Alice in Zombieland by Lewis Carroll and Nickolas Cook
Illustrated by Sir John Tenniel and Brent Cardillo
ISBN: 9781402256219
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Release Date: March 2011

FTC disclosure: Review copy provided by publisher

I had a lot of fun reading this. You may not. It depends on your sensibilities and expectations.

First of all, this is a humor book. The reader is asked to lighten up and go along for the ride. To have fun and not to dwell too heavily on the fact that there is little originality to the story except for the characterizations and some of the settings.

As some reviewers have noted, and criticized Cook for, is the sense that he did not make this work his own as much as Seth Grahame-Smith did with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.

It’s obvious from the beginning that he took Carroll’s work and merely altered it.

Either he did not feel the need to reinvent, or this is a slapped out, bandwagon jumping effort to take advantage of the success of the types of books I listed above.

Even the publisher acknowledges this in an offhand way:

“A fresh and hilarious new zombie mash-up, bringing the hottest format on the humor shelf to a beloved classic, complete with zombie-fied updates to the renowned illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. Sure to be a major hit with humor, Alice and zombie enthusiasts everywhere!”

Uh, I’m not sure about that last part.

Yes, people who spend time in the humor section of the bookstore will like this book. Zombie enthusiasts should like the tack Cook takes with the story. But diehard Alice fans? I’m not so sure. From what I’ve seen around the web, not all were thrilled with Cook’s efforts.

I made it easy on myself and just read expecting nothing more than to have a giggle at Alice’s adventures through a dark and disturbing world. It was a fun read, but challenging at times.

The review copy I received was very raw. The errors in this unfinished product got to me, especially toward the end of the book. This however is the nature of the beast when dealing with an uncorrected proof. So I cannot fault the writer or the story heavily for things that should be fixed by the time this review is published.

If you are expecting something along the lines of what Grahame-Smith as done, forget it. Not even close.

If you are expecting a light, fun, humorous and horrifying read (especially the last chapter as it gets gory) – you will like this.

I do have a problem recommending it, because when it comes to humor, you can’t please all the people all the time. What tickles my funny bone, won’t necessarily do the same to others.

It was dark, disturbing, creepy, and humorous and I will be passing it around at work as there are a few who asked to read it once I was finished.

Here are some other reviews so you can see for yourself if this is a book for you:

• Amy J at My Overstuffed Bookshelf
• CelticLady’s review
• Angela Renee over at Royal Reviews
• Review at My Guilty Pleasures
• Alternative Worlds review by Harriet Klausner

Purple Jesus by Ron Cooper
Fiction, 224 pages
Bancroft Press
ISBN 13: 978-1890862701

FTC Disclosure: Review copy courtesy of the publisher

For nothing else either is or shall be except Being,
since fate has tied it down to be a whole and motionless;
therefore all things that mortals have established,
believing in their truth, are just a name;
Becoming and Perishing, Being and Non-Being,
and change of position, an alteration of bright color. – Parmenides

October 15 is the launch of an amazing, intriguing, transformative, philosophical, thought-provoking story by Ron Cooper titled Purple Jesus. Honestly, I can’t explain the title, other than in the book, it represents several things: a wooden carving, an alcoholic drink, and an erotic portion of the female anatomy. Each play a part in the story, and each in a way represents the three main characters. Or could if your mind likes to find connectivity in all things like mine does.

As noted in the quotation by Parmenides, there is nothing except “Being”. So is life merely a journey through the illusory, tangibility a tool we use to try to give things and ourselves meaning? Is our true purpose what we make it?

Humans are by nature, goal-oriented. By having the end defined and visualized, we have a sense of purpose. Without this, we feel lost, unable to reach our goal.

 . . .  how true an aim can be when the shooter knows the target. – Brother Andrew

For some like Purvis, Martha, and Andrew, they search not only to escape this sense of being lost, but to find a place where they truly belong. However as Ron Cooper shows us, ultimately it is not about belonging and finding peace, it is the journey that helps us discover many things, the most frightening of which is that this journey can be dark and ugly and may not end in a way you expect.

You need some bad and ugly to complete things. You don’t get day without night. You can’t live without dying. You won’t be sharp without first being dull. – Purvis Driggers

I got the impression that having three main characters was in a way, a trinity; a triangle in which each side is connected to another. That each was separated by an acute angle, yet remain connected and part of a whole.

On one side is Purvis, a simple man. He is frail, fearful, yet has a desperate drive to change himself and his life any way he can.

On the second side is the beautiful Martha. Ethereal, troubled, seeking a way out of her circumstances and to be free of the ghosts that haunt her.

Lastly, there is Brother Andrew. Mysterious and silent, connected to the earth and nature. A hunter who seeks, but doesn’t use language to express his needs and desires. Yet his thoughts speak for all the characters, and more eloquently than they can with the spoken word:

Is mine a contradictory life, imbedded in forest yet alienated from nature? . . . Have I abstracted myself, stepped back as a spectator, forever cut off from a world that I can neither possess or renounce. – Brother Andrew

It is like each represents a different side of ourselves: desperate, haunted, and hunting for something different. Something . . . transcendent.

The writing is poetic at times, coarse in others. The author’s background in philosophy and as a professor of humanities is evident. Using his knowledge of the South Carolina Low Country, he conveys to the reader language and nuances that help create the setting and characters to an astonishing depth. The only detraction may be that this depth is one which some readers may never reach. Light reading this is not.

Purple Jesus has been nominated for the PEN/Faulkner award, and I have no doubt it will be a strong contender. I can also see the easy comparisons made to another southern writer, Flannery O’Connor.

This is literary fiction, but of a different kind. It is not for everyone. But for those of us who seek out the unique, a new voice in the wilderness of literature, I recommend you check out Ron Cooper. If Purple Jesus sounds a bit much, his first book Hume’s Fork has received wonderful reviews and may be a better introduction to his work.

Inspired by personal experience, Coelho brings us this novella which explores the perceptions of those with mental illness and those who have to deal with it – or choose not to.

At the core is a story about finding acceptance, facing denial, and finding the freedom to takes one’s fate into their own hands regardless of the obstacles.

The only detraction, for some readers, may be way the author handles the narration, at times literally placing himself within the story. In addition, there is sexual content which didn’t bother me, but may put off others.

This was a good introduction to Coelho, but not the best one. I have a feeling The Alchemist may be a much better story. I’m looking forward to reading it, hoping to appreciate this author more.

If you would like to learn more about the this work, the author, or any of his other stories, please visit the links below:

• Paulo Coelho’s website
• Author discussing writing this book
• My reading notes