In his three previous novels Matt Ruff skirted around the genres of science fiction and fantasy, occasionally shooting straight through them, but like Pynchon and Lethem, doesn't quite want to settle there. Regardless, he is a fantasist in the best post-modern sense. Bad Monkeys is his latest and coolest book. It is the adventures of Jane Charlotte as told by Jane Charlotte while handcuffed in a cell and talking to a psychiatrist.
Her story begins with a restless childhood and how she is recruited to be a member of the Department for the Final Disposition of Irredeemable Persons. Such persons are referred to as Bad Monkeys. Once she has her main weapon in hand, what looks like a plastic toy gun, the novel becomes a wild ride of conspiracies, secret agencies, coded messages, UFOs and real wacky shit I don't want to give away.
The novel goes to crazy land and you are indeed intended to question the reality of it all. But this is Philip K Dick territory where the drug induced paranoia dial is set all the way to eleven. Getting lost in the madness is the right trick. Slick as pelican shit in high wind and so dripping with evil grin attitude it is an easy and fast read even though that'll probably do your head in. You may want to reread some sections just to make sure.
It's a funny and dangerous book about questioning the very idea of sanity and a sane society. I may be prejudiced by the great cover or towards anything that has monkeys in the title but I push this onto anyone who is into good cult fiction, Philip K Dick, Neil Stephenson, Pynchonesque writers and the postcyberpunks.
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