Customer Reviews

Tomas

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I got this book based on the author and reviews I'd read. It was entertaining, especially some of the illustrations but I have to admit much of it was quite frightening with an undertone of bizarre humor. Palumbo is a brilliant writer with an odd sense of humor which I love. His rebellious streak shines through his words and through the characters and scenarios in the book which once you finish reading it makes you look at the world in a slightly different way. I read the book over a weekend so I recommend it as a fairly entertaining quick read.

In attempting to describe Tomas from a general standpoint, it's hard to come up with a concise fit within the boundaries of literary genres or to even come up with another writer whom exemplifies a similar style. In making the grave sin of comparing Tomas to other titles I've read and other media I've been exposed to, I'd sum it up as the amalgamation of Chuck Palahniuk 's disturbing surrealism, the morality of Boondock Saints, the literary and scientific license of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5, the ebb and flow of Franz Kafka's The Trial, and the far out futurism of Phillip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep. In other words it's frighteningly bizarre and absolutely riveting.

Palumbo captures a rather harsh criticism of modern society and its rather immoral and unhealthy obsessions in a time set in some not so distant future. The proliferation of reality TV has culminated in the global TV network. Material wealth requires obscene and ridiculous physical manifestations. Enter Tomas... the reformed former TV star and a rebel without a very coherent cause.

Tomas's efforts to enact gruesome moral reforms result in a protracted legal trial and ultimately to his untimely execution on live television. The events that transpire from that point become a complex struggle for good and evil on top of a struggle for national hegemony on a global scale. In a rapidly unfolding plot, the future of all humanity revolves around the efforts of a call girl, a dying judge, a reporter, an alien with telekinetic powers, and the advice of the late emperor Napoleon.

Palumbo provides readers with their money's worth as the plot twist and turns. Surprising he takes a cast of freakish and oddly placed characters and ties them together in a strangely-humored modern satire. The characters are hard not to admire despite their clearly articulated flaws making the essence of the book much more tangible while at the same time inspiring contradicting emotions.

Tomas captures a sense of darkness and despair through a disturbingly constructed vision of the future and Palumbo's twisted sense of humor at times borders on grotesque. The book accomplishes a snarky worldview that fuels its success as a satire. It's blood, guts, and money in an insightfully dark social commentary that hits on some open nerves.

In addition Palumbo's talented writing, Tomas also features a number of detailed illustrations which captures the feel of the novel.