Customer Reviews

The Egg Man

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

...and you've got Carlton Mellick III's brilliantly grim novel, "The Egg Man".

To be fair, this was the first CM3 book I ever read, so it holds a very special place in my heart. The day it arrived at my house, I began reading and finished it early the next morning. And then I read it again.

The best way to describe "The Egg Man", in my mind, would be to picture David Lynch's immortal masterpiece of the surreal, "Eraserhead", if King-Filth John Waters had gotten ahold of the script beforehand. "The Egg Man" has enough dystopian depression, inventive ideas, disgusting scents and grimy realism as all that and more. Needless to say, this has quickly become one of my all-time favorite books, and has cemented Carlton Mellick III as one of the best authors I've read. And like his earlier classic, "Satan Burger", "The Egg Man" keeps the reader driving along through to the end, only to leave them completely deconstructed as a result of the sheer power the author holds. Again, Carlton Mellick III is a force to be reckoned with.

I am going to have to give this a five. CM III is a master of the genre and this is one of his masterpieces. This is the story of a dystopian reality where humans are born like flies, corporations own your body and soul and your future is dictated by a random act of fate.

I've read all of Mellick's books, I'm a huge fan, and usually after I read them I resale them on the internet, but I couldn't part with this one. I'm not sure what sets it apart from the rest, but it is my favorite, possibly because it's so organic, and I have a fascination with futuristic settings, anti-utopia, post apocalyptic, etc. Very detailed, very graphic at times, sexual, all the right stuff in the right amounts. I won't tell the story, because the product description is accurate enough. If you like this author then you should be all over this and if you've never read this author then this book you should not resist.

I think this is one of Carlton Mellick's favourite of his books. It's probably one of my favourites too. Where his other books are mostly just weird in creative and interesting ways, this book takes his creative and interesting weirdness to staggering heights, completely reconstructing how people perceive the world around them. People are tuned in to their senses in different ways and some people are born better off than others. It's a narrative that acknowledges some of the worst aspects of contemporary cultures, and it attempts to prove that what you're born as and who you are can be two different things, and the person who has control over that is you. Of course, this is a bleak dystopian narrative and it's not all that fluffy and nice, but it certainly shows an ugly aspect of society that can only improve through change. And the guys that have the power to change are the ones that benefit most from the way things are. It's been a while since I read it, so I can't remember the details, and maybe I'm reading too much into it, but I remember it was pretty amazing stuff.

Set in a futuristic society where people are owned by corporations and categorized by one of the senses that they specialize in (Sight, Taste, Smell, etc), Lincoln is a Smell who finds himself in a bit of a pickle. He wants to be an artist...doesn't exactly work for his kind, but he's going to try it anyway. Influenced by his neighbor, Luci, who is lacking in hygiene skills and severely eccentric, she soon becomes his muse and inspires him to incorporate the element of "smell" in his artwork in the hopes of winning over the review board that must approve of his work. Things become more complicated and strange when Luci shows up with a new implant, a huge brain of souls that she receives after meeting with the Egg Man. Who is this mysterious Egg Man? All Lincoln knows is the mysterious noises that come from the apartment next to his...where the Egg Man lives.

Part Orwellian dystopia, a little bit of Naked Lunch, and lots of Mellick crazy fabulousness, this book is a whole slice of tasty goodness. Slightly darker writing than some of Mellick's other books, but one of his best. The descriptions (visual and otherwise) pull the reader directly into the story...you feel grimy, you can smell the smells, you can hear the creeks and moans. The reader gets a complete vision of the bleak world in which Lincoln resides.

This is a much deeper leap than Mellick usually takes. There are numerous themes running through the book. I couldn't recommend this book enough. So please, do yourself a favor and take a big whiff.

So far, this is my favorite CM3 book. It's not as wild as Warrior Wolf Women of the Wasteland. It's not as silly as Morbidly Obese Ninja. It's not as nightmarish as Baby Jesus Butt Plug. However, it has an emotional component that works exceptionally well.

The protagonist of this story is essentially an orphan living in a dystopia in which all people are orphans adopted by some corporation or another. He is raised to be an artist, but he is simply not a visual learner. Released from the academy into the world to create his masterpiece or lose his grant, he creates an entirely new style of art. However, does the world want his art? Does he want the world? And if he succeeds in creating his vision (or smell, as the case may be), will he or the world still be around to enjoy it?

This novel also works particularly well on a structural level as certain themes and images appear in the story to resurface later.

Great story. The corporate cultures and societies depicted in this novel are brilliantly done, revealing something of life in America today, in which many people are willing to run around with large corporate logos on their shoes and clothing, ads on their shirts, duped by advertising and branding into buying the crap they buy so they can keep up with the Jones and feel like normal members of society. But of course Carlton Mellick took it to delightful extremes.

--Alan M. Clark, author of OF THIMBLE AND THREAT: THE LIFE OF A RIPPER VICTIM