tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1519235354316330842.post8247224760327858666..comments2024-01-25T13:26:04.330-08:00Comments on days slip away like drips from a leaking faucet: Book Review: Cows by Matthew StokoeBen Arzatehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09903350466028308146noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1519235354316330842.post-51242225387779921622013-06-16T15:42:42.109-07:002013-06-16T15:42:42.109-07:00I can see how Cows could be too "out there&qu...I can see how Cows could be too "out there" to actually relate to it. I'd originally heard it called a Bizarro book, so I went in kind of expecting that. High Life and Empty Mile are supposed to be more noir-ish, so I am interested in seeing the direction he's gone in.Ben Arzatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09903350466028308146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1519235354316330842.post-42479327485112022542013-06-14T08:43:39.305-07:002013-06-14T08:43:39.305-07:00Coming pretty late to this review, but I saw the l...Coming pretty late to this review, but I saw the link while reading your post about Sotos and was intrigued, having read Cows a few months ago. I knew of it by reputation, but until recently there weren't any copies around that I could afford. The descriptions I read made it sound like straightforward extreme horror, so I was surprised by how surreal it was. What I thought would just be a conventional horror story turned out to actually be existential horror, a meditation on power/powerlessness and loneliness. So that's good.<br /><br />I can see why people consider this one of the most revolting novels ever written, but the nauseating imagery is so over the top and literally cover to cover, that it eventually becomes more funny than horrifying. Which, like you, I felt was both intentional and not. Everything from the dialogue to the characters and storyline is just too absurdly artificial to take seriously, so I really wonder what Stokoe was going for here. Ultra-black comedy? Maybe. It's too funny to be serious, but it's also too serious to be funny.<br /><br />It's competently written and kept my interest throughout, but I just don't know. I think it would have worked better for me as a short story or short prose poem. I'm no enemy of surreal fiction, but Cows feels too heavy-handed to me. Beneath the outrageous imagery, is it saying anything about the human condition that we haven't already seen thousands of times? Not that it has to, but it also doesn't give me characters who seem remotely recognizable as actual human beings (not to mention cows), so there's very little here to engage me. I didn't find it terrible, but aside from some memorable gross-out scenes -- like the Hagbeast and the genuinely nauseating stuff with his girlfriend -- and the very cool imagery of the murderous rampaging cows, I found it less affecting than I'd hoped.<br /><br />Still -- definitely a talented writer. I have his novel High Life somewhere, and look forward to reading it.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13213384268456041786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1519235354316330842.post-40836204252969752852012-06-15T22:44:29.164-07:002012-06-15T22:44:29.164-07:00It is very unfortunate how Creation Books has gone...It is very unfortunate how Creation Books has gone. They have a pretty big and very interesting catalog, almost all of which seems to be out of print. Hopefully more of those books will find new homes, they seem worthy of attention. I've heard a lot of good things of Stokoe's "High Life" and I'm looking forward to reading that. <br /><br />I can see how you connected the grimy feeling both Stokoe and Selby evoke. Though I think "Cows" and the "The Room" share a central theme as well. Both are about completely powerless individuals going to grotesque extremes to liberate themselves. Though in "The Room" the extremes take place in the protagonist's imagination whereas "Cows" has Steven forcing himself to physical extremes.Ben Arzatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09903350466028308146noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1519235354316330842.post-31285876743895064622012-06-14T20:08:59.100-07:002012-06-14T20:08:59.100-07:00It is interesting that you mention Hubert Selby be...It is interesting that you mention Hubert Selby because I found Stokoe's work disgusting in a very visceral way (and not just the nasty scenes). Selby was nasty to me as well. Just foul and kind of grubby? Does that make sense? You speak of smell and I didn't smell a stink but rather felt a grime that was common between both writers. But I didn't connect the feeling until you invoked Selby.<br /><br />My copy is an old Creation Books copy. Poor Stokoe was one of the writers who got fucked over by Creation Books and it was very cool to see that he finally got his work wrenched away and back under his own control and released under a better and honest imprint. Now that he's not being screwed over and dealing with the attendant nonsense that comes with it, he can concentrate on progressing as a writer because while I noted the unevenness that you mention, to convey such a sense of persistent grime and stench is an interesting talent.Anitahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16714838371647596016noreply@blogger.com