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Mykle Hansen

Teoksen HELP! A Bear is Eating Me! tekijä

9+ teosta 423 jäsentä 26 arvostelua 1 Favorited

Tietoja tekijästä

Includes the name: Mykle Hansen

Tekijän teokset

Associated Works

The Best Bizarro Fiction of the Decade (2012) — Avustaja — 40 kappaletta
Amazing Stories of the Flying Spaghetti Monster (2011) — Avustaja — 16 kappaletta
Walrus Tales (2012) — Avustaja — 3 kappaletta

Merkitty avainsanalla

Yleistieto

Sukupuoli
male
Asuinpaikat
Portland, Oregon, USA

Jäseniä

Kirja-arvosteluja

Forse, quando in questo Stato si decideranno a sbattere fuori a calci quei quattro straccioni di eschimesi e cominceranno a cercare un po’ di petrolio, avranno le risorse per importare qualche poliziotto bello tosto, come quelli delle nostre periferie degradate, e mettere in riga gli orsi. (17)

Ma io non appartengo al regno animale. Io sono cittadino degli Stati Uniti, cazzo! (26)

E’ una specie di hippy invecchiato. Ha sempre magliette anni Settanta, calzoncini da jogging, baffi grigi impomatati e capelli dello stesso colore raccolti in un codino: uno schifo, in sostanza. (36)

Negli anni Cinquanta l’America aveva attaccato e quasi messo al suo posto la natura, ma poi torme di capelloni abbracciabalene erano riusciti ad infiltrarsi nelle infrastrutture della societa’ e avevano indebolito la nostra resistenza. (113)

Okay, il terrorismo e’... be’, non e’ facile da spiegare, …
No, no, no. Non io, non gli umani, sono gente diversa, completamente diversa. Hanno turbanti e barbe lunghe e sfrangiate. Se vedi qualcuno col turbante e la barba lunga che si intrufola da queste parti, non fartelo scappare, mangialo subito, okay? (139)
… (lisätietoja)
 
Merkitty asiattomaksi
NewLibrary78 | Jul 22, 2023 |
Help! A bear is eating Marv Pushkin!

And, uh, that's pretty much it. That was the easiest review I've ever written.

Well, okay, maybe that's not all of it.

What happens when you have a complete narcissist stuck in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness (insert Sarah Palin joke here) underneath his SUV getting eaten by a bear? You have Help! A Bear is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen.

It's been said that there are three basic plots: Man vs. man, man vs. nature, and man vs. himself. While this book at first seems like it would be man vs. nature just by the title alone, it quickly becomes apparent that this plot is actually man vs. himself. This book is a character study in its purest form. It's told in a complete stream-of-consciousness style where you read Marv's entire thought process during the days he is trapped under his SUV being slowly eaten by a bear and waiting for rescue. He flashes back to his version of events throughout his life and how it led up to him being in this predicament. There's nothing left out of this stream, so you'll read everything he's thinking, hallucinations and all.

Marv Pushkin is probably on the most unlikable characters you will ever read about, which tests the literary hypothesis that the protagonist, while flawed, always needs to be likable, or at least redeemable, to the reader. Marv has no redeeming values. He's an ad executive, a bully, a philanderer, and completely self-centered. He thinks of himself as a gift to the universe and that through the power of positive thinking, the universe is there to serve him. As the book progresses, though, you discover that everything is not peachy-keen with Marv. He's got some serious demons and has a history of mental illness. At times, you're not entirely sure if what he's describing is what's actually happening or if it's just happening in his head. So, while he doesn't have a redeeming value, he does have a certain sympathetic value, and the reader come to feel sorry for him. Whether the reader roots for him to get out of the situation is up to each individual reader and how sympathetic they actually are.

The stream-of-consciousness style of writing is often something that puts off a lot of people. I'm actually drawn to it. It's fascinating to actually get into another person head and read every thought that goes through their mind, rather than the selected thoughts that many authors choose to show for the sake of plot. Marv, however, is the plot. In a sense, he's correct in that he is the universe, at least as it pertains to this book.

The stream-of-consciousness does get a bit choppy at times, but for the most part it flows well with a few bumps here and there. I'm not entirely sold on the ending either (which is probably not what you're expecting), but in its own way it worked, especially given what we learn about Marv during the course of the novel.

While this book is technically classified as bizarro fiction, the most bizarre thing about it is that it's published by Eraserhead Press. There's really nothing that bizarre about it. So if you're expecting a genuine bizarro book, or what you may think of when you think about bizarre fiction, you'll probably be disappointed. If you're looking for a genuine character study of a severely broken man who doesn't know he's broken, then you'll definitely want to read this.

Help! A Bear is Eating Me! by Mykle Hansen earns a solid 4 bear cubs out of 5.
… (lisätietoja)
 
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sheldonnylander | 12 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Apr 5, 2023 |
A lot of fun bits in here. Some misses, to be sure, but on the whole pretty entertaining. The epilogue for the second edition redeems whatever missteps were made in the original.
 
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mkfs | 1 muu arvostelu | Aug 13, 2022 |
Good concept, and nice use of flashback and context to explain motivation, but disappointing.
 
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et.carole | 12 muuta kirja-arvostelua | Jan 21, 2022 |

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Teokset
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Also by
3
Jäseniä
423
Suosituimmuussija
#57,688
Arvio (tähdet)
3.8
Kirja-arvosteluja
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ISBN:t
10
Kielet
3
Kuinka monen suosikki
1

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