Going Bovine

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

It’s when I get a book like this that I wonder why on earth do I bother? Why am I wasting my time on this? Why don’t I just put it down and move on? And then I remember, I read so you don’t have to. At one point I asked a fellow librarian if it got any better. I was only half way through it. Sadly, she said no. Why did we both read it? It’s an Abraham Lincoln Award Nominee for 2012.

My coworker did give me a piece of advice. Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote is central to this novel. It would behoove a reader to reacquaint themselves with the classic first. It might make more sense. I just really don’t want to invest anymore time in it.

It took me far too long to get into a rhythm and care about the characters. Actually, I never did get into a rhythm and I never did care about the characters. It’s very hard to hear self-proclaimed geeks complain about the popular crowd when the hate is obviously mutual.

What you will find within the covers:

Drugs – Already in Chapter Two we are invited to follow the protagonist into the fourth floor bathroom of his high school where everyone knows the stoners hang out. I’m proving how beyond straight I am… It took several references to J before I realized they were smoking a joint. How naïve I am.

Alcohol – Underage drinking and partying are the norm. Think Spring Break and hopping rides with strangers.

Language – Horrific. Cringe-worthy.

Sex – Do I really want to be in the mind of a teenage boy? No, thank you. Multiple references to masturbation finally give way to the protagonist losing his virginity to the girl he lusts after. And then the same night he also has sex with the girl he loves. I suppose I could say, at least it’s not graphic.

Homosexuality – Because why wouldn’t we include that as well. I found it gratuitous. Didn’t see it as a part of the character. Certainly a surprise. Like it was thrown in at the last moment.

The art of literature might be in there somewhere. It vaguely reminds me of Thomas Pynchon’s Vineyard and Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. Both of which I found too confusing to appreciate despite how much my professors and teaching assistants wanted me to be amazed by the art. I’m just too put off by the blatant use of all things I want to protect my young daughters from. I can hear the arguments for and against this book. I can make both. I just don’t want my children to see this as acceptable behavior whether it is a dream, insanity, illness or reality. It’s starts little and harmless, of course.

So what is it about? Sixteen-year-old Cameron, a geek with a popular twin sister, is diagnosed with incurable, fatal, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease which is better known as Mad Cow disease when diagnosed in cattle. Technically, holes form in the brain and it becomes spongy as infectious proteins attack healthy ones. As Cameron’s brain is attacked by these proteins, he spends more and more time in the land of dreams where he is given a mission by a punk angel in which he saves the world from dark matter and finds the cure for his ailment. In the process, he discovers that he would rather live loudly for a short while than continue to slack off and get nowhere in a long and uninteresting life.

Certainly potential for a great message, if you think living loudly includes stealing cars and money, doing drugs and having sex. Not recommended except for maybe a College-level literature class with a comparison between Bovine and Quixote.