Perfect Union [Paperback]

Cody Goodfellow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 5, 2010

THE FAMILY

When Drew married Laura, he also married into the Kowalski family. But on a trip with his twin brothers-in-law into the backwoods of northern California to find their abusive, estranged mother, buried secrets will be revealed, threatening his fragile marriage and his sanity.

THE COLONY

Mom has joined a new family: Leviathan-- a utopian colony that has taken the communist ideal to radical biological extremes, using the mutagenic honey from genetically tweaked bees to make ideal workers and flawless warriors. But the once-human hive is divided by a strike and brutal internecine war, and its tyrannical Chairman is eagerly recruiting scabs.

With the Kowalski twins taking opposing sides in the colony's bitter feud, Drew is forced into a world where nothing is taboo and survival is the only law, where he must negotiate between the insane collective mind and the savage refugees, even as the battling forces of the commune work to reshape him into a tool to complete their...

PERFECT UNION

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

"One of the best writers of our generation." --BRIAN KEENE, author of The Rising and Darkness on the Edge of Town

"PERFECT UNION is Cronenberg's THE FLY on a grand scale: human/insect gene-spliced body horror, where the human hive politics are as shocking as the gore. This book would make Marx and Thoreau's heads explode. In other words, astounding." --JOHN SKIPP, NY Times Bestselling author of The Long Last Call and The Bridge

"Cody Goodfellow's imagination is a freeway flyer, and his prose is a ride on a rocket-sled. He's one of the two or three god-damned best writers in the Genres today." --MICHAEL SHEA, World Fantasy Award-winning author of Nifft the Lean and Copping Squid

"PERFECT UNION is a weird masterpiece. Influences ranging from Cronenberg body horror, Evil Dead-style gore comedy to a fascinating political dissection of Marx and Thoreau make this a genius horror novel destined to be...loved by the readers ready to get in the ring with Cody. An intelligent socio-political dark Bizarro masterpiece and one of the most original horror novels in years."--MONSTER LIBRARIAN

"Cody Goodfellow is untouched as a breathless reporter of violent action, relating it in hurtling prose full of striking and sometimes hilarious metaphors. The author has hybridized Splatterpunk with the techno-thriller, and the result will not soon leave your memory."--STRANGE AEONS

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Swallowdown Press (February 5, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1933929030
• ISBN-13: 978-1933929033
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,111,374 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Cody Goodfellow is a hollow, wasted shell of a human being.
His appearance, since he realized he only had to groom himself for occasional author photos, would shame an island castaway.
His conversational skills--since he discovered that any idea, emotion or anecdote worth sharing is also a valuable commodity--have atrophied to functional nonexistence. He sits, stares, listens, hoping to steal yours.
His real life experiences are insignificant in the face of those he imagines for himself and others.
His loved ones are hostages.
He is, for all intents and purposes, a patient undergoing a lifelong operation; and also the surgeon, methodically transplanting all his major organs into affordable trade paperback canopic jars.
He lives in Los Angeles.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! A Perfect Introduction to Cody Goodfellow's Work December 30, 2010

By Kevin Shamel

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

I simply love this book.

Cody Goodfellow has a unique and intelligent style of writing that really hooked me. The details he chooses to add to each scene are not things one would normally notice, and the way they are presented is almost magical. Each sentence is rich.

Perfect Union shows Cody's intelligent bizarreness. He obviously knows about Communism. And bees. And metaphysics. He explores the both the dark and shiny parts of human nature and presents these things in a tapestry of words that is intricate and beautiful and makes perfect sense even though it is utterly insane.

This is a scary story--like an 80s horror movie in parts. It's always brilliant. It's funny. It's bizarro. It's a story about life, and society, and love. It's one of those interwoven mysteries that once you've finished reading it's as if you just opened up a clock and learned how it all works. It's like unwrapping a gift.

Honey has never been both so revolting and weirdly sexy as it is in this book.

Communes gone haywire, deep magic, jealousy, sex, kick-ass fights, personal triumph, political observations, explosions, freaky drone dudes, and a crotchety old guy who lives in a shack. It's pure awesome.

Do yourself a favor and read this most amazing, incredibly bizarre, deeply intelligent, and exciting ride of a book. And then go out and buy all the rest of Cody Goodfellow's books like I did.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars This Perfect Union of good ideas and writing makes for a great story August 10, 2010

By Sludgemaster Slam

Format:Paperback

Perfect Union has some great ideas and superb writing. I happened to be reading K Blows Top: A Cold War Comic Interlude Starring Nikita Khrushchev, America's Most Unlikely Tourist at the same time, which is a true cold war comedy story about the Communist leader Nikita Khruschev's trip to the United States. Perfect Union took some of the ideas of communist society and went quite the other direction from a lighthearted comedy. Even with the ideas presented, a lesser writer would not have been able to hold my interest as well. But Cody Goodfellow does not skimp on character development, and his style never grated on me or became repetitive. It made me look forward to the books of his I haven't read. A lot of the scenes in Perfect Union were great to picture, but as far as being bizarre, it wasn't anymoreso than, say, a Stephen King story. So I would recommend this not just to people looking for something bizarre, but to those looking for a good horror or thriller or just plain fiction novel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars We the -- people? June 30, 2010

By Pete Risley

Format:Paperback

PERFECT UNION shatters the mold of the road-trip-to-Hell scenario and lets the shards batter you to a pulp -- though quite likely an engaged & entertained pulp. Harrowing and carnage-spattered as any gorehound could wish, and featuring a monstrous biological abomination that might have been conceived by Drs. Frankenstein & Moreau in collaboration, Goodfellow's novel also manages to present along the way some intriguing contrasts between matters of family dynamics and of political ideology. It's funny, too. Really, you ought to read this book.