Customer Reviews

Sea of the Patchwork Cats

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

From the back cover:

"A must-read for Mellick enthusiasts who also adore the twilight zone. It is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. The story of conjoined twin goddesses floating peacefully in the middle of the sea. Many who have seen them, usually on calm starlit nights, swear that they are the sirens of mythology, luring sailors to their doom. Others claim that the twins are not live women, but an ancient structure carved to resemble two females sitting back to back. A few believe they mark the gateway to the lost city of Atlantis, or a gateway to the spirit realm. But on all accounts there is one consistency: if you listen closely, at the right distance, you will hear them on the wraithy wind... dozens and dozens of meowing cats. Sea of the Patchwork Cats is a dream-like tale set in the quiet ashes of the human race."

This is the set-up for the story, but much of this is not covered in the text of the book, so you'll have to be familiar with the legend before you begin. This is a three act book... first everyone is gone except for one man, who watches tv and drinks until the electricity quits. Then the house he is in is floating on an ocean that brings him to a mysterious place...

I enjoyed this one a lot, perhaps one of my favorites by Mellick. The chapters are very brief, and this novella is barely over 100 pages, but it is a very entertaining story well worth the price. This is a very funny book with a unique narrator who is a 67 year old drunk. The characters he encounters along the way are vintage Mellick. You have to read the book to get the full effect.

"Everyone in the world committed suicide at the same time."

Like the first line of Kafka's Metamorphosis, the opening of Sea of the Patchwork Cats is destined to someday find its niche in the canon of classic literature.

If you've read anything by Mellick, you understand that his books are from another universe. In the author's note, however, he reveals that SotPC is the first book he's written largely based on dreams. This alone makes it worth the cover price to not only CM3 fans, but dream-enthusiasts as well.

I'd rather not delve into plot, but it's an apocalyptic scenario involving an alcoholic, a "place" called Nerve Works, three very interesting women, and of course, cats.

Also included is information on joining The Avant Punk Book Club...$55 for the next SIX Mellick books. I might also mention the stunning cover featuring the art of Alexander Casteels.

If you've never picked up a book from Eraserhead Press or its imprint, Avant Punk Books, I strongly suggest Sea of the Patchwork Cats along with Jeremy Robert Johnson's Angel Dust Apocalypse and CM3's The Steel Breakfast Era. Do yourself a favor, pick these up now. You'll just end up kicking yourself later for having waited.

I don't understand the negative reviews.

I'm a teacher.. and if one of my students wrote this, I'd quickly tell them to start submitting it to publishers. No doubt about that. So just ignore those reviews for the readers probably just weren't in the state of mind to really enjoy it.

I won't go into the whole plot but what I will say is that it is indeed like a dream. The back of the book compares it to the twilight zone and that's true though I think this has more aspects to it. There are allusions to deviant sexuality and experimentation that I'd like to see explored later on (perhaps in a sequel?) There's even a part that reminded me of japanese "tentacle" anime though maybe that's a coincidence.

Being a cat lover, I also liked the inclusion of so many cats but I guess that just makes me a dork.

As a warning, I'd recommend NOT making this your first CM3 book. It's good but try some other works first.

All in all, if you like surreal tales that drop you into a strange world with hints of deeper realities, pick this one up.

Conrad is an old man, and a raging drunk. When the world ends, Conrad is passed out under his bar stool, so he misses the whole event. He wanders the empty streets for awhile before taking up residence inside a large house. During his "Howard Hughes" style of living, he finds that the ocean has swept up and taken the house.

Floating on a vast sea, just as his house begins to sink, Conrad comes across Nerve Works, a vast stone structure in the middle of the ocean, shaped like two conjoined women back to back. He discovers blocks of ice with what seems to be women in them, and saves them from the sinking house just in time, pushing the blocks into Nerve Works to thaw.

Jaji is the first to thaw, a reptile woman who occasionally tries to swallow Conrad. Together they explore Nerve Works, where Conrad becomes a young man again, rooms constantly change themselves around, and the room inside the conjoined heads of Nerve Works is filled with calico cats. But there is booze here, so Conrad adapts although he prefers dogs.

With Jaji, Kara the falcon-girl, Dog-girl, and his own little kitten Zombi, Conrad wanders Nerve Works until he runs into the Queen Of Cats and is forced into a decision for all of mankind; which at the time is only him.

In the Author's Notes, Mellick confesses to writing this book largely from a dream, and the surrealistic tale unfolds in an uncannily dreamlike way. Not as funny as Mellick's other pieces, this thin book still offers up a "must have" story for lovers of apocalypse tales. Like myself. This tale will grab you right from the first paragraph.

Kudos to cover artist Alexander Casteels for a beautiful rendition of Nerve Works. Enjoy!

A lot of people's perception of Bizarro is that it's like Excel Saga, but written by junkies and dripping with gore, that it's either Bloodsucking Bimbos from Burbank or Naked Lunch 2: Nakeder Lunch. Sea of the Patchwork Cats, along with, say, the works of Andersen Prunty, prove that this is not always the case. Sea is thought-provoking and full of icy existential chills. The first few chapters are stark poetry that sets up a world without answers. It reminds us that Bizarro is first foremost, a literature of strangeness and otherness and the microwave powered sex cartoons are merely one end of the spectrum. I don't know if I liked this koan as much as I like the microwave powered sex cartoons (which are usually intense and brilliant) but it represents the weird' s potential for beauty and versatility and I'm all for that.

This book is a dark fantasy fairy tale starring a drunk a**h*le who discovers that he's the last person on earth left alive...or maybe not.

I really like Mellick's writing style. It is easy to get into and fun to read. This book is highly imaginative and seems to just flow from the page. The world created in this book is surreal and beautiful. I think there should be a sequel to the Sea of the Patchwork Cats.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a fun, strange, surreal, read. I think the cover art is awesome and it goes perfectly with the book.

From the first line you know this book will be interesting at the very least. This was my first Mellick novel, so I really wasn't sure what to expect. I must say, though, I was pleasantly surprised.

In just over one hundred pages, with many chapters only one or two pages long, Mellick achieves what takes most other writers at least two to three times the space. The writing gets straight to the point, no word is used without a reason.

The story itself is unbelievable, but that is to be expected from avant punk writing. The outright absurdity may throw off some readers, but those who can get past the entire world committing suicide at 11:34a.m. on a Tuesday are in for one of the most exciting books they'll ever read.

Mellick may not have the status of a Stephen King or a JK Rowling, but he is certainly worthy of a very large cult following.

For as weird as this book is, and trust me, there is enough weird here to ask for a to-go box, this ended up being a very understated and mellow story for Mellick. It might be due to the fact that there is very little dialogue and the narration is through the eyes of a depressed, alcoholic man who suddenly finds himself alone in the world.

The entire world commits suicide all at once, and the only reason the narrator can't do it is because he's too drunk at 11:34 in the morning to follow through. When he finally wakes from his stupor, he is alone and surrounded by suicides. Most have died in a violent or gruesome way, but discovering them after the fact, there is very little violence to be had in this story.

Sea of the Patchwork Cats is a quiet, melancholy tale that could qualify as Bizarro tragedy. There is a surprising amount of feeling and emotion under the surface, which is riddled with a string of seemingly unconnected oddities. The narrator finds himself adrift in a floating house after the sea swallows up the world. He comes across another floating structure that looks like two women back-to-back. This structure becomes a lifeboat when his floating house sinks, but before it goes down, he discovers half-woman, half-animal creatures encased in blocks of ice and manages to save three of them.

Mellick fans will find his signature strangeness in abundance with this one, but the story overall is more muted than normal. This is not a bad thing, as this particular piece of Bizarro seems to really care about its characters, which is not always the case.

Everyone is dead, except for Conrad, the main character in Mellick's well written "Sea of the Patchwork Cats".
When the world commits suicide Conrad wakes up in a bar to find he is now all alone in the world. Or is he?
Eventually he finds a house to stay in and discovers several "people" frozen in blocks of ice.
When a storm hits the house begins to float away and comes to rest at a place with a giant statue.
Before the house sinks Conrad get a few of the frozen people into the statue. It's at this point where the story really begins.
What are these things that were left frozen in ice? What it up with the statue?
Mellick is one of the best in the Bizzaro genre and this book like his others will not disappoint.
Take it for a spin. You'll be happy that you did.

This books reads like a dream. It has that weird mixture of tranquility and horror. It starts with a man waking up to find that the whole world has committed suicide. He goes home. The water rushes up to his house and he floats away. I have had dreams just like this. I've been the captain of many house ships in my dream life. so I was very fond of this part of the book and was disappointed when he leaves it and moves into this odd statue/ tower. He meets some interesting characters in the tower. Their dynamics are dysfunctional and charming in that way that Mellick is so good at. This is a short and fun. Even a little scary at times. Not a classic, but an impressive read. The title is lame. I usually love Mellicks titles. Hated this one though.