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A review by easyqueenie
Miss Subways by David Duchovny
3.0
Finally, Sophie picked up David Duchovny’s latest book, Miss Subways. Although generally rather dubious of celebrities penning books, Sophie hugely enjoyed Duchovny’s previous novel Bucky F*cking Dent (that Masters and partially completed English Literature PhD probably helped him quite a bit) and was hoping for more intimate New York storytelling. Instead, Miss Subways tries to be a mashup of Neverwhere and American Gods but falls short of both.
Emer Gunnels once had a brain tumor that caused her to experience vivid hallucinations. One evening she is approached by a “strange little man” who shows her a video of her boyfriend Cuchulain (the pair are named for figures from Irish folklore) being pushed in front of a car by a woman named Nancy/Anansi whom he met that evening. The man offers Emer the opportunity to save Con’s life but in doing so the world will change, Con and Emer will have never known one another and must never meet. Emer accepts the offer and saves Con’s life, waking up in a new reality with no memories of her old life, but things do not go smoothly from here as Gods and monsters begin entering her life causing her to wonder if her experiences are real, or more hallucinations and the universe seems determined to bring Emer and Con back together.
This was a very weird book. Think elderly people having an orgy in the Central Park reservoir while chanting their allegiance to a Chinese food delivery service God level weird. In fact, Sophie’s favorite line came from one of the sex scenes (all written in the worst kind of 12-year-old fanfiction style): “his lips were like that sci-fi tool in the movie Men in Black that make you forget everything.” True genius.
Sophie couldn’t say she enjoyed it as much as Bucky F*cking Dent, but it’s certainly one of the most bizarre books she’s read in a long while, and sometimes that burst of “WTF am I reading here?” is just what the doctor ordered.
Emer Gunnels once had a brain tumor that caused her to experience vivid hallucinations. One evening she is approached by a “strange little man” who shows her a video of her boyfriend Cuchulain (the pair are named for figures from Irish folklore) being pushed in front of a car by a woman named Nancy/Anansi whom he met that evening. The man offers Emer the opportunity to save Con’s life but in doing so the world will change, Con and Emer will have never known one another and must never meet. Emer accepts the offer and saves Con’s life, waking up in a new reality with no memories of her old life, but things do not go smoothly from here as Gods and monsters begin entering her life causing her to wonder if her experiences are real, or more hallucinations and the universe seems determined to bring Emer and Con back together.
This was a very weird book. Think elderly people having an orgy in the Central Park reservoir while chanting their allegiance to a Chinese food delivery service God level weird. In fact, Sophie’s favorite line came from one of the sex scenes (all written in the worst kind of 12-year-old fanfiction style): “his lips were like that sci-fi tool in the movie Men in Black that make you forget everything.” True genius.
Sophie couldn’t say she enjoyed it as much as Bucky F*cking Dent, but it’s certainly one of the most bizarre books she’s read in a long while, and sometimes that burst of “WTF am I reading here?” is just what the doctor ordered.