Chum [Hardcover]

Mark Spitzer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2001

An allegorical novel in the French literary tradition, and a compulsive page-turner.

Warning! Chum is a sex-obsessed, scatological, deeply offensive, violent, disturbed, grim, funny, and horrific allegory, peopled by predatory sailors, murderous seahags, disillusioned bargirls, one shipwrecked porn star, and a degenerate legion of mentally retrograde alcoholic hicks and inbred grotesques. Based on an unpublished film treatment by Celine, and rooted in the tradition of Rimbaud, Bataille and Genet, Chum is literary absinthe to satisfy the worldly, and scald the uninitiated.

"Chum is something that Kierkegaard, at his most suicidal moment, would feel right a home with." -Andrei Codrescu

Mark Spitzer is the translator and editor of The Collected Poems of George Bataille (Dufour Editions), and author of Bottom Feeder, a novel (Creative Arts). He has translated works by Celine, Genet, Rimbaud, Cendrars and others. He lives in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where is assistant editor for Exquisite Corpse.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Erstwhile porn star April Berger, shipwrecked on the Alaskan island of Lo, believes she has found a secret paradise: the land is cheap, the people seem nice and it beats L.A. for rural authenticity. What the heroine of this aggressively offbeat first novel doesn't know is that Lo is home to a crude, incestuous and downright nasty group of fishermen and their families. Comely, abused island native Nadine (in love with Yann, the best of the fishermen, but obsessed with April), Yann (in love with April's voluminous breasts, but obsessed with Nadine) and April form an uncomfortable love triangle, which ends, predictably, in an explosion of the violence permeating the book. French translator Spitzer's inspiration was an obscure film script by Louis-Ferdinand C?line, but C?line's dark, obscene and savagely humorous style is difficult to imitate; Spitzer resorts to raw depictions of dissolute, sadistic characters who turn to unnecessary murder, illicit sex and excessive vengeance to distract them from their misery. Writing to shock, he delights in detailed descriptions of raging libidos and uncensored violence, but the frisson he works to generate wears off early and fails to disguise the familiarity of the plot and characters. Spitzer's unfocused, intermittently inspired satirical voice outshines his material and goes far toward filling out an otherwise flimsy story, but even impressively energetic prose is unable to redeem this ill-conceived novel. (July)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This novel is based on Spitzer's translation of a film sketch by C line. He moved the setting from an island off Brittany to one in the Bering Strait and expanded the story to create one of the most grotesque, chilling tales in modern literature. The men "fish fight and fuck and the women work in the cannery wearing slate gray smocks splattered with the blood of creatures...processed into dog food." Inbred survivors of a prison ship blown astray, these sorry folk find their jobs boring but deadly and their lives routine but utterly depraved. Rape, incest, alcoholism, and crack addiction are common. When a glamorous porn star washes up after a storm, the spiteful, manipulative Mother Kralik directs a vicious cycle of lust, blood lust, and intolerance. The story's extreme darkness is almost transcended by Spitzer's powerful, poetic language and ironic humor. Strongly recommended for strong-stomached readers in medium to large academic and public libraries. Jim Dwyer, California State Univ., Chico
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 227 pages
• Publisher: Zoland Books; 1 edition (July 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581950314
• ISBN-13: 978-1581950311
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,380,078 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars DANGER! CHUM!, October 9, 2001

By 

Rex Rose (Baton Rouge, La) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chum (Hardcover)

You will want to take a shower after reading Chum, and you might even need a support group. Roughly based on a play by Celine, author of Death on the Installment Plan, Chum drags us laughing through the lust, murder, and rape that the inhabitants of a small fishing village in the Bering Sea call recreation. Spitzer is a shockingly good student of human nature, and maybe that's why he can make us laugh at this stuff. Not haw haw academic "how clever" laughter. I mean really laugh as he spins his tale in the language of nasty porno and exploitation movies. Spitzer writes in American. Be afraid.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book!, March 2, 2006

By 

Perrin C. Carrell - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chum (Hardcover)

Mark Spitzer is genius. Chum's message is deep and hidden under a steaming pile of bile and goo; and he forces you to dig through it to find it. This is the most skillful writing of any author living. Kudos Mr. Spitzer, my chum, my chummy chummy chum.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A THIN STEW, July 1, 2002

By 

Larry L. Looney (Austin, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Chum (Hardcover)

The reviews and comments I had read about Mark Spitzer's novel CHUM intrigued me -- so I thought I would check it out. I was sorely disappointed in this book. The only character for whom I felt even mild, brief sympathetic feelings was the nun who appeared on one or two pages. Everyone else in this story is completely dispicable. The 'warning' on the inner jacket flap about the story being 'sex-obsessed, scatological, deeply offensive, violent...(&c)' is pretty accurate. The overall effect was like reading the toilet-seat fantasies of some adolescent...

I thought Spitzer's writing was skillful -- it just amazes me that he chose to focus his talents on such drivel. The quotes on the back comparing the novel to Melville (calling CHUM 'the Moby Dick of the millenium') and the work of Tom Robbins, and offering poshumous (always a safe gift) approval from the likes of Kafka, Kierkegaard and Ingmar Bergman were ludicrous at best.

The violence and degradation of women depicted in this book reminds me of nothing less than some of the more depraved 'underground' comics of the 1960s. What humor I found within its pages was not enough to redeem it. Sorry to be so negative, but that's how I feel.

For a vibrant, imaginative -- and by no means 'tame' -- story in a similar vein, check out Mark Richard's marvelous novel FISHBOY. It burns with the surreal qualities that I think Spitzer was shooting for (perhaps an unfortunate choice of words) in this book, and it's not nearly so morally reprehensible.