Marvellous Hairy [Paperback]

Mark A. Rayner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2009 | ISBN-10: 1926617088 | ISBN-13: 978-1926617084

Hair is sprouting in unspeakable places and you can no longer carry a tune, but if you're a surrealistic artiste with an addiction to Freudian mythology and guilt-free sex, turning into a monkey has its upsides. Nick Motbot may be evolving as a novelist, but his friends aren't too sure about his DNA at least, not since Gargantuan Enterprises started experimenting with it. And once they figure out what's happening to him, they decide to set things right. Marvellous Hairy is a satirical novel about a group of friends sticking it to the man the only way they know how, with equal parts grain alcohol and applied Chaos Theory. Part literary fun-ride and part slapstick comedy, It s about the power of friendship and love, the evils of power, and the dangers of letting corrupt CEOs run our world. But most importantly, it's about how we have to get in touch with our fun-loving inner monkeys.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Marvellous Hairy is a weird little beast, a blending of the anything-for-a-laugh mentality of Douglas Adams with the experimental abandon of early Philip K. Dick. Is it satire? Science fiction? A piercing exploration into the nature of being? Good-natured sex romp? Mark s publisher has labeled Marvellous Hairy as being Fabulist Satire, which is as good a way as any to say that categorizing Mark is a near-hopeless task. --Corey Redekop, Shelf Monkey

From the Inside Flap

"Marvellous Hairy is a weird little beast, a blending of the anything-for-a-laugh mentality of Douglas Adams with the experimental abandon of early Philip K. Dick. Is it satire? Science fiction? A piercing exploration into the nature of being? Good-natured sex romp? Mark's publisher has labeled Marvellous Hairy< as being Fabulist Satire, which is as good a way as any to say that categorizing Mark is a near-hopeless task."    --Corey Redekop, Author of Shelf Monkey

"This an exaggeratedly simple way to put it, but Marvellous Hairy made me smile and think--and there isn't really much that'll make you do that, anywhere."    --Kyle Muntz, Author of Variations (On Phase)

"Try to imagine if Douglas Adams teamed up with Tom Sharpe to write The Island of Dr. Moreau as a modern comedy of corporate evil, and then Tim Burton filmed the result. Add monkeys. And sex. And more monkeys. Got it? No, actually you don't. Read this freaking book, people. Funny, absurd, captivating, and unique."   -- Douglas Smith, Author of Chimeriscope --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Crossing Chaos Enigmatic Ink (October 1, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1926617088
• ISBN-13: 978-1926617084
• Product Dimensions: 5.9 x 3.9 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,358,413 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Robot-monkey loving, zombie-pirate fighting, massively bestselling wannabe, Mark is actually Canadian. By day he is a university prof and by night, a writer of "fabulist satire" novels, squibs and other drivel. (Some pure, and some quite tainted with meaning.) Marvellous Hairy is his second novel. His first book, The Amadeus Net, is heavier on the robots.

You can read more of his fiction (for free) at his website where you can also dig into his irregular and explosive blog, The Skwib (markarayner.com). Follow him at Twitter (@markarayner) or on Facebook (www.facebook.com/RaynerWriting).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What's that strange thing growing on Nick's tailbone?, February 5, 2010

By 

Betty L. Dravis "BETTY DRAVIS, author/reviewer" (Silicon Valley, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marvellous Hairy (Paperback)

Marvellous Hairy is a marvelous little book. Since the author, Mark A. Rayner, took the title from "A Midsummer Night's Dream," it would have to be pretty good...or risk the wrath of Shakespeare's fans around the globe.

This chaotic, off-beat, satiric adventure starts with members of "Cult of the Claw" attending a friend's wedding where Nick Motbot and Dr. Tundra let monkeys, lizards and other lower primates loose on the unsuspecting guests. It escalates from there with a komodo dragon biting the groom's Chinese grandmother, weird ER scenes, and an excess growth of hair all over Nick's body, not to mention an odd protuberance sprouting from his tailbone.

Nick's best friend, Rob Goodman, who narrates the action, thinks the outlandish ceremony was "a work of demented art," which goes a long way in describing the mindset of this weird bunch of young people.

But aside from that riotous wedding distraction, the motley, fun-loving group suspects that Nick is devolving into a monkey. Nick is an odd, yet lovable character who has been working on a novel forever, supporting himself with money earned as a "guinea pig" for various medical experiments.

They suspect that behind Nick's problems is Ted Shute, the most influential businessman in town, owner and self-proclaimed King of Gargantuan Enterprises,which owns a fancy building they call the "Phallus." Shute is really an evil man who is practically insane over a crime he committed years earlier. To add to the fun, he has his own personal ghost to whom he constantly talks.

Enter Erma who is in love with Nick; "Hot Helen" who is Shute's mistress but also has a crush on Nick; Ariadne with whom Rob is falling in love...and the plot thickens.

You won't believe what happens when they put together a daring scheme to force Shute to reverse the DNA process he and his scientists have illegally performed on Nick. But first they must rescue Shute's daughter Hippolyta from Seedy and Spider, two losers who are infuriated when Shute refuses to pay the demanded ransom.

Who is Blossom and how does she help? How does poor Hippolyta trick her captors into becoming trapped inside her father's office? Do our friends reach poor Hippolyta in time? And why does Helen promise Shute his porn fantasy, a sexual "threesome" with the very young and innocent Ariadne?

But most important: Is Nick's "monkeyism" reversible? Will he ever be human again? If not, will Erma stay with him?

I must say that Rob seems to be the only sane one in the group, but with passages like this, I'm not even sure of that: <<So Nick and Erma were an item. Or they were, but they had yet to consummate their itemness in the time-tested and carnal manner.>> And this cracked me up: <<There were a few people outside (the hospital) smoking cigarettes. I'm always touched by the loopy solidarity of smokers... I once visited a friend in Minneapolis in February, and was surprised to see a knot of smokers outside in a raging blizzard, huddled together like Emperor Penguins, sharing a light; their meager breath hacking out of them in puffs of steam and a total defiance of common sense. It was magnificent.>>

All in all, this is a hilarious romp that comes to a screeching halt with a satisfactory ending. Marvellous Hairy is a well-written book with an original plot and great bursts of humor and action. The only flaw is that the author--although very glib and creative--slowed it down in places by too many "gems" such as the two I quoted above. A little goes a long way and I was eager to get on with the action. Thus, this earns four stars instead of five. My apologies to the talented author, Mark A. Rayner.

End-note: When I said little book, I meant it, literally, since it is only 4 inches by 6 inches. I wasn't too impressed with that because I found it hard to get a good grip while reading.

Reviewed by Betty Dravis, February 5, 2010

Author of "Dream Reachers" (with Chase Von) and other novels

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Buy this! Heck, buy TWO!, January 6, 2010

By 

Elizabeth Cole "theproductivecough.com" (Pasadena, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marvellous Hairy (Paperback)

An embarrassing number of months ago, a writer named Mark A. Rayner, with whom I associate on Twitter, sent me an autographed copy of his novel Marvellous Hairy. I was excited to read it as Mark's "tweets" are always entertaining. Then, of course, schoolwork started to pile up and I became unable to read a single thing that wasn't about Modern Human Genetics. So, on my recent trip to Michigan I finally opened `er up, not at all knowing what to expect. At that point, all I really knew about it was that it was listed as "Literary Fiction- Fabulist Satire," divided into five fractals (groups of chapters, I later learned), and that a main character somehow begins to devolve into a monkey (strong selling points, all).

It took under a page for me to realize I had been a fool not to read this sooner. Ghosts, greedy CEOs, drug dealers, wacky novelists, attractive women, lascivious scientists, primates, lizards (apologies if I forgot anybody)- how could I not love this book? The characters alone make this book a worthwhile read. Rayner accomplishes something that not enough writers do: Each character has his or her own distinct voice. Each person in the book could communicate the exact same piece of information, but each would do it with their own personal vocabulary of phrases. I love it. Why every writer doesn't do this, I will never know. The characters, as a result, are all believable as people.

And Rayner seamlessly intertwines the lives of his very believable characters through the use of his narrator, Rob. Each "fractal," contains several chapters, which visit different characters as they live out their part of the story. Rob explains all, even though he is only directly involved in parts of the story. His relative omniscience is a result of his being contacted by ghosts, who fill him in on events he isn't present for- a clever move if you ask me.

There is a lot clever about this book. There is a lot hilarious about this book, too. The opening scene, a chaos-drenched wedding, will slay you. It also provides a stylistic "thesis statement" of sorts. As soon as you read about what Nick and Dr. Tundra do (hint: Monkeys. Lizards.), you completely understand what kind of a book you are getting yourself into.

Look, I could go on and on about all the things I love about this novel, but I'm not going to do that. Instead, I'm just going to post the link to where you can buy the thing.

[...]

Do it. You won't regret it, I promise.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Quick words on digressive genetics, evil capitalists, and Mark A. Rayner, October 18, 2009

By 

Kyle Muntz - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Marvellous Hairy (Paperback)

This book surprised me--no, I mean it really surprised me. In the first chapter, monkeys and a Kimono dragon crash a wedding, send an old lady to the hospital, and generally succeed in making you laugh very, very hard.

This is a whole new kind of Crossing Chaos novel. Even more than Vital Fluid, it forgoes elaborate textual mechanics, but still succeeds in telling a complex, dynamic story: an organic one. (The aesthetic text is many things, but let me just say, it is not natural). Some really interesting concepts make their way in there as well; and like I said, it's very, very funny.

This is a tale of the digression from man to primate--actually, no it's not. Instead, the narrative is delivered from what might seem (but isn't) a secondary perspective. Mostly, a bunch of really cool people hang out, fall in love, do acid, drink alcohol, have illicit sex, cross-generational sex, vendetta sex, and... monkey sex? There are evil businessmen, drug dealers, thugs, katanas, clove cigarettes, and ghosts. (Yup, ghosts.)

One of my favorite things about this book is how natural it all feels. Having finished it, I have trouble believing that, in some form or another, the characters don't exist (excepting Shute--I know he exists). There are some really poignant moments in there, often at extremely unexpected times, which makes them more poignant still. The ideas are good, and most importantly, fresh.

Unleash your inner monkey.