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3.86 AVERAGE
3.86 AVERAGE
I hate you steve. like really really hate you. how can this book be only 56 pages long. I mean I was thinking it was about 75 and when it ended. Well I'm not speaking to you for at least the next 20 minutes because that was just mean.
This book is totally in my top 2 for bizarro novels. To avoid offense, I'll withhold the other contender so you can all pretend it's your novel. Fuck this is probably in my top ten novels overall. I love this book. In the book do you think what you think you think or some similar nonsense title there is a quiz on aesthetics. The point of the quiz being the thing you would take with you to a desert island is not the thing that you would claim is great art. We like to say things like "Look at that skill?" But really skill can go fuck itself. Well traditional "you can't compare modern writers to shakespeare type "skill"". Steve Lowe is totally better than shakespeare... Except maybe othello but that is another debate for another review.
I wasn't going to read this book today. See I started this other book the alternative hero but it has suggested listening and since I'm not a music person I have none of the right songs on my ipod and have to download them. So this morning I got up late and grabbed London is the best city in america because it was on my bed and this because it was in the barnes and noble bag on my desk chair and short so I could read it then move on to the book I wanted to read. Plus I told him I would read it like forever ago. But now that poor book. It isn't going to be able to compete with this amazingness.
Are you getting the point that this book is awesome?
Okay somethings actually about the book. It has a nice sentimental side and says hornbyesqe things like "when did we stop laughing." It takes an overused plot device and uses it ironically and in a new way, umberto would be proud. and it is fucking amazingly fun to read.
Steve... I want a longer book... NOW
This book is totally in my top 2 for bizarro novels. To avoid offense, I'll withhold the other contender so you can all pretend it's your novel. Fuck this is probably in my top ten novels overall. I love this book. In the book do you think what you think you think or some similar nonsense title there is a quiz on aesthetics. The point of the quiz being the thing you would take with you to a desert island is not the thing that you would claim is great art. We like to say things like "Look at that skill?" But really skill can go fuck itself. Well traditional "you can't compare modern writers to shakespeare type "skill"". Steve Lowe is totally better than shakespeare... Except maybe othello but that is another debate for another review.
I wasn't going to read this book today. See I started this other book the alternative hero but it has suggested listening and since I'm not a music person I have none of the right songs on my ipod and have to download them. So this morning I got up late and grabbed London is the best city in america because it was on my bed and this because it was in the barnes and noble bag on my desk chair and short so I could read it then move on to the book I wanted to read. Plus I told him I would read it like forever ago. But now that poor book. It isn't going to be able to compete with this amazingness.
Are you getting the point that this book is awesome?
Okay somethings actually about the book. It has a nice sentimental side and says hornbyesqe things like "when did we stop laughing." It takes an overused plot device and uses it ironically and in a new way, umberto would be proud. and it is fucking amazingly fun to read.
Steve... I want a longer book... NOW
What if you woke up to find that your wife had post partum depression so bad that she was ready to murder you? What if she succeeded? But somehow you'd swapped bodies during the night? And so had your neighbors? You'd think that would be creepy, dark and sad, but its actually pretty damn funny.
It's less than 100pp long, you can read it in an evening and still have a little time left over for whatever you think you should be reading instead.
But, yes, this is such a fun and at the same time thoughtful book that you SHOULD put that other book aside for a while.
To make it even easier I put my copy up on swap (it's already taken, so you'll probably have to wait a while before you see that title on there again), but seriously, I bought a copy during [a:Steve Lowe|315800|Steve Lowe|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s "Buy a Book, Help a Kid" campaign and it arrived in two days. Less than 100 pp, two day delivery time, what's not to love?
I would love to see this story dramatized as a short film, heck -even a feature length film. It would be a BLAST and a challenge to act in it! Winona Ryder would be great for one of the roles.
This was the first book in a long time that I considered giving FIVE whole stars. So, here's the deal I made: If my pure enjoyment in this wacky tale of bodyswitching, post-partum depression, government conspiracy and implied bestiality inspired anyone to read this and they liked it too, and let me know by posting a comment to this review or sending me a message and I would up my rating to a FIVE. GR users, you have spoken! Thanks! And [a:Steve Lowe|315800|Steve Lowe|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg], you deserve that five!
It's less than 100pp long, you can read it in an evening and still have a little time left over for whatever you think you should be reading instead.
But, yes, this is such a fun and at the same time thoughtful book that you SHOULD put that other book aside for a while.
To make it even easier I put my copy up on swap (it's already taken, so you'll probably have to wait a while before you see that title on there again), but seriously, I bought a copy during [a:Steve Lowe|315800|Steve Lowe|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg]'s "Buy a Book, Help a Kid" campaign and it arrived in two days. Less than 100 pp, two day delivery time, what's not to love?
I would love to see this story dramatized as a short film, heck -even a feature length film. It would be a BLAST and a challenge to act in it! Winona Ryder would be great for one of the roles.
This was the first book in a long time that I considered giving FIVE whole stars. So, here's the deal I made: If my pure enjoyment in this wacky tale of bodyswitching, post-partum depression, government conspiracy and implied bestiality inspired anyone to read this and they liked it too, and let me know by posting a comment to this review or sending me a message and I would up my rating to a FIVE. GR users, you have spoken! Thanks! And [a:Steve Lowe|315800|Steve Lowe|http://www.goodreads.com/images/nophoto/nophoto-U-50x66.jpg], you deserve that five!
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Steve Lowe, Muscle Memory (Eraserhead Press, 2010)
I actually finished reading Muscle Memory over four months ago. I've only been writing reviews sporadically this summer (trying to get a bunch of really big projects hurried along toward their conclusions), so I've ended up sitting on this one in particular for way too long. Sorry about that, Steve. As you will know if you've read the one I tore off a while back for Wolves Dressed As Men, I am an unrepentant, unapologetic Steve Lowe fanboy, so I'm not even going to attempt to put up some sort of facade that this is an unbiased review in any way. In fact, if I could just write “read this!” three hundred eight (and a half) times, I'd do that.
Now, normally I'm not a big fan of comedy; if you've read enough of my reviews you'll probably get that impression. But when I find an author who actually manages to come up with good, solid comic timing, I become a fan pretty quick. Lowe, for all that Wolves... was a serious book, is capable of firing off the witty one-liners as well. And where better to do it than in the middle of a scurrilous, jaundiced, obscene murder mystery? And despite this being a comedy, and even better one about switching bodies (and the point at which the main characters discover the law that oversaw the switching of bodies is one of the book's most hilarious), it is at heart a mystery. Our main character, Billy, wakes up one morning and finds his consciousness inhabiting the body of his wife Tina. And here's where it gets interesting: it's entirely possible that Tina floated over into Billy's body... but no one knows, because Billy is lying there quite dead. It's pretty obvious what happened, since there was no one else in the house, and wasn't that the best karmic joke ever on Tina? But the fact remains, this whole body-switching business is not just limited to one household. Which means, inevitably, the guys in the black suits are going to get involved. Billy and his cadre of redneck pals have to figure out what happened before the Feds decide to haul everyone away to Gitmo or something. But, and here's kicker #2, do they want to put it back? After all, Billy's body is lying in the house decaying...
My main complaint with Muscle Memory is the same as my main complaint with Wolves Dressed As Men: it's too bloody short. Lowe is easily gifted enough to be writing full-length blockbuster novels, and judging by the differences in subject matter form his first two books, he may well be capable of doing so for any genre to which he turns his hand. (And while I'm not sure if this parenthetical will make it through the Amazon censors, I should note that the sequel to Muscle Memory is available free on Lowe's website... which I can't link to because I KNOW that'd get pulled. Google it.) But for the ninety-odd pages we get, Muscle Memory is a sheer joy, as long as you don't mind scatology, rednecks, dead bodies, guys who react exactly the way you think guys would react when finding themselves in female bodies, the Man, and intimations of sexual acts so perverse they're banned in Seattle. In other words, as one highly astute reviewer of another book I reviewed in this ish said, “Not for Christians to read.” Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, I know a few who would probably split themselves laughing at this.
And if you didn't like the review, just pretend I said “read this!” three hundred eight and a half times. But one way or the other, read this! *** ½
I actually finished reading Muscle Memory over four months ago. I've only been writing reviews sporadically this summer (trying to get a bunch of really big projects hurried along toward their conclusions), so I've ended up sitting on this one in particular for way too long. Sorry about that, Steve. As you will know if you've read the one I tore off a while back for Wolves Dressed As Men, I am an unrepentant, unapologetic Steve Lowe fanboy, so I'm not even going to attempt to put up some sort of facade that this is an unbiased review in any way. In fact, if I could just write “read this!” three hundred eight (and a half) times, I'd do that.
Now, normally I'm not a big fan of comedy; if you've read enough of my reviews you'll probably get that impression. But when I find an author who actually manages to come up with good, solid comic timing, I become a fan pretty quick. Lowe, for all that Wolves... was a serious book, is capable of firing off the witty one-liners as well. And where better to do it than in the middle of a scurrilous, jaundiced, obscene murder mystery? And despite this being a comedy, and even better one about switching bodies (and the point at which the main characters discover the law that oversaw the switching of bodies is one of the book's most hilarious), it is at heart a mystery. Our main character, Billy, wakes up one morning and finds his consciousness inhabiting the body of his wife Tina. And here's where it gets interesting: it's entirely possible that Tina floated over into Billy's body... but no one knows, because Billy is lying there quite dead. It's pretty obvious what happened, since there was no one else in the house, and wasn't that the best karmic joke ever on Tina? But the fact remains, this whole body-switching business is not just limited to one household. Which means, inevitably, the guys in the black suits are going to get involved. Billy and his cadre of redneck pals have to figure out what happened before the Feds decide to haul everyone away to Gitmo or something. But, and here's kicker #2, do they want to put it back? After all, Billy's body is lying in the house decaying...
My main complaint with Muscle Memory is the same as my main complaint with Wolves Dressed As Men: it's too bloody short. Lowe is easily gifted enough to be writing full-length blockbuster novels, and judging by the differences in subject matter form his first two books, he may well be capable of doing so for any genre to which he turns his hand. (And while I'm not sure if this parenthetical will make it through the Amazon censors, I should note that the sequel to Muscle Memory is available free on Lowe's website... which I can't link to because I KNOW that'd get pulled. Google it.) But for the ninety-odd pages we get, Muscle Memory is a sheer joy, as long as you don't mind scatology, rednecks, dead bodies, guys who react exactly the way you think guys would react when finding themselves in female bodies, the Man, and intimations of sexual acts so perverse they're banned in Seattle. In other words, as one highly astute reviewer of another book I reviewed in this ish said, “Not for Christians to read.” Well, I wouldn't go quite that far, I know a few who would probably split themselves laughing at this.
And if you didn't like the review, just pretend I said “read this!” three hundred eight and a half times. But one way or the other, read this! *** ½