I think I best summed up NVPFZ in an earlier post when I described it as "a coke-snorting stripper who just dropped some acid". I should probably add that the stripper has a PhD in Philosophy from a pretentious university overflowing with ivory tower academics.
NVPFZ does its very best to look stupid when it's not. James Marshall, the author, has realized the surface level stupidity of the concept of Ninjas fighting Pirates, fodder for many an Internet debate, and run with that as a veneer over-top of a book about the place of the North American male in current culture.
That's the brilliant thing about this book. It reads at too levels. If you just want a silly adventure, albeit with some disturbingly graphic violence and puerile humor, then it's there. If you want a book that shows a young man questioning the media-induced, violent, and over-sexualized worldview placed upon him by the media and modern life, then you can have that as well.
This is the type of book I expect out of Chizine; dark, thoughtful, disturbing, and superbly executed. If you haven't bought or won a copy yet, do so now. (More so the buying than the winning).
"a coke-snorting stripper who just dropped some acid"
ReplyDeleteThat is probably the best thing I have read all day.