Elvissey (Ambient, Book 4) [Paperback]

Jack Womack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 7, 1997

At once a biting satire and a taut, fast-paced thriller, Elvissey is the story of Isabel and John, a troubled couple who voyage from the year 2033 to a strangely altered 1954. They are on a desperate mission to kidnap the young Elvis Presley and bring him back to the present day to serve as a ready-made cult leader. He proves, however, to be a reluctant messiah, and things do not work out quite as planned.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

A troubled couple sets out from a dismal future to retrieve Elvis Presley from an oddly different 1954. They need the King to be a savior to what's left of humanity, but he's a murderous freak with no desire to be anyone's god. Elvissey is set in Jack Womack's maybe-not-cyberpunk future, where the Dryco corporation runs everything, and everyone has been or will be "regooded," for their own good. Womack writes in an evolved language, full of odd verbs and newspeak: "He unpocketed a bottle of small blue pills; Dryco's standard eyedots and smile were imprinted upon each tablet. Three hours sole could pass between dosings, no more, no less. Swallowing dry, he fixed a doorways stare; shook, and resettled.... Regooded or not, his unscratchables still itched."

This is a bleak tale, buzzy and complex, full of human failings. Elvis is a disgusting jerk. The United States of Dryco is horrifying and manipulative. And Iz and John are mutually lonely, despairing in their failing marriage, and betrayed by Dryco. Despite its darkness--or maybe because of it--you owe it to yourself to read Elvissey. Womack is one of the most interesting writers in the business, and nobody does cultural science fiction funk like he does. --Therese Littleton

From Publishers Weekly

Womack ( Ambient ) astounds and entertains in this adventure featuring a young Elvis Presley kidnapped into a future in which he becomes a deity. Though the plot suggests the ridiculous, this is, in fact, a deep, often theological, reflection on love, betrayal and commercially inspired nihilism. The narrator is Isabel, a high-level operative for Dryco, a mind-manipulating multinational conglomerate in a parallel future. Seeing control of various Elvis-worshiping sects as important to its domination of the globe, Dryco sends Isabel and her husband through a "Window" to kidnap young Elvis from another parallel universe. They find the King-to-be of Rock 'n' Roll standing over the body of the mother he has just murdered, and he takes the couple on a bloody road trip through the South before they arrive in Dryco's world. Though Elvis is happy to have escaped murder charges, his gnostic philosophy makes him a reluctant messiah, and Dryco goes to extremes in convincing him to go public. From loony beginning to gripping climax, Womack has found a brilliant vehicle through which to examine relationships, race, popular culture and a host of other topics, and forces us to contemplate whether the dystopian worlds he evinces are not, in fact, merely heterotopian.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Grove Press; 1st Grove Press ed edition (January 7, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802134955
• ISBN-13: 978-0802134950
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #814,935 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SHOULDN'T BE YOUR FIRST WOMACK, April 6, 2001

By 

"jaylimmo" (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elvissey (Ambient, Book 4) (Paperback)

Elvissey is my second-least-favorite of the Dryco Chronicles series ( we'll see where it ranks after Going, Going, Gone hits my mailbox ), but not for the reasons you might expect. Allow me to explain.

It was the first Jack Womack book I ever bought - the Gibson blurb on the back sold me - but I couldn't understand a word of it and shelved it. Somehow, a year later, I wound up with a used copy of Terraplane. I had to re-read the first chapter three times to make sense of the language, but eventually I put everything together; now it's probably my favorite. This led me to collect his other books from used bookstores, and then finally to tackle Elvissey.

Elvissey is a remarkable achievement, particularly in its funhouse-mirror distortion of the the 1954 we knew on our planet. Having said that, it's also by far the most depressing of Womack's books. Which is saying something. The odyssey of pregnant security operative Isabel and her psychologically-unraveling husband John leads them to an American South where black people no longer exist and Elvis killed his mother. Their return to 2054, and subsequent attempted conversion of Elvis into a corporate messiah, is utterly heartbreaking. This is the Womack book which I've only re-read once.

First-timers should read Womack's books in this order: Random Acts of Senseless Violence, Heathern, Ambient, Terraplane, Elvissey. You'll gradually come to understand everything about the strange future Womack paints, and recognize recurring characters.

Enjoy the ride. You won't forget it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Look At A Sinister Media Culture Future, September 8, 2001

By 

John Kwok (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elvissey (Ambient, Book 4) (Paperback)

"Elvissey" is the first Jack Womack novel I have read; I eagerly look forward to reading the rest. Without a doubt, Womack is one of the most interesting writers to emerge out of science fiction since William Gibson hit the stage with his brilliant "Sprawl" short stories, culminating with his amazing "Cyberspace" trilogy of novels. He's certainly among the most bizarre stylists I've come across, echoing Anthony Burgess' "A Clockwork Orange" with his own poetic usage of Dryco's newspeak. "Elvissey" is a brilliant satire of our own obsession with rock and roll stars and other transient entertainment celebrities. It is also a fascinating look at how a psychologically troubled couple from 2054 meet a homicidal Elvis Presley in an alternative 1954. Equally appealing is how Elvis struggles to cope with his new found fame in 2054, after learning he is regarded as a saint by millions of adoring fans. I strongly emphasized with Isabel "Iz" Bonney's struggle to hold onto her sanity as her health and her relationship with John, her psychotic husband, dissolve through the course of the novel. Anyone expecting another excursion into William Gibson's "Cyberspace" future may be disappointed; Womack isn't quite as visionary as Gibson, though his prose is just as poetic. Instead, prepare yourself for a startling fresh, unique view of what a media-dominated future might look like.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "The King" of kings...jumpsuit style, March 19, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Elvissey (Ambient, Book 4) (Paperback)

After reading this book I was pretty suprised to see it on sale at Graceland, since Womack makes the pre-stardom Elvis look pretty bad. But still, Womack's conception of a future so starved for meaning and so controlled by consumerism, that "Elvis" has been put on a corporate pedestal and wholly deified makes for very interesting reading. This book isn't really about Elvis, however, it's about Isabel, a woman from the future who goes back in time to retrieve the "real" Elvis. Women in the future still have to deal unresposive husbands, the glass ceiling and body trauma and Womack's handling of female characters is extremely strong. He also does well with language, as the denziens of the future speak in an English hybrid similar to the Newspeak of 1984. Elvissey is a very interesting read which doesn't quite deliver what you expect it to