Customer Reviews

Fever Chart

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A fast-paced, intricately woven plot that stimulates the imagination on how new elements will be integrated. A constant flow of fresh images...with taboo details that open a floodgate of memories of which one never speaks. Writing that is mostly one- and two-syllable words makes for lively reading while an artful peppering of multi-syllables lends an air of authority.

This romp includes travel through a psychotic break that gives a sense of what the seriously mentally ill can experience. And, of course, there is an abundance of sex, generally (though not always) antiseptic descriptions of activities with self and others. As for puzzles -- how will Omar Sharif factor in?

Straight-laced readers should be prepared to be dragged from their muddy inhibitions...into fresh mud, while the more liberated enjoy a sustained ride on the Coney Island Cyclone.

Couldn't put it down. Rudely ignored people so I could finish it.

From page 1 it's clear that the narrator protagonist is somehow broken, and the narrative and temporal structure of the book mirrors his distorted perspective. The book's prose and the protagonist's psyche go on twisting together around a surprisingly interconnected plot for a few hundred pages. It's like literary DNA. It reminds me of Richard Powers' The Echo Maker, but its tone is more personal and urgent.

Cotter's characters are amazingly well defined, each one a distinctly flawed person living in, and sometimes dealing with, our odd and flawed world.

The hardcover edition is physically marvelous as well, with luscious black and yellow textured covers and an eye-drawing illustration on the book jacket and cover. It's actually quite pretty, a quality I don't usually look for explicitly, but it suits and matches the careful, colorful novel.

I love this book. From the moment it got started I was hooked. The subtle humor is remarkable and I felt as though I was along for the ride. You should get this book, it will make you laugh and cry all at once. I can not wait for the next book from this Author. I have not read anything like "Fever Chart" before. I loved all the craizness that followed this guy around. Through all of the wit and craziness this books offers a little sadness and that it what made it such an exciting and interesting read. Job well done.

great story from a great publisher. I cannot help myself from buying almost every book that comes out from McSweeney's. Fever Chart is an incredibly original story line that has made me hungry for more from Cotter. I hope Cotter publishes something soon and through McSweeney's - the final product was amazing as well. Artwork and the textured cover made for a great end piece to my collection.

I picked up this book on a whim after stumbling upon it on McSweeney's and could not put it down until the last page. Now I find myself wanting more! Let's hope that Bill Cotter has another one in the works!

If you're looking for something hilarious, zany, shocking and original - this is for you. While Cotter's novel deals with many different topics, the humor is what has really stuck with me (I read Fever Chart about 9 months ago). I love mass-market humor, but it doesn't hold a candle to this stuff. Really looking forward to the author's next book.

As soon as I finished the last page I prepared a list of people to buy this book for. It's such a refreshing experience to read a well-written, hilarious, unique story with engaging characters and an advanced grasp of language.

The main character feels like a friend by the third page; all of the characters become people you've known, even the backgrounds are alive. It's a graphic novel but only in words, but not too wordy and flat. The descriptions pop with an originality you can almost taste. It's simultaneously comical, sad, convincing, surreal, sincere, and fantastical. Somehow throughout the shared journey of insanity there's a stability and trust in the voice of this story.

There are so many zany parts of Fever Chart that have become imbedded in my repertoire- it's the first story in years that (in addition to buying multiple copies to give to people) I've re-read it too many times to count. Jerome Coe, the main character, is one of the most interesting people you'll ever "meet."

Kudos to Bill Cotter's first attempt at writing... how's he going to top this?

Enough plot synopsis already herein. Suffice it to say the characters are so bizarre and so well drawn the book will haunt you and make you ache for them. A brilliant realistic portrait of life, love, and loss, among the broken people we turn a blind eye to in our daily passage.

Bill Cotter's a genius. My only complaint with his first book is that he hasn't yet published his second. In other words: I want more.

Fever Chart is shoved full of deeply funny and fully felt experiences that almost literally bleed off the page. This book combines the hilarious with the harrowing in a way that should probably be illegal -- I kind of resent how much I was made to care about these characters and worry for them during the many terrible outrageous heartbreaking ordeals they endure over the course of the novel. And yet, the method to Cotter's madness is that he loves language; and ultimately what comes through his inspired incomparable pitch-perfect prose is a hard-won but unshakable love of life. Survival is a beautiful thing.

This book is endearing, crazily intelligent, sad, lonely, life-affirming. Cotter is a born novelist whose writing makes me hurt and happy, like all art should. Here's hoping his second novel is just around the corner.

Gives "A Confederacy of Dunces" a run for its money! Very well written -- very unpredictable.