The Late Great Creature

This reprint of Brower's 1973 National Book Award-nominated novel explores the twisted life and sordid career of aging horror-movie star Simon Moro. Once famous for his portrayal of blood-curdling creatures, Moro is given the opportunity to take on one final role in a ludicrous adaptation of Poe's "The Raven." As Moro's behavior becomes increasingly erratic, copulating with skeletons and brandishing severed body parts on national TV, the novel builds to a stunning and macabre finale in which Moro achieves a horrible apotheosis. Populated with a memorable cast of characters, Brower's (Blue Dog) subtle satire exudes a Pynchon-esque gonzo sensibility: biting dialogue, deviant sexuality, and amusing glimpses of the free-spirited %E2%80%9860s-era mores. An indictment of the shallow Hollywood commercialism as well as American society at large, the novel does at times feel dated, but the enthralling story and the substance of its critique is as applicable now as ever. This is a splendid and complex book that plumbs the depths of sex and death, along with the perverse American mind that anaesthetizes itself to the truths of life through comfortable films in which death becomes mild entertainment. (Oct.)