attention.'"
I am not going to pretend that I understand everything I read over the
past four days and five hundred pages of GOING BOVINE by Libba Bray. No way.
But from the first page of this profoundly funny and heartbreaking tale of
a teenager on a road trip to save the world and his own life, I found
myself quite content -- and extremely grateful for the opportunity -- to just
buckle myself in and enjoy the wild ride.
"As a kid, I imagined lots of different scenarios for my life. I would be
an astronaut. Maybe a cartoonist. A famous explorer or rock star. Never
once did I see myself standing under the window of a house belonging to
some druggie named Carbine, waiting for his yard gnome to steal his stash so
I could get a cab back to a cheap motel where my friend, a neurotic,
death-obsessed dwarf, was waiting for me so we could get on the road to an
undefined place and a mysterious Dr. X, who would cure me of mad cow disease and
stop a band of dark energy from destroying the universe."
Sixteen year-old high school student Cameron Smith is a float-along stoner
living in the shadow of his smart and popular twin sister. He experiences
a series of strange, psychotic-like episodes that have him wondering
whether he's been toking on some seriously toxic weed. Instead, it turns out
that he has contracted Creutzzfeldt Jacob varient Bovine Spongiform
Encephalpathy -- the human form of Mad Cow Disease -- and that his brain is in the
process of disintegrating. Meanwhile, he has been finding messages left on
feathers that are too big to be from any bird. It turns out they are
coming from a punk rock angel with a sweet tooth named Dulcie. It is Dulcie
who sends the ailing Cameron on the quest that will take him and Gonzo from
Texas to Florida.
"THERE IS NO MAD TOFU DISEASE"
-- teeshirt sold by the peace and justice organization, Syracuse Cultural
Workers
GOING BOVINE is the second book I've read in the past month that alludes
to Don Quixote. Unfortunately, it was the Spanish language version of
Cervantes that I read thirty-seven years ago (as part of a high school total
immersion program), and I didn't grasp much of the reading or discussions
(also in Spanish) even back then when I actually had substantive memories of
the experience. On top of that, I studied Earth science rather than physics
as a senior, so I also don't really grasp much of the time and space stuff
going on here.
But that just doesn't affect my enjoyment of Cameron's story. What I do
know is that when all those multitudes of kids who have loved Percy Jackson
get into high school, a whole lot of them are going to be absolutely blown
away by this complex, heart-tugging coming...err..dying of age journey.
Furthermore, with the manner in which Bray deftly shreds the insipid genre
of reality television and other contemporary cultural targets, it also
reminds me of the slashing social commentary of FEED. Then there is plenty
on the ride that has me recalling the anarchic zaniness and chaos of the
Firesign Theater. And I have a small personal connection with Cameron's
life-altering childhood experience at Disney World, being that at the New York
World's Fair in 1964, I got to go on the original It's A Small World After
All ride (after learning and singing the song at school).
Nor will I ever be able to look at a lawn gnome the same way again after
getting to know and love the one that Cameron and Gonzo rescue along the
way. That gnome turns out to actually be the Viking god Balder, who had been
cursed by the trickster Loki and trapped for ages -- as the butt of pranks
and target of male dogs -- until Cameron comes along.
"Five minutes after I've helped him in, the gnome appears at the window
again, a big wad of crumpled bills in his hand. 'I'm afraid I'm a bit rusty
yet. Grab my legs!' he whispered. I pull him back to safety and he
presses the bills into my hand. 'I took the whole of it, three thousand dollars,
just to be sure.'
"'Whoa.' I can't stop staring at all that green.
"'Quickly,' Balder admonishes.
"I shove the bills deep into my pockets. 'I feel kind of bad taking this.'
"'Don't,' the gnome says. He wobbles on shaky legs toward the yard. 'His
wealth is ill-gotten. And once he dressed me as a "Hootchie Mama" and
posted Internet pictures on a fetish site called Naughty Gnomes. I cannot
adequately convey the trauma of it.'"
"Now you know that you are real..."
-- Mike Pinder
GOING BOVINE is one heck of a long, strange trip that I am so happy I
undertook. There is just so much here about love and life and what is real; I
look forward to going back for a reread; it would be great fun to have
someone with whom to share the experience.
Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks _http://richiespicks.com_ (http://richiespicks.com/)
_http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks_
(http://www.librarything.com/profile/richiespicks)
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
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FTC NOTICE: Richie receives free books from lots of publishers who hope he
will Pick their books. You can figure that any review was written after
reading and dog-earring a free copy received. Richie retains these review
copies for his rereading pleasure and for use in his booktalks at schools
and libraries.
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