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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
My Favorite From Mellick... A Book To Be Smelled, January 19, 2009
This review is from: The Egg Man (Paperback)
This is my favorite Carlton Mellick book, and I loved them ALL. This one just really stands out as particularly worthwhile.
The story follows Lincoln, a scent-oriented artist as he copes in a society where people are owned by companies and breed like insects (birthing swarms of flies that fight in a survival-of-the-fittest world). Being a Smell (as opposed to, say, a Sight or Taste- everyone seems to have one of their six senses enhanced uncomfortably), visual art is obviously hard- until he finds inspiration in the absolutely vile Luci, who, though smelly, disgusting and self-centered is apparently irresistible. Things get really odd when Luci gets a giant brain full of souls implanted into her head after meeting the mysterious Egg Man in the room next to Lincoln.
It might rehash things often- people "owned" by their corporate masters seems to be a common theme in dystopian literature as a rule- or a struggling artist finding freedom in his art in, yet again, a corporate world (I often wonder what alternative the writer suggests? And an alternative that is proven to work? I don't single out Mellick- like I said he's not the first to complain about Capitalism). BUT, despite being overdone Mellick's talent, as usual, is blending in the bizarrely imaginative to create something new and stunning.
In his introduction Mellick mentions how this book is very disturbing to him because of it's emphasis on smells. I don't know how I feel about this... while there are very interesting combinations of smells (the Egg Man for example smells like fig, raw hamburger, ammonia, rotten bell peppers, dead earwigs and water chestnuts), I find that I get thrown out of the story when being told what they are. This book needs to be a scratch-n-sniff. Or better yet, this book needs to be read while having all those smells around. Mix together a container of the Egg Man's signature smells and whenever the story calls for it open the container and sniff it. When Luci is around take out a piece of shirt you've worn for months and never washed. Use your imagination, and you can improve the experience.
This book also seemed more developed than previous Mellick books. Recently it seems his books have been getting a bit longer, and they benefit so much from that. While there is still something special about his tiny books, and I hope he never pulls a War and Peace on us, I like this longer, more sophisticated Mellick.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Nothing to do with the egg man from Pink Flamingos (but don't let that put you off), January 21, 2010
This review is from: The Egg Man (Paperback)
The Author's note for Carlton Mellick III's `The Egg Man' offers a fascinating insight into the book's creation. It relays a childhood memory that Carlton shared with his sister about a horrifying boogeyman type entity known as the Egg Man. The massive-brained occupants of this book don't bear resemblance to the monster of Carlton's childhood but it's clear that the concept of the Egg Man wasn't something the author ever managed to shake. From the get go, this infuses the Egg Man with a certain dread - almost as if childhood fear was wretched into warped world of adulthood, with all the baggage that brings, and forced to survive. To me at least, this is a fascinating notion. It's compelling to consider a book that is born from old memories that ultimately fracture and contort over time.
The Egg Man of this book refers, what at some point must have been, a mere human, who has been giving a brain transplant. Nothing too outlandish there, until you consider that the human is dwarfed by the enormous brain he sports. Others volunteer for this transplant too, almost as if the idea is sexually alluring. The world inhabited by these transplant recipients could be described as a dystopia, however, to me, the notion of a dystopia infers the degradation of a society. The impression one gets from The Egg Man is of an alternate society that has, in one way or another, always been the way it is. Corporations don't rule so much as they are lived culturally by those beneath them. `Inhabitants' of corporations speak in a corporation-specific language, unintelligible to outsiders. Art is homogenized into dry government procedure and the notion of critique is reduced to methodical commercialization. Working in the Bizarro genre, it wouldn't surprise me if Mr. Mellick's understandable attack on criticism was based on personal experience. Many people dismiss Bizarro before actually learning what it's about and being one of the forefathers of the style, Mellick's probably copped his fair share of guff.
An aspect to The Egg Man I find fascinating is the use of smell as a narrative mechanism. The sense of smell isn't something often lingered upon in fiction, which makes sense. Smell is such an abstract notion that it's hard to portray successfully with the written word. You can describe the way something smells but the reaction within a reader will most likely be too personal to convey the intention successfully. To Mellick's immense credit, he successfully brings the smell of the book to life. The book's main character, Lincoln, is what is known as a `Smell' who uses his nostrils to relate to the world around him. Other characters within the book are also defined by their dominant sense. I can't help but think it would have been much easier to write this book from the perspective of a `Sight' or even a `Feel'. Ultimately though, some of the wonderful uniqueness would have been lost. I honestly can't think of another book that utilizes smell in quite the same way.
I've only really lingered on a couple of the dominant themes in The Egg Man. Truth is, the book is packed with them. It's a very dark book but in some ways, I think it's the most realistic Mellick book I've read. We already live in a time of corporate devotion (hello Mac Vs PC, Coke Vs Pepsi etc...). Art is much more about commercial prospect than it is about legitimate transcendence or message. Critics will drag you down if their view doesn't gel with what they critique. Ultimately though, we're all tamed by the society we're born into. At the end of the day, it's a sense of inevitability I take away from The Egg Man.
This is a special book and one of Mellick's crowning achievements.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
substantial work, February 15, 2009
This review is from: The Egg Man (Paperback)
I haven't read every Mellick book. I've read a few, and so far I like this one the best. It's dark and thought-provoking. It presents an alternate reality to our own. It has intriguing ideas, compelling characters and a substantial number of pages. I really enjoyed this book about an artist with a heightened sense of smell. He enjoys drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon whereas I am a big Newcastle Brown Ale fan, but that's okay. I enjoy cleverness in fiction and The Egg Man is filled with it. The plot is compelling. Basically, I really enjoyed this book. Now I am faced with the challenge of deciding which Mellick book to read next.
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