Flawed pastiche
From Amazon
An interesting pastiche on "King Kong" and '50s monster movies is marred by anachronisms (having Sinatra singing "New York, New York" more than 25 years before the song was written; "Fiddler on the Roof" playing on Broadway six years before it opened). That might be forgiven as plain laziness by the writer, but the repeated inclusion of completely extraneous anti-Israel slurs (such as comparing them to Nazis) marks Maine as a writer with an agenda I do not wish to encounter again. Even referring to "Palestinians" is anachronistic as the local Arabs certainly weren't calling themselves that in the 1950s, and the West Bank and Gaza were being occupied not by Israel at the time but Egypt and Jordan. In his closing credits Maine references classic Israel bashers like Noam Chomsky and a Palestinian website. If the book was focusing on Maine's anti-Israel bias, his claims and distortions could be discussed and shot down. Instead he inserts these references into the text like a Hamas suicide bomber sneaking into an Israeli supermarket or college cafeteria. Why he would deface his novel -- which has NOTHING to do with this subject -- with this propaganda suggests his political agenda trumps his ability to tell a story.
On the soapbox and Lady Liberty
From Amazon
Maine sets up the book as a spoof of 1950s horror films, complete with corny dialogue, while at the same time echoing John Gardner's "Grendel" in that Maine tries to get into the "head" of a mutant, 40-foot monster. Some of the writing, particularly in the deptictions of the characters of Betty and Doug, is very good, and there's a good deal of excitement as well as sex and gore. But Maine has axes to grind about the United States and the world of the 1950s, and the novel, short as it is, suffers from the pretty naked preaching about Iran, Palenstine and Hungary.
Good stuff even without the crumbly goat's cheese
From Amazon
Hah, it is equally as erudite and intelligent as any of his previous books. But this time in utilising the readers own (assumed) knowledge of the King Kong school of cinema with which to paint his canvas he misses out one of the most interesting things that he generously offered us within all of his previous works, namely the use of his own unique and personal knowledge (and understanding) of middle the eastern cultures, cuisines, habits ECT. So whilst reading Monster I found myself feeling nostalgic for all of that crumbly goat's cheese and the blazing fields of yellow mustard flowers, and for those clammy whitewashed interior walls, and those fat ripe figs and the sticky honey combs and the tangled greying beards and the acrid bad breath and spittle. The other quibble of course is his childishly unsubtle use of global politics. Even though I agree on almost every point with him it still grates a bit here because all of this ranting does nothing to really enhance this novel's basic premise. I'm sure that both he and I and anyone else for that matter could quite easily compile a list of atrocities committed by and bad intentions acted upon by bad eggs for almost any day of the year since Cane first picked up that rock and took out his Brother Abel, but so what! Doug made me smile and laugh out loud and I'm glad that the bad guy got away with the dough but...There is something of the spirit of Richard Brautigan pounding around within the walls of this book and also inside his recent blog writing, and I have nothing against this being a card carrying Uber fan of Mr B myself; but still I think that all in all I preferred his previous works and I do hope that whatever his next choice of a subject that he will give us much more of that crumbly goats cheese and of that poor dithering Doug's discomfort and less of his angst ridden soap box ranting.
ed wood meets hg (and orson!)wells
From Amazon
as any monster-movie fan worth the zipper up the gill-man's costume back knows, what we have here is the ripping yarn of a misunderstood but hopelesly romantic creatur named k, torn from a mysterious island of prehistoric terrors to challenge the hypocricy and greed of modern man and give his life for whatever scrap of kindness the leading lady throws him, while we in the theater root for the big guy, yes?
NO, that was another K with a capital initial, way back in 1932, and way back then, we knew that the leading man and the leading lady though not the brightest of individuals, were at least BRAVE and DECENT, and even the venal impressario had a certain aura of innocence on him and a respect, however grudging, to that other famous K. the viewer knew, that there is something very wrong with modern exploitation and racism because that message was and still is WOVEN INTO the rationale of all monster stories, from frankenstein to quasimodo downright to that other famous K in 1932 himself. these characters SHOWED us what's wrong, as implicit from interactions within the plot, rather than TELL us what's wrong with modern society.
and that brings me to hg. wells: mr.maine's novel in it's begining nods respectfully towards FOOD OF THE GODS, and yet later on in the novel , as was the case in the later stage of hg.wells's career, the narrative is ever narrowed in favor of the dydactic, the theoretical, which then assume lives of their own. mr. maine chose to concentrate on the dydactics of the monster narrative, to the extent of undermining what could have been an excellent STORY. rather than get a story that integrates cultural issues and assimilates them into the action sof the characters, mr.maine's desire to show all the ills of society results in "director's commentary" that actually turns into two clashing "tracks". thus we veer from the wit and imagination of h.g.wells to the simplification, however witty in itself of orson,in the night that panicked america, but also gave names and tags to issues worked better nameless in the original text. as for the ed wood angle mr. maine's K (as opposed to the more famous K, in 1932) is an attachment to the mechanics,however stop-motioned, of a monster story, of over-stating issues that, once the over-statement accelerates, neither add nor diminish the story's value: what does it add to know of sexual desires? of racial tension? it does add much indeed, but that is why the story itself exists as a metaphor, addressed at an audience that is niether as repressed nor as innocent as the author assumes. the same is true of 1932, and of that other famous K.
to conclude, even the cultural commentary is somewhat askew, as evinced in the strange comparison made between the palestinians, into whose national ethos it is explicitly woven that the state of israel has no right to exist , versus israel itself, founded by victims of the holocaust, and whose decleration of independance openly states the desire for peace. i call that comparison odd, to say the least, with all due respect to the dislocation of israeli arabs who sought to destroy Israel..it had to be said.
what we have here is indeed a creature part gill-man, part mothra, part godzila, all wit (the reason for three stars) but very little if any of the elementary wisdom required to touch the audience's heart ,such as in the case of the more famous K in 1932.
Technicolor
From Amazon
If you thought the 1950's monster movie story was all used up, David Maine will prove you wrong as soon as you've hacked your way through a few pages of jungle on his nuclear-contaminated island. Maine includes all the parts left out of the originals: the primitive sacrificial victim who preceded the beautiful blonde intruder, the sluggish thought processes of the innocent vegetarian monster. He even fleshes out the highly interesting sex life you always fantasized about between the square-jawed hero and the big-busted heroine he saves. Gotta love it!
An arch, sardonic comic-book of a novel that brings technicolor into a black and white landscape. Definitely a romp.