9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
No superfluous topping needed!!!, May 27, 2003
A few comments about the author:
In my opinion, university English, Psychology and Sociology departments should begin implementing new curricula as soon as possible that offer entire courses on Joey Goebel and his writing. His insights, philosophies and means of expressing them are disturbingly profound, poignant and authentic. I liken him to a 21st century Shakespeare - a prophet with an astute command of so many facets of the language and what seems like a direct feed into the minds of the masses as well as the anomalous minority. As a long-standing devotee to J.D. Salinger, it comes heavy with the weight of praise that I say this young genius has written, in my opinion, the greatest novel since The Catcher in the Rye. But to simply list him along side Salinger is not nearly praise enough. Goebel has the spirit of Tom Robbins, only spicier and even more unsettling, wrapped in the puff pastry of Hunter S. Thompson's ingenious inventiveness all basted together with a better understanding of the human condition than John Steinbeck, Harper Lee, Toni Morrison or Alice Walker, and the uncanny ability to make it all so spoon-feedably delicious for the Coca-Cola canaille. In 22 years, he seems to have gleaned a knowledge of life that is centuries old.
A few comments about The Anomalies:
In simply naming the characters, Goebel writes more of a novel than many I have read. I pray the symbolism does not go unnoticed by his audience. Five distinctly separate voices tell the story of the simmering `power-pop new wave heavy metal punk rock band that rocks to the fifth power impossibly.' Aurora: the dawn, the light at daybreak and also the unfathomably beautiful Northern Lights - a multitude of electrically charged particles emanating form the sun, colliding with various particles in the air, creating the ever lovely, ever changing, ever elusive Aurora. Ember: a tiny glowing chunk of beauty, until you get too close, then you can feel the burn (or Ember venom), capable of and prone to starting new fires. Opal: the stone that shimmers with rainbow colors, never set in one specific pattern - amorphous, incandescent and translucent. Ray: emitted from a beacon far away, the light of the American dream -Ray, a red-blooded American name for an Iraqi ex-soldier more in love with Americans and the Red, White and Blue than any of us who were born here; allegiant to a country for letting him indulge in Frappuccinos and halter tops. And finally, Luster: the fifth sparkling symbol in the pentaband, representing the lustrous glow of all things shiny as well as an insatiable lust for a better life, a better way, a better venue for his music.
Aptly naming the characters was merely the flaky piecrust covering to the deeply cherry filling of The Anomalies. Goebel, being an anomaly in his own right has `just enough love to devote a damn to the stereotypical commoners collectively representing the antagonists' and, if the reader is paying attention, takes each of his audience members' hands and walks them down a `pig-tailed path' which he has beautifully lined on both sides with allegories, metaphors, wit, irony and personality. Bravo!
One final thought. Joey Goebel's ability to weave words and thoughts and ideas into and over and under and around one another is spectacular. From the first sentence to the last notion he manages to create an interconnectedness of every expression with every word with every locution with every phrase that ties the plot so completely in proper knots, there are no holes there to find. This weaving of words might mistakenly be perceived as foreshadowing by some, but I personally feel to call it that is like calling tuberculoses a little cough. I simply do not know what I would call it except prodigious or some other exclamatory adjective. Never in my years and years of voracious reading have I been privy to language so pregnant with color and cognizance, so crowded with the gorgeousness of anomalous behavior and so simply and utterly delicious. If there were ten stars to give, I'd find an eleventh.
There is something to learn from Joey Goebel in The Anomalies for everyone who lives and breathes. Read it. Really read it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An involving, wonderfully written and somewhat quirky tale, September 15, 2003
The Anomalies by Joey Goebel is a catchy novel about five odd nonconformists who come together to make rock music in a humdrum, conformity-driven nook of the Midwest. A ghetto dweller with dreams of stardom, a sex-crazed eighty-year-old, an eight-year-old who hates the entire world, an Iraqi who loves Americans even though he fought them in the Gulf War, and a high-minded Satan-worshiping young woman, form a bizarre yet tensile bond that takes them on a quest to tour the world, sharing both their dreams and their music. The Anomalies is recommended as an original, involving, wonderfully written and somewhat quirky tale.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Like Chuck Norris on a tilt-a-whirl, September 2, 2004
Joey Goebel's first novel, "The Anomalies", has an energy and intelligence that is rarely seen in debut fiction. Each unique character created by Goebel has their own interesting traits and are just plain fun to read about, while a social critique also winds its way through the pages. It is no easy task to create memorable and fun characters while tackling social issues, but Goebel pulls it off almost seamlessly.
I am looking forward to his next novel, "Torture the Artist", where I am certain he has honed his craft even more.
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