Kockroach: A Novel [Hardcover]

Tyler Knox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 26, 2006

It is the mid-1950s, and Kockroach, perfectly content with his life infesting a fleabag hotel off Times Square, awakens to discover that somehow he's been transformed into, of all things, a human. A tragic turn of events, yes, but cockroaches are awesome coping machines, so Kockroach copes. Step by step, he learns the ways of man—how to walk, how to talk, and how to wear a jaunty brown fedora. Led by his primitive desires and insectile amorality, he navigates through the bizarre human realms of crime, business, politics, and sex. Will he find success or be squashed flat from above? Will he change humanity, or will humanity change him?

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Kafka's "Metamorphosis" is turned on its antennae in this roaringly entertaining noir novel. Knox's debut begins with a cockroach waking up to find he has been transformed into a man. Kockroach, however, doesn't lapse into despair, but instead demonstrates the relentless survival instinct of his species by learning how to get by in the human world. Helping him is pint-size Times Square hustler Mickey "Mite" Pimelia, who sees in Kockroach (or, as he's known to humans, Jerry Blatta) his ticket to the top. Sex, organized crime, violence, betrayal and success follow for Kockroach, whose insect's sense of amorality aids his ascent. Meanwhile, Celia, a crippled but beautiful woman, befriends Mite and finds herself drawn to Kockroach. Knox's inhuman antihero's tale is told in flawless noir style—Kockroach's coldness juxtaposed against Mite's bitter self-recrimination in a seedy, smoky 1950s New York—and Kockroach's insights into that New York are perversely delightful. The book's conceptual cleverness is ultimately eclipsed by the epic story line, making for a compelling story of greed and power that is more Chandler than Kafka. (Jan.)
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From Booklist

In The Metamorphosis, Kafka asked readers to suspend their disbelief as salesman Gregor Samsa finds himself changed into a "monstrous vermin." Similarly, in his oddly compelling first novel, Knox asks readers to accept that a cockroach in New York City circa 1950 awakens to find itself transformed into a human, who eventually goes by the name Jerry Blatta. Knox plays on every aspect of life humans regularly take for granted--how to walk, talk, love, hate, kill or be killed. The novel switches between omniscient narration and the voice of Mite, a human being of slight stature and a low-level hoodlum. Blatta, with his gigantic appetites and prodigious physical strength, becomes feared around town as a killer for hire and a killer on his own volition. Knox's tale is complete with heroines, harlots, and love triangles, and honest and corrupt businesspeople, cops, and politicians. As for Blatta, he metamorphoses from tough-guy murderer to seemingly legitimate businessman to a surprising third incarnation. Steve Weinberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (December 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061143332
• ISBN-13: 978-0061143335
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,713,724 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An intriguing and thought-provoking twist on Kafka's Metamorphosis, January 22, 2007

By 

Bookreporter (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)

"As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect." You probably recognize this as the opening line to Franz Kafka's classic novella "The Metamorphosis." Of course you do --- pretty much everyone knows (or at least knows of) the story of Gregor Samsa's unfortunate transformation into a cockroach. Apparently, Tyler Knox also knows Kafka's tale well --- well enough to start his debut novel, KOCKROACH, with the following sentence: "As Kockroach, an arthropod of the genus Blatella and of the species germanica, awakens one morning from a typically dreamless sleep, he finds himself transformed into some large, vile creature."

What kind of "large, vile creature," you may ask, could a cockroach possibly turn into? Why, a human of course. Kockroach, assuming he's undergone some horrific kind of molting, soon sets about exploring the peculiarities of his new human body and his new environment. From the seedy hotel room where he awakens, Kockroach ventures out into the almost painful brightness of Times Square. This Times Square is not the tourist playground of today --- this is the 1950s, when it was a haven for gamblers, gangsters, prostitutes, drug dealers and the small-time hustlers who served them all.

One of these con men is a petty criminal named Mite. When Mite and Kockroach have a chance meeting, neither one of their lives will ever be the same. Mite gives Kockroach a human name (Jerry Blatta) and soon enlists him on an errand --- retrieving some money from a deadbeat. When Kockroach proves more than adept at playing the heavy (he breaks the offender's arm without hesitation), Mite quickly attaches himself to Kockroach as the mysterious newcomer rises to the top of the Times Square crime scene. But the pair's uneasy partnership is as driven by competition as it is by loyalty, and soon their mutual acts of betrayal may blow everything up in their faces.

As Mite recognizes, Kockroach, with his utter amorality and his recognition of only two emotional states --- fear and greed --- proves startlingly adept at obtaining, and wielding, power. While still maintaining (sometimes in particularly gruesome and graphic fashion) certain cockroach attributes, Kockroach quickly and brutally rises through the ranks of organized crime, business, and finally (no surprise here) politics, all without moral qualms or even passing regrets. As Kockroach ascends to power, Knox poses some intriguing questions about what kind of person --- or insect?- --- it takes to be successful in America, all couched within a noir motif that's worthy of James Ellroy and Raymond Chandler.

Kockroach's story is told by three different narrators. First, there's Kockroach himself, whose combination of naivete and clear disdain for the human species makes him an oddly appealing antihero. Then there's Mite, the insecure opportunist who teaches Kockroach to see past the present and whose narration is riddled with slang. Finally, there's Celia, the polio-crippled beauty whom both men love, at least as much as either one is capable of experiencing that emotion. Together, the three construct a narrative that goes far beyond pastiche and marks Tyler Knox as a first-time novelist to watch.

--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Familiar story, January 5, 2007

By 

Vin Packer "V.P," (N.Y.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)

There was a book some years ago called Shoebag by Mary James. It is a children's book. A cockroach turns inro a little boy named Shoebag because cockroaches are named after their place of birth and he is born in a shoebag. He has a friend named Gregor Samsa, the hero of Kafka's Metamorphosis. I think this book is still in print. Kockroach is well told. I think both books are interesting takes on the idea.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Set-Up! A cockroach becomes human to his disgust!, January 27, 2007

By 

R. A. Barricklow "Scaramouche" (Las Vegas NV USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kockroach: A Novel (Hardcover)

"Deal with it, that is the cockroach way. When food is scarce, cockroaches don't complain, first they eat their dead, then they eat their young, then they eat each other." "He will adapt, he is a cockroach." The author does indeed pull off the transformation of insect into man, and does it humorously- "Mite rubs a shiny white stone all over his body, creating a weird white froth. Other humans do the same thing, Kockroach takes the same white stone. It is slippery, easily bruised like no stone he has ever touched befor. He licks it and spits out the bitter taste." and with purpose,"Whenever a cocroach sits back and wonders what it's all about, he gets stepped on." This is a morality tale done in a style I find myself cheering on, "Similary Kockroach fails to understand the way some humans are angry at other humans simply because of the sound of their last names, the shape of their eyes, the color of their skins. To him they are all of the lower orders, all humans, and to differentiate among them because of color or accent or the vowels in their last names is to differentiate among defferent orders of feces, all tasty, sure, but still." Or the sexual innuendos, as when killing cockroaches,"..but when those little buggers they're back that night it's hell to pay. You want to kill'em, you got to think like 'em. Not just any crack will do. They like it warm, they like it tight, they like it moist." "Don't we all" replies Kockroach. Or when Kockroach starts thinking, "This thinking, he thinks, is like a sicknes, only you can't sqeeze it out with your morning crap.". Or in describing business, "The world of business is a close to a perfect spot as a cockroach could ever hope to find.". Or money, "Money, he has learned, draws women like flies to feces.". Or, "And what I learned was this: People, theys all liars, and the ones they lying to most of all is theyselves.". And finially, "Senators are cheaper to buy than buildings. Better to sit on a toilet seat than in the Senate.". A great read with humor and purpose.