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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
AT LAST . . . an ORIGINAL serial killer!, May 8, 2008
Spencer Sproul worships serial killers. His home is a shrine to them, and he spends the majority of his time devising ways to become the next Manson, Bundy, or Gacy. Spencer's also a dedicated employee at Lemuel's Family Restaurant, oblivious to the constant insults of his collegues. When a rival food chain opens across the street, and one of Lemuel's waitresses leaves to work for the competition, Spencer springs into action in an attempt to make Lemuel's the ultimate family dining experience.
If I'd read what I just wrote above without having read this book, I probably would have never had an interest in LEMUR (even with the funny cartoon cover art). But the amazing thing about LEMUR is that it's so normal it's strange; we see the world through the eyes of Spencer, a nobody, flake-wanna-be serial killer, friend of bums and other flakes, and by the hystercial conclusion we can't help but feel as if we'd like to hang out with him. He's an anti-heroes' anti-hero, a serial killer who devises a way to serial kill in a manner too perfect (and too real) than his idols had ever dreamed of.
Bradley's sharp writing and in-your-face social commentary make LEMUR one of the funnest (and funniest)satires to come down the pike in many a moon---or should I say, many a deep-fried chicken patty? Like a genuine cult film, this story features many crafty scenes and lines of dialogue that won't soon leave your mind (one scene inside a 7-11-type convenience store is absolutely hysterical). Don't miss this.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Social commentary wrapped in absurdity, June 6, 2008
This review is from: Lemur (Hardcover)
Spencer Sproul aspires to be a serial killer. His locker at work (he is a busboy at Lemuel's Family Restaurant) is papered with portraits of murderers both real and fictitious . His apartment is also loaded with memorabilia.
Unfortunately, he just isn't very threatening (he can't even growl convincingly), and when he breaks into a woman's apartment to kill her, he gets distracted by her book (about a serial killer, natch) and reads it till dawn.
Inspired by the machinations of a convenience store clerk (who he also originally intended to kill), an expert at luring obese people into his shop to consume even more questionable comestibles, Spencer realizes that his best potential murder weapon is the restaurant itself. So he turns his creative talents to marketing -- and especially to ratcheting up the effect of its mascot, Lemmy the Lemur (pictured on the cover) -- and rapidly moves up the ranks by capitalizing on the subliminal power of gonzo advertising.
Satire is not a strong enough word for what Tom Bradley is doing with Lemur. Every character is painted with a bizarro brush, and yet they remain relatable. Spencer can't even use English properly (Bradley calls this "oral dyslexia"), but he isn't hard to understand, and this difference actually works to make him more engaging and sympathetic.
Readers who like their social commentary wrapped up in absurdity will find a lot to like about Lemur. You can read it as a tightly written treatise on consumption in the modern age, or as the touching story of a serial killer's coming of age. Either way you choose to approach it, this darkly comic novella is sure to entertain.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
New Mythic Types, Unexampled Strangeness, Balletic Genius, April 19, 2008
This review is from: Lemur (Hardcover)
Tom Bradley's LEMUR has been getting lots of attention from the most diverse places. The Advocate, which is the world's most widely read Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender magazine, says LEMUR "marks the maturity, indeed the triumph of [the LGBT] movement," that it "could do as much to raise the rainbow flag as two Stonewall Day parades," and that Tom Bradley has "introduced a type that seems new to the public eye, but has been there under our noses ever since alternative sexuality began."
The multi-media journal Unlikely Stories has observed that LEMUR "subverts the subversives by bringing us moments of such unexampled psychological strangeness that any somatic monstrosity or distortion of cause and effect would hardly be noticed."
These charms are conveyed by a technique and timing reminiscent of the best comedic talents from Aristophanes to the Marx Brothers. Tom Bradley is able to interweave scenes of simultaneous madness and parade them before our eyes like multiple burlesque ballets on a revolving stage. The braided plots proceed to a simultaneous orgasm whose inevitability you feel like a baby grand piano sailing down on your head from ten stories up.
LEMUR cries out for cinematic treatment. If only Jesus were alive so he could give Groucho, Harpo and Chico the Lazarus treatment.
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