ManBug [Paperback]

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.
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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 )

Finalist for the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Award (Gay/Lesbian Fiction)

Shortlisted for the ReLit Award for Best Novel

The first novel by George K. Ilsley, whose first story collection, Random Acts of Hatred, was published to acclaim in 2003. Told in dreamlike fragments, ManBug unfolds as a love story between Sebastian, an entomologist with Asperger's Syndrome (similar to autism), and Tom, a spiritual bisexual who may or may not be recruiting Sebastian for a cult. They explore the world through their relationship, seeking meaning and value in themselves through the other. They also try to avoid the inevitable toxins around them, both real and imagined—like bugs avoiding insecticide—while asking the question, Just how much poison can any of us absorb?

ManBug is a beguiling, tragicomic novel about beauty, horror, desire, and what lurks just beneath the skin.

Sebastian used to be a research entomologist.

Mostly, Sebastian researched the development of pesticides.
Much about this work in the killing field disturbed Sebastian (for example, the casual use of the concept "termination opportunity").

When distressed, Sebastian tended to express conflict. A blurt of truth might escape his lips before he could help himself. This could be, for example, while compiling mortality data, or tweaking a statistical analysis of residual contamination by increasing the sample size. Smoothing the result, it was called. Smoothing the rough edges of truth: the research facility, through a shift in perspective, became a factory generating statistics. They virtually manufactured data, based on demand.

Statisticians called the data massage, increasing the sample size.

Managers called it, broadening the research horizon.

Sebastian called it, diluting the evidence. Diluting it until the answer came back, "no detectable residue."

But all the poison was still in there.

Somewhere. Somebody was eating it.

(arsenalpulp.com )

A strange, dreamlike novel about male desire, spiritual longing, and insects.

George K. Ilsley is the author of the story collection Random Acts of Hatred and the novel ManBug; his stories have also appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. Originally from Nova Scotia, he now lives in Vancouver.

Sebastian used to be a research entomologist. Mostly, Sebastian researched the development of pesticides. Much about this work in the killing field disturbed Sebastian (for example, the casual use of the concept “termination opportunity”). When distressed, Sebastian tended to express conflict. A blurt of truth might escape his lips before he could help himself. This could be, for example, while compiling mortality data, or tweaking a statistical analysis of residual contamination by increasing the sample size. Smoothing the result, it was called. Smoothing the rough edges of truth: the research facility, through a shift in perspective, became a factory generating statistics. They virtually manufactured data, based on demand. Statisticians called the data massage, increasing the sample size. Managers called it, broadening the research horizon. Sebastian called it, diluting the evidence. Diluting it until the answer came back, “no detectable residue.” But all the poison was still in there. Somewhere. Somebody was eating it.