FICTION
The Age
Saturday February 13, 2010
CAMERON is a typical 16-year-old misfit €” he turns up late for work, smokes a little dope, loves his music. Then he is diagnosed with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, goes mad and dies. You don't dwell much on the impending tragedy, though. The bulk of Going Bovine is madcap comedy, and concerns Cameron's slide into bizarre behaviour and eventually, coma. It takes the form of an eccentric quest narrative. A punk rock angel appears to Cam, giving him hope of a possible cure, and a hilarious trip across a strangely altered America ensues. Expect a Hispanic hypochondriac dwarf, fire giants, and a garden gnome who thinks he's a Norse god. With a sprinkling of mythology and an outre plot that makes gestures towards social satire, Libba Bray's novel resembles a hybrid of The World According to Garp and Donnie Darko. Teens will lap it up.
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