Customer Reviews

Lord Vishnu's Love Handles: A Spy Novel (Sort Of)

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"This book says more about the meaning of mankind than the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and The Hunt for Red October combined." I picked this book up and threw up almost immediately. It's that good. When you know you know. I dare you not to love it. Seriously that's a dare. Try. Wow.

Wouldn't it be fun to be psychic, to be able to see into other people's minds, even to influence their behavior from afar? Well, maybe not, if you saw things in your wife's mind you'd rather not know about. And suppose there were other psychics in the neighborhood trying to see into your mind and influence you from afar? Things could become complicated in a hurry, as they do for Travis Anderson, the tortured hero of this nutty novel. Which psychics are on your side, the Vampire Twins or Ikshu, follower of Lord Vishnu and Charles Manson? And how does IRS Agent Debra McFadden fit into the picture? Perhaps in such a case you too would be grateful for the presence of The Blue Dude when the going gets rough. That's all I have to say! Read the book yourself to find out what happens and maybe resolve the wackiness. It's fun, it's fast, it makes me very glad I'm not psychic.

I absolutely loved this book. It is so funny, and quirky but not too much that it's kitsch. I read a lot and I like classic literature, British humor, the great American novels, etc, but sometimes some ecclectic weirdness is just what I, craving. It's reads kind of like if Carl Hiaason took some pyschadelics. There's just nothing else like it.

A great read.

Let's set things straight: Will Clarke's LORD VISHNU'S LOVE HANDLES is a darn funny book--some of it literally laugh-out-loud funny. Clarke's here-it-is, straight-forward style is fun to read, and the author can set up a scene, antagonize his protagonist, then knock it out of the park with ingenuous comedic wit and ease. Clarke's goofy, ultra-fantastic story--about a yuppie psychic who goes to work for the government in exchange for forgiveness of his IRS debt, yet subsequently loses his family when they're kidnapped by his wacky cohorts--is fresh, innovative, funny. . .but just takes darn forever to wrap itself up.

To be sure, this is not your Aunt Sadie's light comedy; Clarke's story is quite dark, fueled by violence and death. While Travis Anderson, the protagonist, more or less keeps his wits about him as his life hopelessly unravels, I couldn't help but feel frustrated as the plot descended into catastrophic goofiness. And kept descending, page after page, chapter after chapter--until I was begging for the book to be over, and the insanity to end. (And then the author punctuates all of the nonsense with a final, four-page chapter that left me scratching my head in sheer bewilderment.) LORD VISHNU'S LOVE HANDLES is well-written and funny--but when you have to suspend disbelief to this degree, for a comedy, mind you, much of the positives this book brings vanish like the blue Vishnu gods the protagonist imagines he's seeing.

--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning

The story veers sci-fi'ish - Travis Anderson can see into the future, random things like knowing before the phone rings that it is his mother-in-law calling or beating the computer all day long guessing the color of the cow's udders on [...] (yes, they created the site as a promotional tool, and you can do it all day long too if you're so inclined).

So when he has dreams that his wife is doing his business partner, he believes it even though he's got no concrete proof something is going on. His wife it turns out is pregnant (is the child his or not, we never find out till the end). And if things can't get better, they really shouldn't get any get any worse - Travis' alcoholism gets out of hand and he starts seeing the blue skinned dude, the eponymous Vishnu of the title; his firm is audited and it is discovered that Reed Bindler, his partner has been swindling IRS of money and they collectively owe Uncle Sam something to the tune of 5 million dollars. IRS ropes in Travis to do psychic work for them in exchange for forgiving the 5 million debt. How he encounters enough dark forces for a lifetime and comes to love his wife and family in spite of her obvious promiscuity forms the rest of the book.

Part of the problem with the book is the use of dreams, visions and other such hooey as literary devices. It just stretches the imagination a little too tenuous, so I cannot imagine anyone other than a die-hard sci-fi fan actually enjoying the book. On the other hand, once I realized this book was more sci-fi and potty humor, I stopped expecting anything like religion or spirituality, so finding it was a pleasant surprise. The spirituality Travis Anderson ends up espousing is part Hindu, part mysticism. There're very Hindu concepts - for example both the dark forces, represented by the characters Ikshu and SageRat, and the light forces (Travis himself) work for the same master - the US government.

More interesting is the fact that this book was a breakout book on Amazon.com. Will Clarke went from being a self-publisher to having his book picked up by Simon and Schuster. Who says self-publishing has to be the ugly redheaded stepchild to traditional publishing? Not Will Clarke who's laughing all the way to the bank with the optioning of this book by Hollywood. (Refer the exclusive interview with Lord Vishnu - it gives a glimpse into Clarke's thinking) This is a funny book, a little sophomorish (genre bending some reviewers on Amazon said - big No to that.) But to his credit, Clarke takes on some existential questions.

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I think this book was the best book I have ever read until the last chapter.

Sorry Will, but the last chapter seemed like you just threw it together just to get it over with! Sage Rat as Chip & Dale? what the...?!?!?! I really wanted them to actually be accepted by Travis and family but that would be too much to ask wouldn't it?

You made them sound so repulsive but after a while you really start to hope those two freaks turn out to be the hero/heroin of the century! (Great characters anyway).

Sorry, but other than that last bit I think this book is one of the best I have ever read!!!!! Love it! keep them coming Mr. Clarke!

I'm still on a high after just finishing this book in a record 2-1/2 days! I have stayed up till 3 the last two nights on this book!

Good stuff!