Customer Reviews

Club Fascistland:

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After a childhood of abuse and questionable sexuality, a tornado wisks Tod, along with his super-intelligent pig, Otto, to the outskirts of the fabulous New Zirconium City. To Tod, New Zirc is a dream of tolerance, acceptance, and freedom. As he drives his airstream mobile home closer to the city, Tod finds and rescues a girl/boy tied to a scaecrow by a challenged football team, a post-human soldier in desperate need of mechanical improvement, and a truck-driver who both lusts after and fears Tod.

The strange company finds that New Zirc is not exactly what they had hoped. While there are plenty of freqs, men and women living on a different frequency than average, the mayor is quick to crack down on any threat to order--and any attempt to have fun. Tod's early enterprise of a coffee house becomes transmigrated into a center of protest--a Club Fascistland. If New Zirc falls short of its legend, Tod figures he can just change it.

Author Kevin Brink Nielsen translates the story of THE WIZARD OF OZ into a plea for a world where people can live in acceptance and harmony. As with the original Wizard, each character learns to look within themselves to find their greatest dream. But as with the original Wizard, the central protagonist's dream cannot simply be given.

Although CLUB FASCISTLAND has a few editing flubs and the occasionally thunky sentence, Nielsen offers an entertaining retake on the ever-popular OZ. Readers who aren't afraid of people whose orientation differs from the standard, and who share a concern that the fearful's attempt to legislate morality is ultimately destructive, will certainly enjoy this modern morality tale.

Like most readers, I have my favorite genres for recreational reading. Murder mysteries, techno-thrillers, crime mysteries, amateur female detective/sleuth, South Florida adventure... But every once in awhile, I like to read something that is *completely* outside my normal comfort zone. Usually it's because someone contacts me and asks if I'd be interested in their book, and it's something I'd never find or seek out on my own. The 2005 version of "out there" reading is Club Fascistland by Kevin Brink Nielsen. While the lifestyle subject matter is not my thing, the writing is very creative and entertaining...

Nielsen takes the Wizard of Oz story, complete with ruby red footwear, and adapts it to a time not too far in the future (or perhaps even now). Tod is a down-home farmboy from Kansas (where else?) who isn't really sure of his sexual identity and wants to head off to New Zirconium City (yeah, it's New York in disguise). His incredibly intelligent friend and pet, Otto the pig, is along for the ride. On the way there, he picks up Fif, a tomboy savant who's been told she's a boy her entire life, and is just now finding out she's not. Even though she has no education, she wants to become a doctor. Then there's Sinjin, the half-human, half-cyborg mercenary who's body is giving out and he really wants a real heart to feel emotions before he dies. Percy is a macho trucker drawn to homosexual urges but doesn't want to face that truth (and pummels his "love interests" out of guilt every time). He just wants to come to grips with who he is. Tod? He just wants a home where everyone can be accepted for who they are.

The evil witch is played by the mayor of New Zirc City, who wants to shut down all festivities and alternative deviant behavior. She bans all pleasurable forms of recreation, and has a squad of goons to enforce the rules. Her counterpart, Rex de Terre, is a billionaire businessman in the city and wants to have things his way instead (like to have people feel good about the city and spend money in his casino). Tod starts catering to the underground sect, launches wild parties, and puts himself on a collision course with the mayor (Her Horror) to free the city and give people their lives back. Throw in Madonna as the Fairy Godmother, and you've got a rather twisted ride...

As you can probably tell, this is a book where everyone's lifestyle is acceptable and people should be free to live as they choose. I'm not going to get into the morality of the message in the book, as I don't want this review to head down that road. What I will comment on is the quality and creativeness of the writing. Bottom line, Nielsen has talent. He does an excellent job in painting pictures with his words, and the characters he creates in the book are outrageously bizarre and funny. Since his story stays true to the original Oz fable, you pretty much know where the story is going, but you really don't have a clue as to how he's going to get there given the characters running around. Besides, I have to love an author who uses ellipses (...) more than I do...

If you're in the mood for a different read that's very creative and zany, this might be worth your time...

WOW what a great book .... very strange ... very creative .. great ...


Although it's really hard to believe that one could write the 'Wizzard of Oz' with the background of our nutty environment and 'mores' of today, but this young author sertainly has done it. Of course the characters are adjusted and modernized as Dorothy is now a country rube, Tod, the dog is a pig, the scarecrow is a gender bending female, and the lion is a not yet out of the closet trucker ....


Of course the good witch is Madonna ..... can ya believe it ..


Certainly while reading the book it made me think of what original readers of the Wizzard of Oz must have been thinking as they read that book, back in the days when .....


If have an imagination and allow your mind to float it is a wonderfull book ......

Nielsen throws the Wizard of Oz into a blender with Giuliani's New York and about a bucket of acid. Like a Mark Leyner romp, this book is packed with vivid scenes and deeply weird, unforgettable characters. You will not put it down.

Club Fascistland

This is a great book to break out of one's comfort zone. If the characters and settings seem unrealistic - then the reader needs to at least hang out with people of visit places they otherwise wouldn't. This book stays true to the moral of the Wizard of Oz - everyone has a gift and a purpose - they just need to be allowed and nurtured. Its easy to be judgemental when one is part of the accepted majority - this book is perfect for all those who aren't.

This is a tale for anyone who has been labeled as "different" and who has sought to find a place where they might fit in. In this case it is Tod and his pet pig, Otto, from- you guessed it- Kansas. Tod is an orphan, an honors student, a hard worker, and just a plain nice guy. Unfortunately, he has also been labeled as gay. As a result his life isn't worth spit in small-town Midwestern America. Fortunately, everything changes for our hero when a tornado rips through town and drops his Airstream motor home on top of his hateful, homophobic Aunt Eunice. This isn't the only improbable death associated with Tod, for his mother spontaneously combusted, and his father died of an allergic reaction to talcum while changing him. The towns people also notice this chain of unfortunate events and offer to fix Tod's motor home for free- on the condition that he get in it and just keep going.

Along the way, our hero meets up with a strange, but somehow familiar, caste of well-developed characters (yes, they are caricatures, but they are caricatures that turn out to have real depth.) First, there is Fif, the awkward patchwork girl who was beaten up by the local football team and tied to a pole in a cornfield because of her ambiguous sexuality. Then, there is Sinjin, an ex-special forces cyborg that is now more machine than man- and who craves a human heart so that he might once again feel human emotion. Oh yes, there is also Percy the Lion- a self-hating violent homophobic closet-case who lacks the courage to face up to his true nature. Tod recognizes that he was somehow meant to meet up with all these "freqs" (people who are on a different frequency from the society around them.) So he invites them all to travel with him to the fabulous and legendary New Zirconium City, where surely all of their dreams will come true....

This is a truly clever and original updating of Baum's The Wizard of Oz, but told as if in collaboration with Charles Busch and William Burroughs. I don't see it as a satire of the original, since the original moral is still intact. And it is a moral worth repeating in these dark times, that in a world of repression, conformity, and intolerance there is still hope for the underground of those who are different- the outsiders.

There is another reason why I liked this book. I recognized in it the genuine spirit of the kind of clubs and nightlife that I knew when I was younger. I remember when there were out-of-the-way clubs and districts where "alternative people" could meet and unwind (gays, bohemians, artists, intellectuals, pagans, underworld types, street people, etc.) Such places seem to have evaporated under the current atmosphere of social and political oppression- and, yes, you could legitimately call it fascist. Yet, here and there, in the breasts of a few like-spirited individuals an Apollonian spark still burns- a spark that will one day again burst forth into a grand Dionysian bonfire.

I'm all for going outside the box but this was WAY TOO MUCH! Wizard of Oz was a heart-warming family tale about Dorothy and her little dog's journey to Oz via the yellow brick road. Club Fascistland takes you to the Land of Aaaah's on the heels of a gay man named Tod and his pig, Otto. This alone is bizarre. But the story goes downhill from the start.

Tod is orphaned at an early age after witnessing the peculiar deaths of his parents in two separate instances. He is raised by a distant relative, Mother Eunice, who tortures him much like the ugly step-daughter in Cinderella. After succumbing to abusive punishment at home, in school, and by members of the community, Tod welcomes the F-5 tornado that sweeps him up and delivers him to the Land of Aaaah. The Land of Aaaah is a place of tolerance and understanding that welcomes everyone no matter what their outer appearance, sexual orientation, mental capacity or disability.

Upon arriving, Tod encounters the good witch Madonna who leads him on a road trip to New Zirconium City, a place where all dreams come true. On his journey, Tod picks up Fif, a patchwork girl beaten up by the local football team and hung in a cornfield because of the uncertainty of her sexuality. Next, the duo rescues Sinjin, an ex-Special Forces cyborg who wants to be more human than machine. Finally, they find Percy the Lion a homophobic self-hating individual who does not have the courage to love himself. The group meets up with fregs - people who live on a different frequency from the world around them - and travel with them. Her Horror, the evil witch, is the mayor of New Zirconium City. Her Horror has an army of goons to enforce the rules and restrict deviant behavior. Her counterpart, Rex de Terre, is a billionaire who wants to dethrone the mayor and give the city back to the people.

This rendition of my favorite fairy tale was completely out of my comfort zone. The lifestyle subject matter is not my thing. I consider the extensive use of curse words offensive. Furthermore, the lack of professional editing is disruptive and the long sentences made the reading last forever. If you are looking for something totally different from anything else pick this up.

Reviewed by M. Bruner for Loose Leaves Book Review