Some great sentences. A strange road trip including a stop in Boulder, whose atmosphere is well captured. ( )

The story follows Charles Homar as he looks to reclaim his bride-to-be. This was a lot of fun to read. I loved the wit and style of writing.

Gems such as these are scattered throughout:
"Wanting to write for the Globe and the Herald is like wanting to fight for the Austrians and the French."
"We human monsters make choices with teh minds of worms; good sense lies east, we veer west; trouble sends an invitation, we RSVP the very same day."
"Have you ever tried to read Thoreau? It's like listening to someon with Alzheimer's try to tell you about his high school prom."

...and it just keeps on going with wild digressions and windy pronouncements. I must point out that anyone who focuses too much on trying to follow the ins and outs of a plot, anyone looking for something resembling reality, should approach the book with caution. The book is most definitely disconnected from reality and logic throughout. Which is not to say it isn't funny or fun to read, because it certainly is both. Much of what I enjoyed about Busy Monsters came from watching the characters bumble along while the lead player maintains his first-person monologue.

Thank you Mr. Girard for a good laugh and a fine story.



I was given this book as a First-Reads selection. ( )

A wilde, picaresque romp of a story, "Busy Monsters" is one of the funnier books I have ever read, replete with linguistic bravado and slapstick silliness. The protagonist publishes this memoir as he lives it, so that the various characters he encounters on his adventures comment on the exaggerated outlandishness of the past episodes, frequently calling the credulity of his narrative into suspect in a fun, postmodern twist. The book is like if Napoleon Dynamite invented his own awesome adventures, told with the bravado of a Jack Black, a fine marriage of both high and lowbrows. My only knock is that the story eventually loses some momentum at the finish line. ( )

“For example, I myself do not care for the nitwit twangy platitudes and silly hats of country-western– and this despite the Garth Brooks always on rotation in Groot’s vehicle– but I’d suffer welts and lesions without certain R&B singers and, say, David Bowie circa Ziggy Stardust. Who does not require Bruce Springsteen– they don’t call him the Boss for nothing– snarling about a road called Thunder and how to get where it goes? Or Dylan gargling, bring’ it all back home? Neil Young and his thrasher? But my cellmate: the mutant nearly had a conniption when I’d tune our radio to the folk station to sing along with love-torn acoustic guitars. You tell me: what kind of person doesn’t appreciate a salty piano ballad with lyrics sung through smoke? Precisely my point: a mutated one.”

If ever a book deserved the term ‘whirlwind’, this book is it. Charles Homar, a memoir columnist, writes about his life as he experiences it week by week. Lately, his life has been a little more hectic than average. His bride-to-be Gillian Lee has ditched their life together and run away with a seaman to fulfill her lifelong dream; to capture a living Giant Squid. Homar comes home to an empty closet and a broken heart. In a quest to win back Gillian and prove his mettle, Homar flings himself headfirst into various strange and mythical expeditions. He hunts Bigfoot, helps a friend discover whether Aliens exist, meets a professional bodybuilder (and sex slaves, whom it is pointed out, engage in such things for fun as they both have college degrees) and then ends up in Boston with ghost hunters.

(If you're interested in reading more: http://confessionsofacommonreader.wordpress.com/2011/08/06/busy-monsters-by-will... ) ( )