Gelfling Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 If, like me, you occasionally yearn for something really unusual that you can't put down, then please participate in this thread:lurker: I have 2 books that I would like to inflict on as many people as possible. I discovered them quite by chance and I only wish that more people knew about them: The Pilo Family Circus - Will Elliot "Jamie's tyres squealed to a halt. Standing in the glare of the headlights was an apparition dressed in a puffy shirt with a garish flower pattern. It wore oversized red shoes, striped pants and white face paint. It stared at him with ungodly boggling eyes, then turned away..." This seemingly random, if bizarre, incident triggers a nightmarish chain of events as Jamie finds he is being stalked by a trio of gleefully sadistic clowns who deliver a terrifying ultimatum: You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You're joining the circus. Ain't that the best news you ever got? Jamie is plunged into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet, in this place, peopled by the gruesome, grotesque and monstrous, where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself - for when he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And, JJ wants Jamie dead... Geek Love - Katherine Dunn This audacious, mesmerizing novel should carry a warning: "Reader Beware." Those entering the world of carnival freaks described by narrator Olympia Binewski, a bald, humpbacked albino dwarf, will find no escape from a story at once engrossing and repellent, funny and terrifying, unreal and true to human nature. Dunn's vivid, energetic prose, her soaring imagination and assured narrative skill fuse to produce an unforgettable tale. The premise is bizarre. Art and Lily, owners of Binewski's Fabulon, a traveling carnival, decide to breed their own freak show by creating genetically altered children through the use of experimental drugs. "What greater gift could you offer your children than an inherent ability to earn a living just by being themselves?" muses Lily. Eventually their family consists of Arty, aka Arturo the Aqua Boy, born with flippers instead of limbs, who performs swimming inside a tank and soon learns how to manipulate his audience; Electra and Iphigenia, Siamese twins and pianists; the narrator, Oly; and Fortunato, also called the Chick, who seems normal at birth, but whose telekinetic powers become apparent just as his brokenhearted parents are about to abandon him. More than anatomy has been altered. Arty is a monsterpower hungry, evil, malicious, consumed by "dark, bitter meanness and . . . jagged rippling jealousy." Yet he has the capacity to inspire adoration, especially that of Oly, who is his willing slave, and who arranges to bear his child, Miranda, who appears "norm," but has a tiny tail. A spellbinding orator, Arty uses his ability to establish a religious cult, in which he preaches redemption through the sacrifice of body partsdigits and limbs."I want the losers who know they're losers. I want those who have a choice of tortures and pick me." This raw, shocking view of the human condition, a glimpse of the tormented people who live on the fringe, makes readers confront the dark, mad elements in every society. After a hiatus of almost two decades, the author of Attic and Truck has produced a novel that everyone will be talking about, a brilliant, suspenseful, heartbreaking tour de force. Any others Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freewheeling Andy Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 The Debt To Pleasure by John Lanchester (although it isn't really that obscure) Novel written as cookbook. Thriller, comedy, nasty, funny. If you can get past the slightly pretentious language, deliberate as the book is written in the first person by an effete chef, then it's just one of the very greatest of all modern novels. I love it. I can't say more because to say more would spoil some of it. Eucalyptus by Murray Bail The modern Australian fairy-tale. A farmer in the Australian outback has a beautiful daughter, and she has many suitors. He decides she can marry the man who can name all the species of eucalyptus on his farm. Strange, and light, and kind of wonderful and romantic. Very out of the normal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblomov Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 I have said it before and I'll say it again. The book that I would really like to inflict on as many people as possible is The Consort by Anthony Heckstall-Smith. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted February 14, 2008 Share Posted February 14, 2008 Eucalyptus by Murray Bail The modern Australian fairy-tale. A farmer in the Australian outback has a beautiful daughter, and she has many suitors. He decides she can marry the man who can name all the species of eucalyptus on his farm. Strange, and light, and kind of wonderful and romantic. Very out of the normal. This book came very, very close into being made into a movie a few years ago. It was going to star Nicole Kidman, Geoffrey Rush and Russell Crowe, and everything was set up (sets built etc) and ready to go and then suddenly there were conflicts with the script or something and the project was abandoned and everyone went home. Pity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
~Andrea~ Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare G K Chesterton's metaphysical thriller is a surreal detective story set in turn of the century London, with poets, policeman and bomb planting anarchists. It's full of wit, weirdness, pace, drama, and mystery and is one of my all time favourite books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsecorset Posted April 1, 2008 Share Posted April 1, 2008 'THE MASTER & MARGARITA' by Mikhail Bulgakov This book is like no other - brilliant romping farce, dark & delicious. The Devil has arrived in Stalinist Moscow with his entourage ready to cause mayhem to all who encounter him and party like only the devil knows how. The Devil's accomplices are stand-out characters, especially Behemoth the cat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freewheeling Andy Posted April 2, 2008 Share Posted April 2, 2008 Well, yes. But The Master & Margarita is the best book ever written, probably. And in my version that cat is called Begemot. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papillon Posted April 3, 2008 Share Posted April 3, 2008 Thanks Gelfling those two sound just the ticket I'll give them a try but just in case they're not as good.... Keep the lights on and watch your back! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ravenwood Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Gelfling! Glad to find someone else who's read Pilo - definately a book that will stay with me! Anyone else out there? Whenever I reccommend it, and I try to describe it you can see people starting to edge away..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Jacobs Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 Some Henry James are damn right weird. very descriptive and have no real thread. you don't know which until you begin to read. His Ghost stories although enjoyable were hard work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 'THE MASTER & MARGARITA' by Mikhail BulgakovThis book is like no other - brilliant romping farce, dark & delicious. The Devil has arrived in Stalinist Moscow with his entourage ready to cause mayhem to all who encounter him and party like only the devil knows how. The Devil's accomplices are stand-out characters, especially Behemoth the cat. I bought this recently, after learning that it was the book which inspired Mick Jagger to write Sympathy for the Devil (I am a big Stones fan)! I have heard so many good reviews of it, I really must get around to reading it soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruth Posted August 3, 2008 Share Posted August 3, 2008 The Pilo Family Circus - Will Elliot "Jamie's tyres squealed to a halt. Standing in the glare of the headlights was an apparition dressed in a puffy shirt with a garish flower pattern. It wore oversized red shoes, striped pants and white face paint. It stared at him with ungodly boggling eyes, then turned away..." This seemingly random, if bizarre, incident triggers a nightmarish chain of events as Jamie finds he is being stalked by a trio of gleefully sadistic clowns who deliver a terrifying ultimatum: You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You're joining the circus. Ain't that the best news you ever got? Jamie is plunged into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between hell and earth from which humankind's greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet, in this place, peopled by the gruesome, grotesque and monstrous, where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself - for when he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And, JJ wants Jamie dead... Read this a couple of months ago - great read, although I preferred the first 2/3 of the book to the final part. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Tiresias Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 Naked Lunch. by W. S. Burroughs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan burt Posted August 4, 2008 Share Posted August 4, 2008 To stick with the circus theme, Freezer Burn by Joe R. Lansdale contains some excellent characters.I enjoyed the book so much I read it in two days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
princessponti Posted August 5, 2008 Share Posted August 5, 2008 The 13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers - the absolute weirdest book I have ever read. It almost felt like it was written TO BE weird Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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