Breakfast in fur by Michael Herrmann
Written: Nov 28 '04 (Updated Sep 28 '05)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Prepare for the unexpected.
Cons: Mucho profane language and scenes designed to shock.
The Bottom Line: The off-beat second volume in the White trash Trilogy is filled with pitch black humour.
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| damieng's Full Review: Breakfastinfur: A Novel Books |
Breakfastinfur is the second book of Michael Herrmann's White Trash Trilogy and, as such, it is important to have read book 1 - Big Jesus Trash Can - first. Unlike a series, books of a trilogy assume that the reader has read the earlier books and this is the case here with the story picking up 5 years after the end of the first and very little in the way of explanation is given to the events that have gone before.
Pitch Black Humour
The trilogy started out as a black humoured account of corruption in the northern Australian city referred to only as the City. In this book was definitely skewed towards the humour end of the spectrum. Breakfastinfur has seen a substantial shift in the balance and while the tone is still one of black humour, I would now regard it as inky, murky pitch black humour. Where he saved a few people in book 1, the carnage in this book is phenomenal.
The Plot Thickens
Well actually, in this case, it coagulates. When Big Jesus Trash Can ended in 1986 it appeared that although the state premier Jonathan Price was going to get a slap on the wrist for his fraudulent, murderous past, he was largely going to escape punishment. It's now 1991 and it seems that one of his victims in Book 1, a Japanese businessman, just happened to be a major Yakuza figure in his shadier side of life. A three-pronged Yakuza hit team bent on vengeance as well as recovering the money Price had embezzled is about to hit the City and, like a tsunami, will have a go at sweeping clean all before it.
In the meantime, Mark Throdeus, politician, closet homosexual and all around racist stinker has gone and gotten himself married, purely for political reasons, of course. His bride is the cold and calculating Russian Svetlana Molotov and she is obviously only in it for the money. She's about to have a crack at disproving the old adage that crime doesn't pay.
Almost Anything Goes
Michael Herrmann has cut loose in the second book of the White Trash Trilogy creating some wild and weird characters and then has put them through all kinds of hell. From the half-wit goon hit men who are as stupid as they are ruthless, to the transsexual mafia don, Babalou Mendoza and on to the highly strung PR executive Virgo Schlong Herrmann sets them up and them knocks them down with efficient ruthlessness. The only things that remain as mysteries are: who is going to survive this murder-fest, and; how many acts of depravity are going to be carried out before it's all over?
The Pulp Fiction Analogy
I keep emphasising the darkness of the humour but I'll give you a little example of the type of thing we're talking about. For those of you who have seen Pulp Fiction, some of the scenes in Breakfastinfur reminds me of the accidental shooting in the car scene in Pulp Fiction. I must admit, I was so unprepared for that scene that I laughed out loud in shock. Of course, if it happened in real life it would be a complete tragedy and there'd be nothing funny about it at all but because it was fictional and given the right context surrounding the circumstances, it became a funny scene. Herrmann has managed to inject the same weird humour into his book, transforming what should be shocking moments into nastily amusing scenes.
So...Should You Read It?
Call me weird, call me strange or put it down to Herrmann's innate ability to entertain no matter how irreverent the content but I really enjoyed Breakfastinfur. He goes out of his way to be as politically incorrect as possible, but he also manages to make sure that the unexpected is the norm, leaving you off-balance throughout the entire book. Language could be a problem for some readers because it is extreme, as are some of the violent scenes, so be warned. But otherwise, for lovers of off-beat humour prepared to take a wild ride, I'd certainly recommend it.
The mind boggles over the fact that there is another volume to complete the White Trash Trilogy, so given the unexpected turns that Book 2 has taken following the more sedate opening of Big Jesus Trash Can, one can expect the finale to take us absolutely anywhere.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
damieng
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Location: Sydney, Australia
Reviews written: 427
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Stop thanking me for my patience...I don't have any.
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