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Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear

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Laissez les Mal Temps Roulez: A Review of Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear, M. F. Korn

The great Louisiana hayride was definitively over at the beginning of the 1980s, when the oil boom ground to a halt, and state coffers ran dry. Once, a high school diploma was all that was needed to land a well-paying job in the oil field. Now, even a college degree is no longer a guarantee of a middle class existence. And for many, the sprawling petrochemical industries lining the river between Baton Rouge and New Orleans are the catalysts in this economic and social de-evolution.
Baton Rougean M. F. Korn captures a lurid slice of the city during this particular time in his latest novel, a blend of weird science, familiar streets, and local color. Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear opens at the end of the 1970's in a Highland Road bar frequented by LSU fraternity types. This is the best time of protagonist Ricky Harrison's young life: drinking beer, ditching classes, and flirting with nubile co-eds. But everything goes downhill after the night that Ricky takes one of these young women to the levy behind the Vet School for a moonlit parking session. There he is the first person in the world to spot a flesh-eating eel-like creature that evolved in the Mississippi River, which has become a toxic sludge due to runoff from the nearby chemical and nuclear power plants. Days turn into years, and Harrison graduates college into the tight labor market of the 1980s, and is forced to take a job as a day laborer in one of the oil refineries. Meanwhile, citizens of the state, including Harrison's own mother, contract fatal cancers at an alarming rate, and rumor has it that more of the eel-things have been spotted. To make matters worse, a camp of homeless people in Devil's Swamp have evolved into flesh-eating zombies after coming into contact with the creatures.
Korn's novel captures a variety of 1980's malaise particular to Baton Rouge. The oil refineries, chemical factories and nuclear power plants loom like gothic cathedrals, their toxins breeding Lovecraftian monsters representing a generation's own spiritual unrest. Even "the manicured lawns of Sherwood Forrest" are unable to provide solace when confronted with such a beast. Eventually, the toxic atmosphere spreads throughout the city. Citizens become infected with a mysterious virus that reduces them to mindless zombies, and the southern half of the state must be evacuated until a cure can be found for this plague. All who now remain in the state are a handful of scientists at LSU, working to find a cure, some petty criminals bent on looting Cortana Mall, and a few who, like Harrison himself, believe themselves so psychologically damned that they're already beyond redemption, and they have no better place to go anyway.
In spite of the plot, Skimming the Gumbo Nuclear is not particularly gory, and readers wishing to view the city through Korn's skewed lens but squeamish about the horror genre in general won't be particularly disturbed by his descriptions of zombies and strange beasties.

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About THE AUTHOR of twelve novels and 240 published stories:

Three of MF Korn's books, CONFESSIONS OF A GHOUL AND OTHER STORIES, and ALIENS, MINIBIKES AND OTHER STAPLES OF SUBURBIA, and also SKIMMING THE GUMBO NUCLEAR were mentioned in The Year's Best Fantasy & Horror: Fifteenth Annual Collection. CONFESSIONS OF A GHOUL AND OTHER STORIES was mentioned in The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones. RACHMANINOFF'S GHOST was also mentioned in The Mammoth Book Of Best New Horror edited the following year.
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Reviews below:
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Review from Amazing Authors Showcase Reviews

Definitely not for the average reader! This colorful tale of the author's view of a plague caused by man and pollution was a challenge in itself. It is truly a good fit to the audience that it was written for.

The publisher, Eraserhead Press, claims to create a new genre for "bizarre" literature. This author is definitely a rebel of the written word and has done his part in the fight to tear down convention and create a new era in alternative literature.

Our hero matches his creator's accomplishments in rebelling against what was expected all along the way. His unconventional attitudes, not to mention his very lively vocabulary, even in his thought processes, certainly added to the bizarre-ness quotient in this tome.

The ending, although predictable, occurs at the same spurt of breakneck speed that happens sporadically throughout the work. In that final moment, he mutates from the aimless, chemically-stimulated "college boy" into a hero that saves what is left of the wasted landscape and day.

This is not a light read or something that you would want to take to the beach. This book would be better read when the mood is more philosophical and the intensity dial is set to high.

Review by JoElla Lukehart


Review from Nacho Cheese and Anarchy:

It's the apocalypse. It's the end of the world. It's the all out downfall of society and humanity as we know it. And I couldn't be more pleased. Maybe it was the great R.E.M. song that said "It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine" that makes me think of this book. Finally, someone is able to toy with the fact that we- as humans- are slowly destroying ourselves. And while at times it may seem a bit too slow, the process does eventually speed up and it will eventually catch up with us. The only problem is most people think it won't catch up with them in their lifetime. Well, what if it does? What if this all catches up with you in your lifetime? What if the death of you- one person- not only becomes just that, but also the death of every living thing? It's something I'm sure we all have pondered. And as M.F. Korn takes us through these pages filled with the eventual end of mankind, I can't help but get a happy feeling from it all (though I shouldn't) and reassurance in knowing that I'm not the only one contemplating the end. Not just the end of my life and my time, but the end of all life and of all time.

This is the first book I have read by this author and I have heard great things about him. This book however was sloppy. There were so many typos it made it hard to read. There is even a typo on the back cover. The language was interesting, but just when you got into the flow of it there was another typo. Hopefully some of his other books are better and hopefully all the typos were not intentional. I ordered All the Mutant Trash and will read it and give this author another chance, because there was alot of potential in this book.

The reviewer below (who knows nothing of Louisiana) fails to realize that the novel is written in the vernacular of Louisiana speech and the idiom, the colloquialism (to lie, exagerate) of the cross-section of the peasant society that is Louisiana. The misspellings of speech are not at all that, but very intentional to capture the spirit of the free-wheeling characters within the novel. This is the way people talk here. This book was mentioned in the Annual Years Best Horror and Fantasy when it went into print.

This is an astonishing book, filled with arresting language, biting social satire, and futuristic vision. The style is equal parts H.P. Lovecraft, Ray Bradbury, and Flannery O'Connor. No book I've read in the past 10 years is quite like it - this is a must-read for anyone who likes to keep pace with cutting edge fiction.