Reflection's Edge

Book Review: Foop!, by Chris Genoa

Reviewer: Romie J. Stott

Joe is an underpaid tour guide for time travellers, thanks to the "shaved cat principle" which states that changes to the past don't affect the present - or so Joe thinks until he's put on an assignment protecting younger versions of his tyrannical boss. Soon, Joe finds himself surrounded by flashlight-toting cult followers of Ba Hubba Tree Bob "the Bright," menaced by creepy old men from space, and teamed with a hog-tying monkey in sunglasses. As Joe makes his way in and out of trouble, he realizes the fabric of time isn't as sturdy as it's cracked up to be, and it may be up to him to save the human race from itself.

Foop! is a surreal and often hillarious romp through the neuroses of the MTV generation, more similar to Fight Club and American Psycho than traditional science fiction - and it will likely develop the same cult following. Although Foop! borrows liberally from the tradition of Terry Prachett and Douglas Adams, new author Chris Genoa is willing to take risks that set Foop! apart - such as beginning the book with a nonsensical sing-along overture, or interrupting the narration for postmodern monologue.

When these conceits work, they work well. Like most absurdism, Foop! walks a tightrope between giddy humor and depressing alienation, and can have trouble finding the right balance. Also like most absurdism, Foop! is at its strongest in its opening chapters, when its author can play fast and loose with exposition, yanking the readers through hair-pin roller coaster corkscrews of lunacy. (The hillarious first chapter alone is worth the price of the book.) Later, when Genoa must pull the craziness together into a coherent whole, the story bogs down and loses a lot of its energy, although it rallies at the end.

Much of the credit for Foop! must go to Eraserhead Press, Foop!'s militantly avant-garde publisher. Eraserhead has done a wonderful job with Foop!'s graphic design, from the polished cover art by Lori Phillips to Chris Daily's quirky illustrations. Eraserhead also made the inspired decision to change the title of Foop! from its original title, "Poof." Unfortunately, Eraserhead did not take the same care with its editing of the text, perhaps because it did not wish to oppress Mr. Genoa with pro-corporate strictures like grammar. This will not be a problem for much of Foop!'s core audience, but dangling modifiers like "dead before I was born" can be extremely confusing in a novel about time travel. Fortunately, the text is usually engaging enough for its errors to be forgiven.

There are, however, exceptions - paragraphs and even chapters where it is clear that Genoa isn't quite sure what he's getting at, or where he stretches out a joke that doesn't really work in the first place. Although these weak spots are scattered throughout the book, most of them are in the third quarter - a section in which, inexplicably, Genoa decides to remove the main character from the action of the story and instead has him hang around his apartment not doing anything. Although this is a plausible character decision, it is not the stuff of good fiction. At other times, Genoa is shocking for the sake of being shocking - vulgar and cock-obsessed. This chaos and roughness will attract many young people with its "gritty authenticity," but may prevent Foop! from gaining a larger audience.

In short, Chris Genoa faces the usual problems of a new, innovative, clever author with a thrilling amount of potential: when he's good, he's so good that no one can touch him, and when he's bad, friends and editors assume they just missed something. If Genoa ever teams up with an editor as clever as he is, the world might have to collectively shake in its boots. As it stands, Foop! is still well worth picking up, and should become the darling of punks and Discordians everywhere.

To buy a copy of Foop!, click here.

If you liked this book, you may also enjoy:

The Man Who Folded Himself, by David Gerrold

Getting Into Death: The Best Short Stories of Thomas M. Disch, by Thomas M. Disch

The Complete Dramatic Works, by Samuel Beckett

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson

Principia Discordia, Or, How I Found Goddess and What I Did to Her When I Found Her: The Magnum Opiate of Malaclypse the Younger, by Malaclypse, Robert Anton Wilson, and Kerry W. Thornley

Punk in Drublic, by NoFX (audio CD)



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