Customer Reviews

Marvellous Hairy

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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

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.

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.

I can't help but see shadows of both Shakespeare's A Midsummer's Night Dream (for the cast of Rayner's living characters) and Dicken's A Christmas Carol (for the dead ones) in this great story. And I specifically mean shadows, because it's mostly the darker, edgier bits that make it into Marvellous Hairy; creating a thoroughly modern tale of genetics, marketing, sex and pheremones that still somehow feels as familiar as any classic fairy tale.

Mark Rayner's descriptions are vivid. Every character is larger than the story. Everything jumps off the page as HIS imagination takes the wheel and gives you the Grand Tour of his story.

Overall, the pacing of this book is perfect.

I found it very hard to stop reading once i started. When I stopped, I looked forward to picking it back up.

There are typos scattered throughout the book that would occasionally jar me back to the real world, but none that muddied any meanings in any significant way.

In contrast, i thoroughly enjoyed what looked like typos: the way Mark Rayner was able to translate monkey language and monkey typing onto paper and still clearly convey his meaning is absolutely genius, and i'm sure required very careful thought.

There are a number of loose ends left hanging at the end of the story. If that kind of thing makes your head fly off in rage, you might get annoyed.

I personally found it very easy to forgive Mark Rayner for any and all minor oversights (intentional or otherwise)-the story is really just that much FUN!

I won a copy of this book and had it mailed to me by the author directly. He also signed my copy. (Thanks, Mark!) However, this fact did not influence my feelings towards the book. If it was bad, I was going to say it. I have written a few bad reviews on my blog, and noticed one got back to the author. That's the way the world works.

The narrative comes from Nick's friend Robbie "Rob" Goodman. There are quite a cast of characters, and that word can be taken in two forms, but many play supporting roles. Two of them are ghosts, by the way. The book has been labeled as part of the Fabulist Satire movement. I have not a clue what that really means, but I know satire. I have experienced it before. Three of the most entertaining books I have read were satire. I now have a fourth.

It is also the first time I have read a book in a while, probably since "Shelf Monkey" by Corey Redekop, one of those satire novels I mentioned to liking, that I laughed out loud. And I did a few times. (I can normally hold in my laughter when reading.) Some of the lines are just hilarious. And they are not there to make the reader laugh, they are truly something that the characters would say. The situations he put a few of the characters were just great. Nothing seemed forced. It all felt natural, it all felt like a cohesive story. So well put together. Just complex enough for the staunchest of readers to enjoy, and easy enough for anyone to love. It's like controlled anarchy, if an actual thing can exist. All I can say is that it's a good thing when it comes to writing.

Rayner's writing style seems so well suited for this type of work. He's quick and to the point, yet descriptive when he needed to be. I never found anything rambling too long. If anything, it was short. He probably could have expanded it in places and it would still have felt right. His pacing was dead on. Everything was great. Between the events, the characters, the style, it was a very well put together story, and again, very entertaining.

The only complaints I have about the book was the book itself. It's small. Like pocket Bible small. Well, not nearly, but it's the smallest novel/novella I have ever read. It was hard to hold sometimes. Though part of that was me being anal not to crease the spine because it is signed after all. There also were some typos. Not so many that it made it annoying. But they were easy to forgive, given the strength of the story, and the fact it's a small press.

This book won't compete with the great classics out there. Heck, it probably won't even reach the heights of one of my other satirical favorites, "The Great American Novel" by Phillip Roth. (I mean, come on, we are talking Roth here. The guy should win the next Nobel for fiction for crying out loud!) But it certainly is one of the most entertaining books I have read. Those of you that have read and enjoyed "Shelf Monkey" by Corey Redekop, the chances are good that you will enjoy this book as well.

Marvellous Hairy is a new wave of Fabulist Satire set in the near future, centred around the research being carried out in a frightening behemoth of a corporation called Gargen (or Gargantuan) Enterprises. Gargen specialises, secretly, in the reconstruction of human DNA. It is headed by the insipid megalomaniac Ted Shute. So begins a glorious adventure of corporate greed, drugs, lascivious sex and the unleashing of one's inner monkey.

To say this book is simply funny would be to gloss over it's delicious decadence, this book is anarchy with a sweet tooth. The writing is savagely funny like a laughing hyena on acid. You laugh but sometimes it's uncomfortable to watch... There are obvious parallels to be drawn with the writing of Douglas Adams but only if Adams stories were more horny, drug-crazed and surrealistic. Rayner is ruder, madder and badder than his predecessors.

One of the main themes of Marvellous Hairy is corporate greed and what it does to the everyday folk. Human subjects are dispensable for profit and power. On one level it's just a regular everyday satire of modern commerce, but after the first page you soon realise it's so much more interesting than that. Really poignant issues arise also, like the individuals' attempts to reconcile human self-awareness with their animal nature.

From the opening scene of what I can only describe as the wedding from Hell (to which you wish you'd been personally invited) you immediately get an idea of what's in store.

Peopled by the most fabulous cast of miscreants and heroes, who incidentally I want to read more of, this novel is brilliantly paced. In fact it never lets loose. The action sequences towards the end are timed to precision and it boasts a tight structure. It even contains a helpful cast of characters at the beginning, like they are the players in a Shakespearean play - genius!

Marvellous Hairy is a funny, engaging novel about serious issues but it is never in danger of becoming didactic or angry - Rayner manages to walk this line with skill and with, I would imagine, a smile on his face.

I've just finished this gallimaufry of a novel. At times and in differing degrees `Marvellous Hairy' is confused, funny, outrageous, and strident. Our narrator, Robbie Goodman, is frequently overwhelmed by the cacophonous voices of his fellow travellers, and I sometimes couldn't be sure who was telling me what. Did it matter? Not really: there is only one destination for this novel and readers will arrive there, or they won't.

I have mixed feelings about this novel: at times the action was overwhelmed by dialogue and description. The various elements of the story, believable, unbelievable and sometimes just bizarre fit together well and make their own form of sense. Following Nick Motbot's evolution, seeing the various bad guys get their comeuppance while the good guys get their just rewards is entertaining. It's not all comic relief, there are some serious issues as well: just ask Nick Motbot about his inner monkey.

But be warned. This is not a linear narrative and unless you are willing to laugh at the ridiculous and are tolerant of the silly this may not be a book for you. Some days, I'm quite sure, it wouldn't be a book for me.

`Hey, I said this wasn't a classy story.'

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

Marvellous Hairy is an odd book. Starts out odd, moves to a little bit odder, retains some of that oddness throughout the middle and ends happily ever after, a little oddly. Wonderfully odd. Bizarre even. Think Christopher Moore, think Chuck Palahniuk- although not quite as disgusting as Palahniuk. No, I take that the back. In the opening scene, monkey's throw poop at an otherwise normal conservative wedding and a body part eating komodo dragon is released into the audience. So parts are disgusting enough to rate a 5 on the P-scale of grossness.

A little Background- Nick Motbot, an aspiring novelist, isn't quite making it. So to beef up his otherwise dwindling bank account, he volunteers as a human lab rat. One too many times. So he starts to regress. Not just back to childhood but all the way back. Soon his friends, well one friend in particular, Rob Goodman, start to get just a tiny bit concerned. For about a minute and a half, Rob Goodman works for Gargantuan Industries, on his last day he figures out someone is messing with his friend's DNA.

May we all have friends as caring (and as entertainingly bizarre) as Nick. You just get this feeling as you read through the book, author Mark Raynor had to have based these character on real people and real situations. It's naturally funny and flowing in such a way that can only be based on a smidgen of real experiences. Not that people devolving into monkeys part or ghosts part or the kidnapping a major CEO part. But ya' know everything else.

I'd really like to see Rayner get a professional publishing house behind him. He deserves a great editor and quite frankly this book belongs either in hardcover or those oversized paper-back versions because reading this tiny, tiny book was annoying. You shouldn't be annoyed when you read Raynor. It's so damned funny and entertaining..you want to keep going until you turn the last page.

Marvellously manic! How can you not enjoy a bawdy tale that includes experimental drugs that turn a guy into an ape, a ghost and crazy kidnappers with a side plot love story thrown in for balance?

This was a fun read.

** spoiler alert ** This is a delightfully bizarre romp. Mark's writing is not unnecessarily embellished, he gets to the point while still being descriptive, and his dialogue sounds like something I'd overhear at the Grad Club over at Hated University. The story is something that any sci-fi loving reader will enjoy, but in some ways it feels like a MacGuffin - which is just fine because the characters are so endearing that you are happy to get to know them.

On the surface the story is about evil corporate science and cartoonish supervillainy. Underneath that it is about a group of friends breaking through that limbo which occurs after university and on to the next stage of their lives.

The book itself is an odd shape. A bit more substantial than a pocket book. Can't be afraid to crack the spine on this one. There are also some typos... though given some of the mind bending that goes on, I feel alright explaining them away as being typed by monkey-fingers.