Customer Reviews

Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot

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

 

 

This book is what I would imagine it would have been like to grow up as a boy with a younger brother rather than as a girl with a younger brother. Well, if both brothers were unnaturally accident-prone and/or possibly a bit insane. Maybe insane is too strong of a word. Was their story a result of some sort of psychological deficiency or just bad luck? In the case of Ace and his younger brother, Rem, I think it was just bad luck. Rotten luck.

When I first started reading, I thought the narrator (Ace) was completely reliable. Then I started to have an inkling of doubt, which soon became full-blown mistrust, especially when another narrator was introduced. That's when I had a hard time putting the book down. I had to find out what happened. I had to find out the truth.

At times hilarious, but more often tragic, loving, and poignant, Six Fang Marks & a Tetanus Shot was quite a ride. Besides the story itself, I also liked the not always linear scrapbook/diary format that the novel was written in. I enjoyed the flashbacks to all of the various incidents that occurred while the boys were growing up, and how they ultimately helped tie the novel together in the end.

If you've ever known boys, particularly two brothers, a lot of those stories will sound familiar. The competition...the fighting...the loyalty...the love.

This is a very interesting read from a first-time author. More of a scrapbook compilation of a story than a standard novel, the author moves through many different voices as he relates the story of Ace and Rem De Heer, two brothers growing up in South Africa.

The brothers De Heer are plagued by accidents that variously incapacitate and harm them, related in short snapshots titled with the cause of the accident and the injuries sustained- from a jousting match with bamboo poles to impaling oneself on a car door handle. Woven among these stories is a mystery surrounding an event of their childhood that has far ranging consequences and haunts them into adulthood. When Rem shows up in Amsterdam and is subsequently smacked flat by a tram, Ace finds that the brothers' shared past of accidents and tragedy isn't as easy to leave behind as he'd thought.

This is a story that teases you like a burlesque dancer, slowly dropping bits and pieces of its covering until the truth stands revealed. De Nooy's writing is quirky and written in a comfortable off-the-cuff manner that echoes the haphazard way his character's live their lives. His ability at writing dialect so that your mind hears it while reading is phenomenal. I particularly enjoyed a look at growing up in South Africa where the struggles of Apartheid were not the main focus, but rather events that intruded in upon the lives of the two brothers. I definitely look forward to the next work by this up-and-coming author

I thougt it was just a great book.
The writer is from South Africa and lives in Amsterdam, he knows what he is writing about.

What a fantastic read. It's got a bit of the 'what the hell is going on here?' Infinite Jest-ness to it, but only has 200 pages to straighten it out. It's a jigsaw puzzle sort-of whodunnit, but not really, but kind of, and it's compelling.

And disturbing. Very profoundly disturbing. I will not sleep well for a while.

When I first started reading this book, it reminded me of what it felt like to be ten again, riding my bike over a home-made jump with five friends lying down on the pavement in front of it, hoping I'd make it over.

That's the kind of exuberance and recklessness I found in Rem, one of the two brothers that this novel is about. I rooted for Rem, and loved his fearlessness, purity, and loyalty. To me, he was the epitome of boundless and unstoppable youth. His brother, Ysbrand (more familiarly known as Ace) is the flip side of Rem's coin - more cautious, thoughtful, hesitant - but just as likely to get caught up in the thick of things as Rem.

Six Fang Marks and a Tetanus Shot tells us the story of their lives, which are filled with and shaped by accidents - some minor, and some major - through Ace's recollections as well as that of a journalist trying to learn the truth.

As I continued reading, the book gained much more depth. Without spoilers, things were revealed that made me reconsider what I'd already read, and see things in a new light. It's the kind of book that you keep thinking about after you're done reading it, and find yourself going back to in order to rifle through the pages one more time.

Just sit back and hold on for the ride. It rockets all over - hilarious, tragic, poignant - but the more you read the more you'll want to find out where it's going. I'm looking forward to reading the next installment in what I understand will be a series.

Reads like a minimalist stony Joyce...this series of perspectives and media tells a story loosely in a narrative form that is highly innovative yet respectful of everyone from Dos Passos to the more experimental works of the beats.


The interaction between the settings of Holland and South Africa are often unsettling as is the experience must have been for everyone there.


I highly recommend this book to fans of non-linear work from Joyce to Kundera. And put down the alcohol and get ready to boot some soap.....

I must say, I enjoyed reading this book. It is about the deconstruction of a crime, and the motivations of two brothers that lead up to it. The layering of science throughout lent a tone of authenticity to the narrative, and there is an intriguing autobiographical facade that definitely made me want to know more. I understand there are 2 more yet-to-be-published parts to this saga, and I eagerly await them.

The style is crisp yet twisted, somewhere between journalism and comic book writing. It reminded me of the Great Gonzo, Hunter S. Thompson (in the sense of...Now, WHY did they do that?? Oh well, I am being vastly entertained by their pointless exercise in self-destruction, so what the hell? I'll just keep reading...). The glossary was very helpful in deciphering the vernacular, as an American reader I was unfamiliar with much of the SA and Dutch slang.
All in all, a very entertaining read!