Customer Reviews

FOOP!

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

This book is the literary equivalent of a circus freakshow. Within the first few chapters, I knew that I hated the book, but I found myself unable to put it down.

This book is extremely disjointed. The writing style is awkward. The underlying theme jerks from cynicism and self hatred to blind optimism and longing. The content is often unsettling (including a few scenes that only a proctologist could read without cringing). The characters are deeply disturbed and over-the-top and the story line is held together as tenuously as the seams in Rosie O'Donnell's stretch pants.

All of that said, the book is oddly addictive and darkly entertaining. I think that if I come across another Chris Genoa book, I'll probably buy it, read it and then feel extremely guilty for having enjoyed it. In fact, I would probably feel the need to burn it and never speak of having read it.

This certainly isn't in the genre of Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett (unless, of course, they have some unpublished works that were written in a turkish prison while under the influence of LSD).

If Chris Genoa isn't currently undergoing psychiatric counselling, he's depriving the mental health community of an excellent study case.

It looks like it's about time for a more in-depth look at this book that goes beyond the simple "It's great!" or "It stinks!"

It seems that quite a few people are coming to this book through Christopher Moore, who blurbed Foop! on the front cover. I'm not a fan of Moore at all so I can't compare Genoa's writing to Moore's, but there's really no need to do that anyway. Like any book Foop! should be looked at on its own.

The book begins with a first chapter that is possibly the funniest opening chapter I've ever read. You can read it on Amazon through the Search Inside function. The reader is immediately thrown into the bizarre life and mind of Joe, a time travelling tour guide in the not too distant future. To sum up the plot, Joe is given an assignment to find out who has been travelling back in time and torturing younger versions of his boss in very odd ways.

Normally when the idea of "time travel" comes up people automatically expect they are in for a traditional science fiction novel. But Foop! is anything but that, and readers expecting such might be disappointed. There isn't much that's traditional about this book at all. In fact Chris Genoa and his publisher, Eraserhead Press, have aligned themselves with a literary movement calling itself Bizarro. That right there should tell you what you're in for. While this isn't experimental or hard to follow writing, Genoa doesn't reign in his overactive imagination at all when it comes to the characters he chooses to introduce--such as a blind monkey with a lasso--or their often insane actions.

Foop! does have a traditional three part structure, with Parts 1 and 3 being the strongest. Part 2, when Joe retreats to his apartment, does drag a little and could have used some more editing, but Genoa tends to throw enough humor at the reader to make up for this and get you to Part 3 which is excellent.

This book was cearly written by someone of the MTV generation, or generation X, and it will most likely appeal to readers younger than 40. I also suspect that like writers such as Chuck Palahniuk, Genoa will appeal more to men than women, but I could be wrong since there are a bunch of positive Foop! reviews on here from women. The dialogue is rapid-fire, the humor absurd and sometimes scatalogical, many of the characters are cartoonish, there is plenty of satirical social commentary, and the ending is uncompromisingly bleak.

I recommend this book for people who don't get easily offended by off-color humor--hint: if you think South Park is nothing but dumb humor, you won't like Foop!--for fans of the cartoonish surrealism of Terry Gilliam, and for people who don't mind a little bizarre chaos in their bedtime reading.

Chris Genoa is nuts. But that's fine by me because that's how I like my humor served up--by a clever writer who's tettering on the edge of utter lunacy. I haven't read a book this funny in a long, long time. If you want a taste of what I'm talking about check out the interview Genoa did with Koko the gorilla that devolved into total madness. Just google "Koko Genoa" and you'll see what I mean.

Read this book if you like crazy as hell type humor dished out by a guy who can write like a stud.

I'm not going to get into the science fiction aspects of this story, the mystery element, the Samuel Beckett style absurdity, the great illustrations, or anything like that. Those things are all good things about this book, but the one thing that REALLY stands out is Chris Genoa's humor. In Foop! we may be seeing the birth of a new comedic master.

I'm not saying he's there yet, but boy oh boy is the potential there. The book is dripping with potential, because if this is what he does with his first novel, at such a young age, then the sky's the limit for the future. Because you can't develop a sense of humor. You can't learn how to be funny. You either are, or you aren't. Chris Genoa most certainly is.

Does he have some things he needs to work on? You bet. But to me, any book that can make me laugh aloud on a regular basis is a gift from the gods. Foop! is a great start to what I hope is a very long, productive and hilarious career for Genoa.

Wow, I haven't come across a book that can inspire such hatred from some people and such love and praise from others in a long time. Just look at the reviews here: they're either 5 stars or 1!

Put me in the love and praise column because I loved it. I don't read much science fiction because I find a lot of it to be REALLY dull and boring, especially in the writing styles. But this book is anything but dull. First off, it's a very easy read and you can read it in a few days. It's also VERY funny, which makes the reading go by quickly because you're laughing a lot.

I think if you're a big sci-fi fan then you might not like this book. I even forgot I was reading a book labeled as sci-fi a few pages in, because the writing is stream of consciousness. Or maybe stream of comicness is a better description. Kind of like a wacked-out, futuristic, surreal On The Road, with a main character who is constantly thinking some truly hilarious stuff.

It's funny, but it's NOT happy go lucky. Overall the tone is dark and the outlook is very bleak. Especially the ending. So you might not want to read Foop if you're looking for something bubbly and lighthearted.

Three of my friends also read it. Two of them loved it and one hated it. Chances are you'll either love it or hate it too. But it's worth the risk because the people who do like it, REALLY like it.

This book reminded me a lot of Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. It has that same surreal, dreamlike quality, but without the trunkload of drugs and booze. The characters in Foop! aren't high, they're just plain old crazy.

Foop and Fear & Loathing are also extremely funny and each had me laughing a lot, mainly because the first-person narration is great in both. But they're also sad stories at the same time since the characters in both never find the dreams they're searching for.

So if you like reading about characters who go on weird, wild journeys, you'll probably really like Foop!

I'm giving this book 5 stars for the author's willingness to take risks, his untouchable humor, his unique voice, his embracing of the surreal, his twisted view of the world, and with the hope that he writes many more books in the years to come. This isn't mainstream fiction, but it isn't experimental either. Not by a long shot. The author instead dances around in a middle ground between mainstream and exerimental that I found extremely interesting. I think the book will appeal most to people who like to dance around in that middle ground as well.

I knew from the first paragraph of Foop that I would love it. See for yourself:

"I've always thought that the existence of Abraham Lincoln provided conclusive visual evidence that humans are indeed descended from apes. I look at apes, and I look at men, even Cro-Magnon man, and I think, there's gotta be something in between. Where's the link? The link is Abraham Lincoln. The man looked more ape-like than some apes do when they're dressed in shorts and suspenders and wearing sunglasses."

Sad because it was over and now I have to wait who knows how long before a new Chris Genoa book comes out. Hey Chris! Get off your crazy butt and publish more books!

My friends and I are going to start a Chris Genoa fan club. At meetings we're going to put on animal costume suits and drink Jack Daniels just like Chris does. We're also toying around with the idea of getting a pet monkey for the group so we can train it to hog-tie people like in Foop.

I guess I should say something that helps people decide whether or not they should buy Foop. How about this: this book is for all of the freaks and weirdos out there who feel like no one is writing books for them. This guy is.

This was possibly the most interesting book I've read in a long time. The writer's wild imagination explodes onto each page with reckless abandon. Here is someone writing what he loves with little regard for focusing on a single genre or market.

This is a small press title, and like many such books there are some proofreading mistakes in the text. But that can be forgiven when the book entertains as much as Foop does.

There are plenty of laughs, insanity, weirdness, absurdity, and nonsense. But what really made this a worthwhile read for me were the more quiet moments of reflection which many readers may miss amongst the barage of craziness. There is a cloud of sadness over the whole book, and anyone who has ever felt lonely will be able to identify with it. Some people say that all humor comes from pain, and that holds true for Foop!

Foop! simply is the funniest and wildest book I've read in a long, long time. In fact, I can't even think of any other book that made me bust out and laugh as much as Foop! did. I kept handing the book to my friends and saying, "You have to read this part!"

I think Foop! is more for fans of writers like Chuck Palahniuk, because while it is really funny it's also kind of heartbreaking too. The main character isn't some kind of goofy twit like you'd find in other comedic novels. Deep down he's a pretty sad guy who stumbles into a really bizarre and ultimately tragic adventure.

Also, like a bunch of other reviewers have said, it's nothing like traditional science fiction. So don't read it expecting to get Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. Genoa is much darker than those guys.

So if you're looking for some prim and proper droll humor (like the boring stuff you'd find in The New Yorker), you'd better check out someone else. Chris Genoa isn't Douglas Adams, Kurt Vonnegut, or any other old or dead writer. He's just Chris Genoa, and that's just the way I like him.