- Paperback: 232 pages
- Publisher: Arsenal Pulp Press (April 1 2006)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1551522039
- ISBN-13: 978-1551522036
- Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 14.2 x 1.4 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #949,974 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Though this slim and confounding first novel from Canadian author Ilsley (after the collection Random Acts of Hatred) could be called a love story, it might more accurately be classified, considering its academic tone and scarcity of plot, as a case study, a detached observation of two men in love. The subjects are Sebastian, an unemployed entomologist with Asperger's Sydrome, and Tom, a bisexual into New Age spirituality. Composed of bite-size fragments, the book places the two men and their unlikely relationship under the microscope, largely eschewing conventions such as scenes, dialogue and plot, a daring but failed experiment with digressive meditations on the world of insects, the way to awareness and male sexuality. Ilsley delivers the odd, compelling tangent (e.g. Sebastian's fascination with bugs occasions a deliciously creepy description of lard worms), and strikes humorous notes poking fun at the New Age movement or discussing Sebastian's attraction to men's armpits ("hidden bonsai gardens"). But while clearly the product of a unique and active intellect, the book lacks direction and narrative pull.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Review
You may never again think of lipstick or your nose or chocolate-covered raisins in quite the same way.
—Xtra! (Xtra! )
Sexy, funny, and daring—a bug's eye view of how we invent and elude one another, how we try to capture the ineffable with words and are left only with mantras. Reckless, unflinching, and just crazy enough, Ilsley fights his way toward a new taxonomy of the real, one of the few steps forward for gay fiction in many years. People will call this book postmodern, but it is something much finer and harder: modern, and assigned reading for everybody.
—Mark Merlis, author of An Arrow's Flight and Man About Town (Mark Merlis Mark Merlis )
This fractured love story is captivating ... [with moments of transcendent beauty.
—Calgary Herald (Calgary Herald )
Ilsley's larky and radiant story provides more than the anatomy of a disorder. There's lots of winking humor ... along with emotional spelunking, fun bug facts, and even a little Sanskirt, all within the context of a love story that yields an unexpected universality.
—Out Magazine (Out Magazine )
What fascinated me about ManBug was the way in which Ilsley tells the story.
—Echo Magazine (Echo Magazine )
—Xtra! (Xtra! )
Sexy, funny, and daring—a bug's eye view of how we invent and elude one another, how we try to capture the ineffable with words and are left only with mantras. Reckless, unflinching, and just crazy enough, Ilsley fights his way toward a new taxonomy of the real, one of the few steps forward for gay fiction in many years. People will call this book postmodern, but it is something much finer and harder: modern, and assigned reading for everybody.
—Mark Merlis, author of An Arrow's Flight and Man About Town (Mark Merlis Mark Merlis )
This fractured love story is captivating ... [with moments of transcendent beauty.
—Calgary Herald (Calgary Herald )
Ilsley's larky and radiant story provides more than the anatomy of a disorder. There's lots of winking humor ... along with emotional spelunking, fun bug facts, and even a little Sanskirt, all within the context of a love story that yields an unexpected universality.
—Out Magazine (Out Magazine )
What fascinated me about ManBug was the way in which Ilsley tells the story.
—Echo Magazine (Echo Magazine )
Inside This Book
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating work, Very Contemporary,
By Reader and Writer "Chris" (Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: ManBug (Paperback)
This is a book definitely worth picking up. I found out about it a review of second books by authors in the Globe -- amazing really since they keep praising books that are hideously written proving they've really sold out to the publishing companies.
ManBug is a gem of sorts, sparse, dense, minimal and maximal. It's not a typical pulp narrative, which will turn many cheap-seeking readers off, but anyone interested in LITERATURE will find they fall into this wonderful bug-trap almost immediately. It's odd stuff, it's thrilling stuff. It is a book that proves the talent existing above the 49th parallel. Catch the bug, go get it, have fun.
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