Customer Reviews

A Cure for Cancer

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

 

 

There is a whole bunch more Jerry Cornelius weirdness here. He is still roaming around 1960s London, among other places, and in conflict with the villainous Bishop Beesley.

Some people are certainly going to find it too weird, or too impenetrable to enjoy, I think, as it is by no means straightforward, but this is part of JC's appeal.

Good artists may break the rules after proving they can create within them. We know Moorcock can write, so we can guess that he wrote "A Cure For Cancer" as an experiment in a chaotic, vague vein. Unfortunately, as with many experiments, wading through the results can be a chore.

Social satire? Sure. Interesting sci-fi vignettes? Absolutely. Incisive glances at the sounds, styles, and feel of a parallel world subjectively based on a late-1960s London? You bet. But be warned that if you're looking for more than the faintest shred of plot to capture your interest, look elsewhere in the Eternal Champion multiverse. Perhaps ACFC is Moorcock's idea of what happens to a novel dipped in the primordial Chaos described in his other works.

I can appreciate what Moorcock is trying to get across. I even get a kick out of the *idea* of the novel's structure, in theory, anyway. However, it's difficult to actually enjoy a work in which a) every stitch of dialogue is so vague that, if you had no grasp of Moorcock's other works, the book would seem a nearly interminable string of highly stylish non sequiturs, and b) characters that live and (suddenly) die so guided by random chance and urges from the id that the joke pales early on. The chapter headlines culled from sensational tabloids did give me a chuckle, though.

It's certainly possible that you may find great enjoyment and provocative thoughts aplenty in ACFC. You certainly will in other Moorcock novels. And if you're looking for the pinnacle of social satire in an "unconventional" novel, check out the far superior "Catch-22" by Joe Heller. But unless you're the type who relishes flipping through TV channels for hours on end in an altered state of consciousness, or tends to convince yourself after reading a work such as ACFC that your time was well spent and the emperor is indeed wearing clothes, don't waste your time. This patient is terminal.

Quite an astonishing book. Unlike the previous Jerry Cornelius book (The final programme), the plot is significant to the book. Thats not to say its any easier to understand. It concerns Jerrys hunt for a mysterious device of his, and the attempts of others, particularly the grotesque Bishop Beesly, to get hold of the device for their own ends.

This book, though often humourous, has a far more serious tone than its predecessor, and some very harsh satire. Targets include the irrelevence of the popular press and corruption within the Catholic Church.

The title refers to both a literal cure (as described in the section headings), and more importantly, to "Social Cancer" which is cured by Ethnic Cleansing. The image of hoardes of NATO helicopters napalming London, screaming "BURN OUT THE CANCER" will stay with you a long time.

This is the finest of the Cornelius Quartet and fans of The Invisibles comic book from Vertigo will find this a particular touchstone.

Jerry Cornelius is that rare breed of hero who's expolits are like a headrush of enormous proportions.

Read while under the influence - you'll enjoy it!

I think that the way that michael moorcock writes this book makes to the fact that yet again he has come up with a best selling book, even some of the less inteligent people in my school have read it and have been able to comment on it posititvely. well done.

And why a generation that avoided napalm, now is bombing the hell out of the Balkins? This book will not give a direct answer, but it can give you a rare deep look into the darker side of the countercluture at the time of its creation, not a cheesy, moralistic look back by some ultra-repentant, dew eyed hippy. You can hear the NATO copters with loudspeakers screaming LETS FIND A CURE FOR CANCER LETS FIND A CURE FOR CANCER LETS FIND A CURE FOR CANCER