Customer Reviews

Repo Men

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

 

 

Read this book right after watching the movie and I think it's sad that so much from it appears to have been lost in the conversion. Yeah, only so much can be told in 100 minutes, but still.... The book's ending, and most of the story, is quite different from the movie. I personally prefer the ending of the book, but the one given to the movie is more... fitting, I suppose. Somehow, both stories seems to complement each other in a way.

"MAMBO", btw, is a reference to the structural style of the narration. It moves back and forth all the time, as if dancing, throwing around bits and pieces of the narrator's life story, sometimes seemingly at random. Seriously, this is NOT a poorly written book, on the contrary, a lot of not so obvious yet important details and several currently relevant subjects that inspire hard thinking were weaved into a well thought out story, but I see how the unconventional narrative style (which I have seen similarly used before in some Hispanic American novels) could be a little odd to some. IMO however it just created a really interesting, refreshing and entertaining read. Also, the book's fragmented structure is a reflection of how an ex-military turned Union Man (nameless in the book) sees everything, including people. To him there are only fragments and he's unable (and maybe a bit reluctant) to put those together and look at the whole. After all, he only came for your liver, who cares about the rest of you? ;)

I remember adding Eric Garcia to my authorial wishlist. Karin Slaughter was at the Melbourne Writers Festival, and talked of how she was more nitpicky of the locations in the Vincent Rubio series, when really she should've questioned the realism of a dinosaur going undercover in contemporary America. Dinosaurs, crime and humour? I was hooked. Those three books have been long out of print, though, so I've never acquired them.

I have, however, read MATCHSTICK MEN (which is okay) and CASSANDRA FRENCH'S FINISHING SCHOOL FOR BOYS (which is great). But Eric Garcia's crowning glory is this magnificent tome: THE REPOSSESSION MAMBO, later republished as REPO MEN. The premise is irresistible: people can have transplanted artificial organs, but if they don't keep up the payments, the artiforgs are repossessed.

Our unnamed narrator has been through five marriages and subsequent divorces, driven tanks in wartime Africa, and worked as a Bio-Repo man for the Credit Union. But now he's hiding out, writing his memoirs while he's still alive - which may not be for much longer.

Simply put, I adore this novel. I love the premise, the narrator's voice, the humour, the looping internal structure, the world-building, and even the romance. I'm not usually one for romance, but the ending totally made me coo, "Aw!" If I was a writer, I'd totally want to write something as awesome as this.

Be sure to stick around for the author's essay, THE TAMING OF THE MAMBO, which charts the twelve-year journey from idea to short story to novel to screenplay and back to novel. I haven't seen the film, REPO MEN, which unfortunately went straight to DVD in Australia, so I can't tell you how the book and film measure up against each other.

And no, I'm not familiar with REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA, so I can't talk comparisons, similarities and differences.

Simply Breathtaking. I saw the movie before readimg this and thought ehh there werent going to be any difrence but the book was easily the best book i ever read. It had the perfect blend of romance, comedy, and action. it was the perfect book in my opinion and this book is way under rated than it deserves.

I have no trouble saying, despite my fondness for dinosaurs, this is my absolute favorite Garcia novel so far. The plot is unfolded for you in an extremely jarring and jumpy fashion, and I definitely found that a little difficult to digest at first, but I quickly realized that the details I was meant to remember were repeated for me enough and I didn't need to work for it. I quickly adapted and found myself being unable to stop.

The characters were all alive in my mind, the story was developed in a manner that easily allowed me to suspend my disbelief about such a broken capitalist system being permissible in the future, and the references to futuristic technology were subtle enough to welcome me into the narrative Garcia developed without beating me over the head with details. Of course, the all-important artificial organs themselves developed by fancy corporations were often well described, but other aspects like military-grade 3D projection maps and laser pens were dropped in as if they were items of everyday speech, fully enveloping me in this world as if I were a part of it long before I read this novel.

I have not yet had a chance to reread this novel, as I would usually prefer to do before I fully judge it, but I think my second read will be just as enjoyable, if not more so, than the first. Though the story does feature a Garcia-typical turn of events, I do not believe knowing this information will degrade the story for me.

I heard the movie flopped, but I can't wait to see how Garcia and his co-writer (whose name I'm too lazy to look up) have developed this for the screen. Highly recommended novel.

This book was very pleasing and very well written. I had seen the film first and was a bit disappointed with it as it was very out there and went off track with the story. The book however has a completely different ending and events which were much much better. At the end of the book the author describes how he had tried to get the book sold as a film for 10 years and he re wrote the story so it would fit into what hollywood and in my opinion he actually ruined his own story as the film is poor so give this book a chance you wont be disappointed!

The book is a good read for Science-Fiction fans. It's a good first-person narrative, with nice dialect and descriptions. The repetitive subjects of his numerous ex-wifes is eventually tiring. The ending is sub-par and disappointing. This novel will help fill in the time till you find a novel that is gripping and thought provoking.

This theme isn't new, and Garcia's book is hardly the best execution. Read just about any other Garcia book. Remy grates on my nerves, and the "mambo" narrative technique is annoying. If you want blood and guts you should check out Max Brooks. That's a far better use of your time.

The writing is pretty horrendous throughout. He attempts to create tension by flashing back continuously throughout the book constantly interrupting the narrative flow and making the book annoying to read. On top of that, the book jumps between being horrible predictable, to being completely unpredictable. The author is incapable of subtlety and thus the foreshadowing and construction of characters is either stupidly in your face (predictable) or just non-existent (why the hell did he do that? Oh I guess since there is limited or no character development anything can happen). Overall the author has one semi-decent idea (mortgages on organs and repo men for them) and really doesn't go anywhere with it. Overall, poorly written with really nothing interesting to say.

Wild Willy Parsons, a stand-up comedian has been doing this "bit" since 1986! Played all over satellite radio, it seems that his "idea" was stolen to make what appears to be a horrible book/movie. Probably impossible for him to collect, but if any of you lawyers out there are looking for some mula, check out Willy's CD entitled "American Made". Don't know much about the copyright issues, but it may be worth it to check out. At least I would like to hear the authors take on this. Did he really steal this idea out of a comedy bit that he heard on the radio or seen live? Maybe Willy can "repo" his money!!!!!!!